About the Law School Admission Council
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit corporation whose goal is to provide the highest quality admission-related services for legal education institutions and their applicants throughout the world. More than 200 law schools in the United States, Canada, and Australia benefit from LSAC's services, which include the Law School Admission Test (LSAT); credential assembly services encompassing letters of recommendation, electronic applications, and domestic and international transcript processing for JD and graduate law degrees; the Candidate Referral Service (CRS); admission office systems and software; research and statistical reports; websites for law schools, applicants, prelaw advisors, and undergraduates from minority groups underrepresented in law school and the legal profession; testing and admission-related consultations with legal educators worldwide; and various publications, videos, and LSAT preparation tools.
Headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia, the Council is best known for administering the Law School Admission Test (LSAT®). LSAC administered 151,000 tests last year. With the guidance and support of volunteers representing its member schools, LSAC provides a growing number of important services and programs for law schools and their applicants. LSAC does not engage in assessing an applicant’s chances for admission to any law school; all admission decisions are made by individual law schools.
Below you will find a brief description of LSAC’s services and programs. At the core of each is an ongoing commitment to expanding educational opportunities for underrepresented minorities, educationally disadvantaged persons, and people with disabilities.
- The Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
- Credential Assembly Service (CAS)
- Candidate Referral Service (CRS)
- Law School Forums
- Office of Diversity Initiatives
- Test Preparation Publications and Law School Guides
- Questions
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
LSAC administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) four times a year at designated centers throughout the world. It is required for admission to all ABA–approved law schools, most Canadian law schools, and many other law schools. Many law schools require that the LSAT be taken by December for admission the following fall. However, taking the test earlier—in June or September—is often advised.
The LSAT helps law schools make sound admission decisions by providing a standard measure of acquired reading and verbal reasoning skills that law schools can use as one of several factors in assessing applicants. Prospective law students come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, ethnic groups, and cultures. Diversity of experience among applicants—both personal and academic—serves to enrich the law school applicant pool and, ultimately, the legal profession. The LSAT is not, of course, the sole factor law schools use to make their admission decisions. But it is the only common yardstick by which the ability of all prospective law students can be measured fairly. A copy of LSAC's LSAT Fairness Procedures is available on this site.
The LSAT is a half–day, standardized test designed to measure some of the skills considered essential for success in law school: the reading and comprehension of complex texts with accuracy and insight, the organization and management of information and the ability to draw reasonable inferences from it, the ability to think critically, and the analysis and evaluation of the reasoning and arguments of others. The test consists of five 35–minute sections of multiple–choice questions. Four of the five sections contribute to the test taker's score. These sections include one reading comprehension section, one analytical reasoning section, and two logical reasoning sections. The unscored section typically is used to pretest new test questions or to preequate new test forms. The placement of this section, which is commonly referred to as the variable section, will vary. The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180, with 180 being the highest possible score. A 35–minute writing sample is administered at the end of the test. LSAC does not score the writing sample, but copies are sent to all law schools to which a candidate applies.
For information about the LSAT, including an online registration option, visit the LSAT Registration section of this website.
Credential Assembly Service (CAS)
Nearly all ABA-approved law schools and many other schools require the use of LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS) for JD applicants. LSAC collects the US and Canadian academic records of law school applicants and summarizes the undergraduate work according to a standard 4.0 system to simplify the admission process. JD applicants who have studied for more than one academic year outside the US or Canada can use the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) for transcript authentication and evaluation if required by the law schools to which they are applying.
The Credential Assembly Service (CAS) creates your law school report by combining
- an academic summary report;
- LSAT score(s) and writing sample(s);
- copies of all undergraduate, graduate, and law/professional school transcripts; and
- copies of letters of recommendation, if applicable.
The Credential Assembly Service (CAS) fee covers
- transcript summarization (as well as authentication and evaluation, if applicable),
- creation of your law school report,
- letter of recommendation processing, and
- electronic application processing for all ABA-approved law schools.
Important: You should register and pay for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) at least four to six weeks before your first law school application deadline. It takes approximately two weeks to process a transcript or letter of recommendation from the time it is received.
NOTE: International LLM applicants can find more information on our LLM Credential Assembly Service website.
Candidate Referral Service (CRS)
If you create an account with LSAC for any purpose, including registering for the LSAT, the Credential Assembly Service (CAS), a law school forum, or even simply purchasing publications from LSAC, you have the opportunity to authorize the release of information about yourself to eligible law schools and organizations. Law schools use LSAC’s Candidate Referral Service (CRS) to search for potential applicants. A school may, for example, indicate an interest in men or women who belong to minority groups, reside in certain states, have undergraduate grade–point averages or LSAT scores within specific ranges, or have combinations of these and other characteristics. By registering for CRS, you authorize the release of all of your biographic, academic, and employment information, as well as information you have provided about your law school preferences, to eligible law schools for use in the recruitment and admission processes.
After reviewing information about you provided by CRS, a law school may contact you with information about its programs, or a school may invite you to apply.
Law School Forums
Prospective law students nationwide receive an open invitation to meet with representatives of LSAC–member law schools at one– and two–day forums held in nine major cities each year. At the forums, students meet face–to–face with admission professionals, prelaw advisors, and law students and collect admission materials, catalogs, and financial aid information. Participants can also attend workshops where admission and financial aid professionals, and law students and graduates, offer information on particular topics of relevance to candidates seeking a legal education. Some of these workshops focus specifically on issues of relevance to minority candidates. Brief videos on the law school admission process and legal education and careers also are available for general viewing.
For more information about this year’s forums and other events of interest, visit the Law School Forums area of this website.
Test Preparation Publications and Law School Guides
LSAC publishes a variety of materials to help prospective law students make decisions about their education. For a complete listing of all of our publications, including online ordering options, visit the Shop section of this website.
Questions?
Contact our candidate service representatives at LSACinfo@LSAC.org or at 215.968.1001 weekdays between 8:30 am and 7:00 pm (ET), September–February, and between 8:30 am and 4:45 pm (ET), March–August.
CONTACT FOR MEDIA QUESTIONS ONLY: The media contact will not answer any questions about registration for LSAC.org services or activity in LSAC accounts; all candidate calls will be transferred to the candidate services queue at the number above. Media contacts only: 215.968.1219.
