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Law Education in the United States
The legal system in the United States, on the federal level and in almost all states, is based on the British system of common law. Only one state, Louisiana, has a system modelled on the French legal code.
Legal education in the United States normally proceeds along the following route:
- Undergraduate education in any field ( usually 4 years)
- Law school (usually 3 years)
- Admission to the bar (usually by taking a state's bar exam)
- Legal practice
In the United States, a student must hold an undergraduate degree in any field to be eligible for law school admission. In most cases the first degree awarded by U.S. law schools is the Juris Doctor, or J.D., degree, which is considered a terminal degree. Other degrees that are awarded include the Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science degree (J.S.D. or S.J.D.), which are more international in scope. Though most law schools are hosted by a larger post-secondary institution, the school itself is largely autonomous from the hosting institution. This arrangement is very different from that in many other parts of the world.
Academic degrees for non-lawyers are also available at the baccalaureate and master's level. A common baccalaureate level degree is a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies (B.S.). Academic master's degrees in legal studies are available, such as the Master of Studies (M.S.), and the Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.). Such a degree is not required to enter a J.D. program.
First Professional Degree
The U.S. first professional degree, the Juris Doctor (J.D.), provides an education strongly focused on preparation for U.S. practice, with little opportunity for comparative or specialty study. For this reason, and because preparation in U.S. law will not easily transfer toward practice in other countries, the J.D. is usually inappropriate for foreign nationals, who wish to practice law in a country other than the U.S. Although law schools offer individual courses that emphasize particular subject areas such as environmental law or taxation, there are no J.D. programs concentrating on any single specialty.
J.D. degree programs involve three years of study, and are entered following four years of undergraduate study in any major. Competition for admission is intense for both U.S. and international students. Requirements generally include fluency in English, an excellent undergraduate academic record, and a satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). To practice in the United States, graduates must also pass the bar examination and other requirements of the state where they wish to work.
Foreign lawyers seeking to practice in the U.S., who do not have a Juris Doctor (J.D.), often seek to obtain a Juris Master (J.M.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.) or a Master of Jurisprudence (M.J.).
Graduate Legal Education
The master of comparative law (M.C.L.), also known as the master of comparative jurisprudence (M.C.J.), is a particularly appropriate degree program for international lawyers. Recognizing that legal systems in many countries differ from common law as practiced in the United States, these programs acquaint lawyers from other countries with U.S. legal institutions and relevant specialties of U.S. law. Another graduate option is the master of laws (L.L.M.), a degree offered in a variety of specialties or as a self-designed program, with appropriateness for the international practitioner varying from program to program. Programs in international law or international business law may also be of interest.
Almost all master's programs in law last one year and admit students only for the fall semester. Programs can be planned according to the interests of the student. During study, international lawyers have the opportunity to observe courts and government agencies in the United States. Entrance requirements include a first degree in law, a strong academic background, letters of reference, a statement of purpose and/or writing samples, and a high level of English proficiency as demonstrated by the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for students whose law degree was not in the English language. Most graduate law programs do not require standardized admissions tests.
Doctoral programs in law also exist. They admit only a small number of promising applicants, usually from among those who have completed a master's program at a U.S. law school and who plan to enter a career as a law school faculty member. Financial assistance may be more readily available to law students intending to continue towards a doctoral degree than to those seeking only a one-year master's program.
Law School Admission Council
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a non-profit corporation whose members are more than 200 law schools in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It was founded in 1947 to coordinate, facilitate, and enhance the law school admission process. The organization also provides programs and services related to legal education.
All law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) are LSAC members. Fifteen Canadian law schools recognized by a provincial or territorial law society or government agency are also included in the voting membership of the Council.
Headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia, the Council is best known for administering the Law School Admission Test (LSAT®). An average of 140,000 prospective law students take this test each 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.
LAW School Admission Process
In the United States, most law schools require a bachelor's degree, a satisfactory undergraduate grade point average, and a satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) in order to be considered for admission. Some states that have non-ABA-approved schools or state-accredited schools have equivalency requirements that usually equal 90 credits toward a bachelor's degree. Additional personal factors are evaluated through essays, short-answer questions, letters of recommendation, and other application materials. The standards for grades and LSAT scores vary from school to school.
Individual factors are also very important, although applicants are generally not asked to interview as part of the application process. Many law schools actively seek applicants from outside the traditional pool to boost racial, economic, and experiential diversity on campus. Most law schools now factor in extracurricular activities, work experience, and unique courses of study in their evaluation of applicants. A growing number of law school applicants have several years of work experience, and correspondingly fewer law students enter immediately after completing their undergraduate education.
Students considering law school should note that although law school tuition is high, it is not uncommon for law students to receive grants and scholarships, or, more rarely, complete tuition waivers, from their schools. While each school's financial aid system operates differently, there is a rule of thumb relating to GPA and LSAT scores: a student whose grades and LSAT are higher than those of most students admitted to a given school--in other words, a student who could go to a "better" school--has a good chance of being offered some kind of scholarship by the lower-ranked school. Likewise, some law students choose lower ranked schools due to their inability to get into higher ranked schools because of low LSAT scores and GPA, and then transfer to the better schools after their first year of study, provided that they received good grades in the first year of law school. Many highly ranked schools do not accept many transfer applicants due to lack of space in the class, and transferring may make it more difficult for a student to participate in on-campus recruiting from potential employers.
For more information about the law school application process, click on the links below.
46, Vinobhapuri,
Lajpat Nagar 2
New Delhi 110024
ph: +91.11.46540393
fax: +91.11.422354222
alt: +91.9899430509
info
