The requirement that American Bar Association-approved law schools require applicants to submit a standardised law school admissions test as part of their application could soon become optional.
The Standards Review Committee of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar advanced a proposal to eliminate the requirement that law schools order applicants to submit a standardised admission test score as part of their application.
This discussion of the current ABA requirement that law school applications include a “valid and reliable test” has been growing in recent years. For more than fifty years, the Law School Admission Test, or LSAT, has been the only test used by schools.
It is likely that law schools will continue to require an admissions test score from applicants, even if the formal requirement that they do so is removed. However, removing the requirement, proponents of the change argue, will open opportunities for law schools to innovate with respect to putting together an entering class that serves well the programme and missions of schools.