What Makes A Good Letter Of Reference For A Law School Application

As it is Law School application time, many have asked me what makes up a good reference letter and some have even asked me to write one for them.  Here are a few tips regarding selecting the proper person. 

In general, the more letters you have the better but all letters should be relevant and come from someone that knows you and can speak to why you would succeed in law school. 

The best letters come from your old college professors that can speak to your intellect and your ability to do well in law school.  The professor should of course know you and be familiar with your work and this usually means that you had the professor for a semester or you have performed research for the professor.  An unhelpful or non relevant letter from a professor would come from a professor who is a friend of your parents who you have never met.  This type of letter is useless and will not get you very far.  Similarly, if you know a professor but have never been in his/her class, the recommendation will only serve as a character reference and this is generally not what the admission’s office is looking for.  What they are looking for is a letter that will demonstrate you will do well in law school and this letter must be from a person who is in a position to give a reliable opinion about this.

Another good letter is a letter that comes from a lawyer that knows you and can speak to your scholarly potential.  This is especially the case if the person will be able to illustrate why you will do well in law school.  Another great source is a past or current employer especially if the employer can write about your analytical skills, problem solving ability or scholarly ability. 

When I went to law school,  each of my letters was selected to cover off an area that I thought would interest the admission’s committee.  Namely, one came from someone that attended Harvard, another came from a Judge that could speak to my scholarly ability and the others came from professors that I had for law school classes in my first year.  Each was strategically selected and the selection worked well for me. 

That worked for me and it could also work for you. Give who you want to select some careful thought as the people who are deciding whether or not to admit you will certainly review who you have selected.

Do Not Worry About Whether You Will Pass The Bar Exam Because There is Almost a 90% Chance That You Will Pass It On Your First Attempt

If you are a first time writer, there is a very good chance that you will pass the Bar exam on your first attempt so you should not stress yourself out.  The FACT is that almost 90% of first time writers in most States pass the bar on their first attempt so if you are not used to being in the bottom 10%, there is no reason for you to believe that you will be in the bottom 10% when you sit for the bar exam.  Unlike law school, the Bar exams set a minimum standard and the examiners have not set a special number of people they expect to pass. As such, if you meet that standard you will pass. The key to passing of course is studying and doing practice questions.  If you study, you most likely will not have anything to worry about and if you did not study, you can always take the exam again in the next sitting.

A complete list of statistics regarding pass rates for 2009 in all States can be found at http://www.ncbex.org/assets/media_files/Statistics/2009Stats110111.pdf and you can see from this table that approximately 88% of first time writers from ABA approved law schools (the 200 or so law schools in the U.S.) passed the bar exam on the first try.  In order to find this though, you must go to page 17 of this table and look at a chart called, “First-Time Exam Takers and Repeaters from ABA-Approved Law Schools.”

This table illustrates though that pass rates for Bar examinations are somewhat confusing so you should understand what you are reading.  First, the pass rates are broken down in a number of different ways.  The overall pass rate is not a very good indicator as it includes people who are second time takers and in some States the pass rate includes foreign trained lawyers.  Both of these latter categories score very poorly on the bar exam and bring the overall pass statistic down.  For example, for the 2009 bar examination in July, the overall pass rate for New York was 72%.  When you look at the detail though, you will see that for first time takers from law schools in the United States, the pass rate was 88%.  During that same period, those who repeated the exam in July only achieved a pass rate of 35%.  Similarly, those who sat for the Bar examination in New York from Law Schools outside of United States had a pass rate of 34%.  All of these combined make up the 72% pass rate.

As you can see, first time takers from law schools in the U.S. do very well on the bar exam.  In some States, the pass rate for first time takers is over 90% (and for some it is 100%) and these high pass rates are the norm.  As indicated, second time takers and foreign lawyers really bring down the State averages so it is best to look at statistics from the category to which you belong. 

That being said, do not let the high pass rates fool you. You must study for the bar!  I know of two people from Harvard Law School that failed the New York Bar examination on their first attempt.  When I spoke with these individuals they indicated that they had only done a small number of the practice essay and multiple-choice questions where I did hundreds.  The key to passing the Bar is preparation and generally this preparation should start with a Bar Preparation course.