One-on-One Pre-Law Advisement Clinic Guidelines
The clinic provides aspiring law students with focused, practical, and encouraging guidance as they prepare for law school admission and success. These guidelines are school-neutral and benefit participants regardless of where they ultimately apply or attend.
The clinic is designed to help participants:
- Better understand the law school admissions process
- Identify strengths, gaps, and next steps
- Strengthen application materials while preserving their authentic voices
- Develop realistic school-selection and financing strategies
- Ask candid questions in a supportive environment
- Leave with a clear, personalized action plan
Guiding Principles for Everyone
1. The participant owns the process
Advisors provide guidance, perspective, and constructive feedback. The participant remains responsible for all decisions, representations, written materials, and final submissions. Advisors should help participants improve their work, but should not write application essays, invent content, guarantee outcomes, or make decisions for them.
2. Preserve authenticity
Every application should reflect the participant's experiences, judgment, goals, and natural voice. Feedback should make the applicant's message clearer, not make the applicant sound like the advisor. A polished essay that no longer sounds like its author is not a successful revision.
3. Provide individualized guidance
There is no single path to law school. Advice should account for the participant's academic record, work and leadership experiences, financial circumstances, family and caregiving responsibilities, career interests, geographic preferences, LSAT or other testing history, institutional background, personal responsibilities and challenges, and application timeline.
4. Be honest, encouraging, and practical
Neither discourage applicants unnecessarily nor offer false reassurance. Instead of “Your GPA is too low,” say: “Your GPA may make some schools more competitive, so let's develop a balanced school list and identify the other parts of your application that can provide evidence of your readiness.”
5. Protect privacy
Conversations and materials may contain sensitive academic, financial, medical, family, disciplinary, or legal information. Treat clinic conversations as private; avoid discussing another participant's circumstances; do not photograph, copy, forward, or retain materials without permission; exchange documents securely; delete temporary copies; and never enter another person's materials into an AI platform or external service without express permission. The clinic is supportive, but it does not create an attorney-client relationship or guarantee legal confidentiality.
6. Follow each school's instructions
Advice appropriate for one law school may not be appropriate for another. Every applicant must read each school's current prompts, word or page limits, formatting rules, optional-essay instructions, disclosure questions, and generative-AI policies. A general personal statement should never be submitted automatically to every school without checking the specific prompt.
Participant Responsibilities
- Current résumé
- Personal statement draft
- Optional or perspective statement draft
- Academic, testing, or other addendum
- Unofficial transcript or an accurate understanding of their academic record
- LSAT, GRE, or other applicable testing information
- Preliminary list of law schools
- Application timeline
- Questions about admissions, financing, school selection, or law school preparation
Drafts do not need to be perfect — early-stage materials are welcome. Participants should also identify their three most important questions:
- “Does my personal statement clearly explain what motivates me?”
- “Is my law school list balanced?”
- “Should I prepare an academic or LSAT addendum?”
- “What should I prioritize during the next three months?”
- “How can I compare scholarship offers?”
- “Does my résumé communicate the impact of my experiences?”
- Arrive on time and prepared
- Briefly explain their goals and current application stage
- Identify the areas where they most need assistance
- Listen without becoming defensive
- Ask for clarification when feedback is unclear
- Take notes
- Protect the time by focusing on the most important issues
- Remember that they may accept, adapt, or decline suggestions
- Avoid asking advisors to predict admission or scholarship outcomes
- Review their notes before revising
- Decide which recommendations fit their goals and voice
- Verify all school-specific requirements independently
- Proofread the entire application for accuracy and consistency
- Develop deadlines for their next steps
- Seek specialized assistance when necessary
- Submit only work they can truthfully represent as their own
Advisor Responsibilities
- Where are you in the application process?
- What are your principal goals or concerns?
- What would make this session most useful?
- Are there personal, financial, geographic, or timing considerations that should shape the advice?
- What are the three most important steps you need to take next?
Do not assume that every participant wants to attend the highest-ranked school available. A participant may prioritize affordability, location, family support, bar passage, a particular program, part-time attendance, or another legitimate consideration.
- Ask questions that promote reflection
- Identify strengths and weaknesses
- Recommend strategies
- Explain general admissions practices
- Flag issues requiring further research
- Suggest ways to reorganize or clarify material
- Refer participants to qualified resources
- Write or substantially rewrite an applicant's essay
- Create experiences, motivations, or accomplishments
- Tell participants to omit information requested by an application
- Provide legal, tax, immigration, mental-health, or financial advice outside their competence
- Promise admission, scholarships, employment, or bar eligibility
- Disparage particular schools or applicants
- Pressure participants to follow personal preferences
- Retain or distribute materials without permission
Begin by identifying what is working. Then prioritize the two or three changes that would most improve the participant's application or strategy.
Too many edits leave an applicant overwhelmed. Focus first on substantive issues, then organization, and finally sentence-level corrections.
- Two or three identified strengths
- Two or three priority areas for improvement
- Three concrete next steps
- A suggested timeline
- Any appropriate referrals or resources
Recommended Clinic Session Structure
For a 15- to 20-minute appointment:
Minutes 1–3 · Introductions and goals
Confirm the participant's stage in the process, ask what assistance would be most valuable, and select one or two priorities.
Minutes 4–12 · Focused advising
Address the selected priority: application strategy, personal statement, résumé, addendum, school list, LSAT preparation, financing, or law school readiness.
Minutes 13–17 · Recommendations
Identify strengths, explain the most important improvements, and provide concrete but non-prescriptive examples.
Minutes 18–20 · Action plan
Confirm the participant's next three steps, answer final questions, and direct them to appropriate resources.
For shorter appointments, prioritize one substantive issue rather than attempting to review an entire application.
Application Strategy Guidelines
- Total cost of attendance
- Scholarship conditions and renewal requirements
- Bar passage outcomes
- Employment outcomes
- Geographic placement
- Academic support
- Clinical and experiential opportunities
- Faculty and curricular strengths
- Student organizations and community
- Alumni network
- Wellness and disability support
- Housing and transportation
- Family and personal needs
Participants should develop a balanced list reflecting different levels of admission competitiveness, based on recent data and complete circumstances — not treated as guarantees.
- Create a master deadline calendar
- Allow time for LSAC processing
- Request transcripts and recommendations early
- Give recommenders adequate notice
- Review applications before submission
- Apply when the application is strong, not merely fast
- Monitor portals and email after submission
- Respond promptly to requests from schools
“Rolling admissions” does not mean every applicant must submit on the opening day. Readiness, accuracy, and quality remain essential.
- Tuition and fees
- Estimated living expenses
- Scholarship amount
- Scholarship renewal conditions
- Expected borrowing
- Interest and origination costs
- Employment and bar-passage outcomes
- Potential relocation expenses
- Personal and family obligations
Encourage applicants to read scholarship terms carefully and ask whether an award is conditional on GPA, class rank, or another requirement.
Written Statement Guidelines
A strong statement helps the admissions committee understand something meaningful that numbers and lists alone cannot communicate. Ground personal statements in actual experiences and explain why those experiences mattered.
| Code | Review priority |
|---|---|
| CP | Clarity of Purpose The statement should communicate what matters to the applicant and, when relevant to the prompt, why legal education is a logical next step. Not every sentence must say “why law,” but the statement as a whole should have a clear purpose. “CP: This opening is engaging, but I do not yet understand what you want the reader to learn about you.” |
| TH | Central Theme The essay should have a unifying idea rather than several disconnected stories. “TH: Your discussion of advocacy is compelling. Consider using that idea to connect the experiences in the second and third paragraphs.” |
| SDT | Show, Don't Merely Tell Specific experiences are generally more persuasive than unsupported labels. “SDT: Instead of only describing yourself as resilient, consider illustrating the steps you took after this setback.” |
| G | Growth and Reflection The reader should understand not only what happened but how the experience shaped the applicant. “G: You explain the event clearly. Add reflection showing how it changed your thinking, conduct, or goals.” |
| M | Movement The statement should move forward, connecting past, present preparation, and future direction without becoming a complete autobiography. “M: This story occupies most of the essay. Consider shortening the background and expanding the reflection and forward-looking portions.” |
| TR | Transitions Ideas should connect logically. “TR: The move from your family experience to your internship feels abrupt. Help the reader understand the connection.” |
| RE | Avoid Repeating the Résumé The essay may discuss a résumé experience, but it should reveal meaning, motivation, conflict, growth, or insight rather than repeat duties. “RE: The résumé already explains what you did. Use this space to explain why it mattered.” |
| TO | Tone Tone should demonstrate maturity, judgment, and professionalism. Applicants may discuss injustice, hardship, or disagreement without attacking others or avoiding accountability. “TO: The concern is understandable, but this wording may sound accusatory. Focus on the facts, your response, and what you learned.” |
| SC | Sentence Clarity Sentences should be readable and direct. |
| A | Active Voice Use active voice when it makes the writing clearer and more energetic. |
| WC | Word Choice Favor precise language over jargon, clichés, or inflated vocabulary. |
| SV | Sentence Variety Vary sentence length and structure while maintaining clarity. |
| RED | Redundancy Remove repetitive phrases and ideas. |
| VC | Verb-Tense Consistency Maintain logical and consistent verb tenses. |
| PA | Punctuation Accuracy Correct punctuation should support readability. |
| SVA | Subject-Verb Agreement Subjects and verbs should agree. |
| PC | Pronoun Clarity Every pronoun should have a clear referent. |
| GO | Grammar and Mechanics Correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, and usage throughout. |
Before submission, the participant should answer yes to each:
- Does this respond directly to the school's prompt?
- Does it reveal something meaningful that is not obvious elsewhere?
- Is the participant, rather than another person, the central figure?
- Does it demonstrate reflection?
- Does it sound like the participant?
- Is every factual statement accurate?
- Is it within the required length and format?
- Has the school's policy concerning AI and outside assistance been followed?
- Has the correct school name been used?
- Is the document proofread and ready to submit?
Résumé Guidelines
R1 · Clean, Professional Format
Use consistent fonts, headings, margins, spacing, dates, and bullet styles. Avoid photographs, graphics, skill bars, decorative templates, and unnecessary color unless a school expressly permits them.
R2 · Logical Organization
Common sections: Education; Employment or Experience; Leadership and Service; Honors and Awards; Research or Publications; Skills, Languages, or Interests. Order should reflect the applicant's strongest and most relevant experiences.
R3 · Reverse Chronological Order
List the most recent experience first within each section unless another format is clearly justified.
R4 · Strong Action Verbs
Begin bullets with specific verbs: analyzed, coordinated, drafted, led, managed, mentored, organized, presented, researched, supervised.
R5 · Demonstrate Contribution and Impact
Explain what the applicant accomplished, improved, created, or learned. Weak: “Helped with a mentoring program.” Stronger: “Mentored eight first-year students and coordinated monthly academic-success workshops.”
R6 · Quantify Carefully
Use numbers when accurate and meaningful. Never exaggerate responsibility or results.
R7 · Maintain Complete Accuracy
Dates, titles, honors, employment, education, and responsibilities must match the rest of the application.
R8 · Follow School-Specific Instructions
Some schools request every position, activity, or period of employment; others limit length or request estimated hours. Adapt the résumé accordingly.
Addendum Guidelines
An addendum is a concise, factual explanation of an issue that may otherwise raise a reasonable question.
- Academic performance
- A significant change in grades
- Standardized-test history
- Gaps in education or employment
- Disciplinary or legal matters
- Character-and-fitness disclosures
- Circumstances directly affecting the record
- The relevant facts
- Appropriate context
- Accountability, when applicable
- Resolution, growth, or changed circumstances
- Evidence that the issue is unlikely to interfere with future success
An addendum should not become a second personal statement, repeat information unnecessarily, minimize serious conduct, blame others, or provide more sensitive detail than the question requires.
When a disclosure question is unclear, recommend that the participant contact the law school, consult the applicable bar-admission authority, or seek qualified legal counsel. LSAC treats false, inconsistent, misleading, or materially incomplete application information as potential misconduct.
Candor, Character and Fitness, and Consistency
Applicants must answer every application question truthfully, completely, and according to the wording of that particular question. Disclosure requirements differ among law schools and bar-admission jurisdictions. Participants should not rely on a friend's application, a prior year's form, or assumptions about what “counts.”
- Read each question literally and carefully
- Gather records when dates or dispositions are uncertain
- Compare disclosures across applications
- Retain copies of every submitted application
- Correct material mistakes promptly
- Seek qualified guidance when uncertain
- Avoid assuming that expunged, dismissed, juvenile, sealed, academic, or minor matters never require disclosure
The underlying incident is often less damaging than a later finding that the applicant was not candid.
Responsible Use of Generative AI
Law schools have different AI policies; participants must review each school's current rules before using generative AI. Some schools restrict AI assistance for most essays, while others create a particular prompt that permits or requires it. Unless a school expressly provides otherwise:
- Do not use AI to generate a personal statement or replace the applicant's original thinking.
- Do not submit language the applicant cannot explain or defend.
- Do not allow AI to invent facts, quotations, experiences, or school information.
- Do not upload sensitive personal or disciplinary information without understanding the platform's privacy practices.
- Do not use AI-generated material if the application requires certification that the work is solely the applicant's.
- Independently verify every AI-assisted suggestion.
- Preserve the participant's natural voice.
- When uncertain, ask the school directly.
Advisors should never place a participant's materials into an AI system without express consent.
School Selection and Outcome Review
- Admission statistics
- Tuition and fees
- Conditional scholarship information
- Scholarship retention
- Attrition
- Bar passage
- Employment outcomes
- Academic support
- Transfer patterns
Medians and historical outcomes are informative but do not guarantee an individual result.
- Opportunity
- Affordability
- Support
- Career alignment
- Geographic fit
- Personal sustainability
Constructive Feedback Protocol
- 1Affirm — Identify two genuine strengths.
- 2Clarify — Ask what the participant wants the reader or decision-maker to understand.
- 3Prioritize — Identify no more than three major issues.
- 4Explain — Describe why each issue matters.
- 5Illustrate — Offer an example or question without rewriting the participant's work.
- 6Confirm — Ask the participant to summarize the feedback in their own words.
- 7Plan — Agree on the participant's next three actions.
Required Closing Summary
At the conclusion of every advisement session, the advisor and participant complete this brief summary:
- Participant's primary goal:
- Strengths identified:
- Priority improvements:
- Next three actions:
- Suggested completion dates:
- Resources or referrals:
- Follow-up questions:
The goal of the clinic is not to create identical applicants or promise admission to a particular institution. It is to help every participant present an application that is authentic, accurate, thoughtful, strategically prepared, and reflective of their readiness to enter the legal profession.