Bloomberg, Wake Up Call: ABA Opens Door to Enter Law School Without LSAT:

The American Bar Association voted to create a new process by which law schools can temporarily bypass the LSAT admission test requirement for up to 100% of their incoming classes and share applicant data with the ABA. In 2022, the ABA proposed removing the test requirement from its law school standards on the grounds that it constrains schools from experimenting and that no other accreditor of professional degree programs requires standardized admission tests, even though many professional programs such as medical schools opt to use them.

• ABA Journal, Aspiring Law Students Could Skip Standardized Admissions Testing Under New ABA Variance:
• Reuters, No LSAT to Get Into Law School? ABA Opens Door to Bypass Standardized Test

ABA Legal Ed Council, Summary of Actions of the Section’s Council at its Public Meeting Nov. 8, 2024:

The Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar met both virtually and in person in Seattle, Washington, on Nov. 8, to consider matters on its agenda including recommendations, reports, and other issues. The Council took the following actions:

• Approved for Notice and Comment proposed recommendations from the Standards Committee for new revisions to Standard 206.

The proposed changes to Standard 206 continue the focus on “access to the study of law and entry into the legal profession” for all qualified aspiring lawyers. The proposed revision integrates some of the comments received in the most recent Notice and Comment period, which questioned whether the Council went too far in seeking to be consistent with the June 2023 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court barring race-conscious admissions policies in colleges and universities.

The proposed revisions to Standard 206 require law schools to demonstrate, by concrete actions, a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and access to the study of law and entry into the legal profession for all persons, including those who historically have been disadvantaged or excluded from the legal profession. For clarity, the revision provides a list of 15 identity characteristics for consideration when adopting and implementing concrete actions. The proposed revision also continues the emphasis on creating and maintaining a supportive learning environment for all students in part by law schools working to achieve a faculty and staff that are diverse and including the list of 15 identity categories. The revisions seek to make it clear that the Council (1) is not abandoning the value of diversity and inclusion; and (2) is not requiring any school to consider race or ethnicity in individual admissions and employment decisions, but to look for legal ways to comply with the standard and the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision.

• Approved recommendations from its “Standards 501 and 503 Working Group” to continue to pause any efforts to change these standards, but to authorize law schools to seek a variance to admit up to 100% of an entering class without the use of an admission test score.

Since the ABA House of Delegates (HOD) declined in February 2023 to concur in the Council’s proposed changes to eliminate the requirement of an admission test in Standard 503, the Council has paused on bringing the changes to the HOD for a second time. The Council will be accepting variances to Standard 503 in advance of its February and May 2025 meetings. The Council believes this variance approach will encourage schools to enroll more students without an admission test and allow more data to be collected over the next three to five years.

• Approved changes in several standards and rules to conform to U.S. Department of Education regulations and guidance, including the requirement of an arbitration policy and revisions regarding branch campuses and additional locations. The revisions will now go to the HOD (in February 2025) for concurrence.

• Approved recommendations from its Data Policy and Collection Committee that data on First Generation/Highest Level of Education for 2025-2026 would be collected in the Annual Questionnaire (AQ).

The Committee is comprehensively reviewing whether other questions on the AQ should be changed and will report back in May 2025. The Committee reported on a roundtable it hosted regarding whether to report LSAT and UGPA medians, which included a broad range of perspectives from admissions professionals, testing representatives, deans, to law students. Based on that feedback, the medians will continue to be reported, and the Committee will consider adding context to this information to assist consumers.

Under ABA protocols, all changes to the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for the Approval of Law Schools must be reviewed by the House of Delegates (HOD) for concurrence. The HOD, which next meets in early February 2025 in Phoenix, can concur or reject twice. However, the final decision for implementation rests with the Council, which is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the sole accreditor of U.S. law schools and serves as an independent arm of the ABA for that function.

In closed session, the Council considered individual school matters. The outcomes of those matters that are not subject to the confidentiality provisions of Rules of Procedure 47-51 of the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedures for Approval of Law Schools will be publicly reported after decisions are communicated by letter to the affected schools.

Media seeking further information, please contact Bill Choyke in the ABA Communications Division or at (202) 662-1864.

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