Craft a Law School Application That Gets You In: Letters of Recommendation

Tiger professorHopefully you’ve been nice to your professors and bosses, since you’re going to need several of them to write letters of recommendation for you.

Check each application to see how many letters are required, but you generally need between two and four. If at all possible, the majority should come from academic references.

If you’ve been out of school for a while, it’s fine to include a letter from an employer, along with the academic letters, but try not to rely solely on employer recommendations.

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Make Your Clerkship Application Shine: Letters of Recommendation

The Ideal Recommender

Letter AThe most desirable recommender is someone who:

  • knows you well on a personal level
  • thinks that you are nice, intelligent, and hard-working
  • can write a convincing letter on your behalf

In a perfect world, this person would also be a rock star professor with amazing connections, but you’ll have to take what you can get!

Who Should I Ask?

Most judges ask for three letters of recommendation and prefer at least two of the three be from law school professors. The final letter could be from a professional reference, or from another professor, perhaps an adjunct.

But I Don’t Know Any of My Professors!

You may be concerned that you don’t have any obvious recommenders. This is a common problem in law school, where relationships between professors and students are often formal and somewhat distant.

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