ABA Opens Door To Bypass LSAT
Reuters: “The American Bar Association has established a path for law schools to admit some or all of their new students without the Law School Admission Test or other “valid and reliable” admissions test.
The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar on Friday voted to create a new variance process by which individual law schools may apply for permission to bypass the existing admission test requirement for up to 100% of their incoming classes for a period of three to five years.
The new variance is the latest development in a longstanding debate over whether the ABA should continue to require law schools to use the LSAT or another standardized test such as the GRE in admissions.
The council in 2022 proposed removing the test requirement from the ABA’s law school standards on the grounds that it constrains law schools from experimenting and that no other accreditor of professional degree programs requires the use of standardized admission tests, even though many professional programs such as medical schools opt to use them.”
To read the full article, click here.
Southern Illinois Chooses Dean For Simmons Law School
Carbondale, IL: “Hannah Brenner Johnson, professor of law and vice dean for academic affairs at California Western School of Law, will become the next dean of the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School.
Sheryl Tucker, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, today (Nov. 14) announced Brenner Johnson’s appointment, effective July 1, subject to approval by the SIU Board of Trustees.
The national search for dean included a “very competitive pool of highly qualified candidates,” said Tucker, adding that Brenner Johnson “was the desired candidate across all constituents.”
“The future of the Simmons Law School will be outstanding under the direction of incoming dean Brenner Johnson,” Tucker said. Tucker also thanked acting dean Angela Upchurch “for her interim leadership and chairing of this successful search, and our colleagues who engaged in the process ensuring a robust search with an incredible outcome.”
To read the full article, click here.
Top Law Grad Shares Secrets Behind Her Academic Success
Charlottesville, VA: “Since graduating with the highest GPA in the University of Virginia School of Law’s Class of 2024 and receiving the Faculty Award for Academic Excellence, Haley Gorman has put her knowledge to work.
Gorman began clerking for Chief Judge David Barron at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston after graduation and has another clerkship lined up with Judge Jesse Furman for the 2026-27 term at the Southern District of New York.
A Chicago native, Gorman earned her bachelor’s degree in government and history from the College of William & Mary before coming to UVA Law.
She shared her experiences and offered tips for success.
What are some of your secrets to academic success?
“I don’t know if I have any great secrets to academic success, but I can say for sure that having the support of family and friends over the past three years made all the difference and allowed me to dive headfirst into the classes and opportunities I found exciting each semester. My support system provided a constant reminder that there is life outside of law school, which in turn helped take some of the academic pressure off and helped me stay grounded in the reasons I wanted to pursue law in the first place.”
To read additional secrets to law secrets to law school success, click here.
