This month the arm of the American Bar Association (ABA) which accredits law schools voted to eliminate the LSAT as part of the law school admission process. The vote will be put before the ABA House of Delegates in February for final approval or rejection.
According to the WSJ editorial board,
The ABA decision is best understood as an attempt to get ahead of a possible Supreme Court decision against the use of racial preferences in school admissions. By making the LSAT optional, schools will be able to admit the students they want without lowering the average LSAT score that is one measure of elite status. But the schools need the ABA to move first.
Law Schools Without LSATs – WSJ
Several deans from leading law schools have spoken out against the proposal.
Removing standardized tests, the deans explained, requires admissions to focus more on grade-point average and other factors that are even less objective. The LSAT “index score can help identify students who are capable of performing at a satisfactory level, even though their grades alone and other indicia would not so indicate,” the letter notes. That applies especially to students from “less advantaged backgrounds and underrepresented groups.”
The proposal to eliminate the LSAT as part of admission, comes on the heels of many top law schools–include Yale and Harvard–withdraw from once all-important U.S. News ranking system.
Law Office of Justin R. McCarthy 