Writing your letters of recommendation - College of Law

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Applying to law school: A helpful info kit for pre-law advisors

Writing your letters of recommendation

Your observations about your students matter to us and we value the time you invest in sharing your thoughts. Here are a handful of tips to help you help your students shine in your letters of recommendation and to ease the stress sometimes associated with writing a persuasive letter.

  1. Quality is more important than quantity. While a law school may not ask that letters of recommendation be a particular length, law school admissions committees prefer letters that include clear details about why a student should be admitted.
  2. Feel free to state the grade and the rank in your class that your students obtained. But keep in mind that law school admissions committees can see your students’ transcripts in their CAS reports. We always appreciate when a letter writer tells us what qualities and characteristics they noticed in a student that led them to believe that person would succeed in law school and, specifically, that particular law school.
  3. Rather than tell an admission committee what you think your students will accomplish in law school, write about what your students have done thus far at the undergraduate level.
  4. It may often be overwhelming to complete multiple letters of recommendation, but please strive to write a new letter of recommendation for each individual student. If you are unable to, we think the following points will be very helpful to you and to the admissions committees that read your letters.
    1. Check that the name on the document you have saved and/or printed matches the name of the student who has requested the letter from you and matches the name of the student written on the envelope or LSAC Letter of Recommendation cover form you are submitting with the letter.
    2. Use the correct pronoun when writing about each student. We often receive letters that refer to an applicant with multiple conflicting pronouns.
  5. Use your institution’s letterhead to give your recommendations a more formal look.
  6. If you’re wondering to whom your letters should be addressed, you can address them to the law school’s Office of Admissions, Admissions Committee or Dean of Admissions.