There are only two types of letters of recommendation: those that discuss you as an excellent candidate for law school, and all others. In short, recommendations either help your application or they hurt it; there is practically no middle ground in this area.

The reason there is no middle ground for recommendations is because admissions committees want to feel confident that the person writing the recommendation would grant admission to the applicant if the person writing the recommendation were on the admissions committee. Although this sounds too black and white, this is how you should view recommendations.

I once spoke to a law school dean about recommendations in support of applications to a prestigious fellowship in a graduate legal program. In explaining to me the importance of recommendations, the dean read one sentence from a recommendation that he stated had a serious negative impact to an application he was reviewing. The sentence claimed that the letter writer did not realize that the applicant was interested in pursuing the type of work which the fellowship dealt with.

One of the first questions you should ask someone who is writing a recommendation for you is what that person is going to write about you. If for any reason you get the feeling that the recommendation may cast you in anything less than an excellent light then courteously inform that person that you would rather he or she not write the recommendation.

I realize this may be difficult to do after you have already asked the person to write you a recommendation, but you need to remember that law school admission is very competitive. To give yourself the best chance of being admitted to law school you need to work hard to make sure that your whole application, including your recommendations, casts you in the best light possible.

The websites below provide additional suggestions regarding recommendations.

http://career.berkeley.edu/Law/LawLetter.stm .

http://www.accepted.com/law/letter_rec.htm .

http://www.lsac.org/LSAC.asp?url=/lsac/letters-of-recommendation.asp .

Other related articles on this website include Choosing a Law School and Personal Statement: Suggestions & Tips.

Good luck with your recommendations!

Michael Santana
michael.santana@lawboost.com