Glossary

1L, 2L, 3L 

In undergrad, your year in school is usually referred to as a first-year or second-year student. In law school, we use 1L to refer to the first year, 2L to the second year, and 3L to the third and final year.  

Acceptance Rate 

The percentage of applicants during an admissions cycle who received an offer to attend the school, including those accepted off the waitlist. 

Admissions Chances 

Based on your LSAT, GPA, Letters of Recommendation, Personal Statement, and Resume, how likely will you be admitted to the school? Note that this does not consider individual aspects of your application, such as character and fitness issues, work/life experience, interviews, or other factors. We use admissions data from previous years to provide your estimate. When schools change admissions standards or the admissions market changes, these estimates will be less accurate. While it makes sense to use this as a guide to where to apply, it should not be a controlling factor. 

American Bar Association (ABA)

The national professional organization of lawyers with roughly 400,000 members (membership is voluntary). The ABA is responsible for accrediting law schools pursuant to uniform standards. When people talk about “accredited” or “unaccredited” law schools, they refer to ABA accreditation. The organization engages in many other activities, including promulgating the body of ethical rules governing lawyers, rating federal judicial nominees, and sponsoring continuing legal education programs. 

Admitted Students’ Day (ASD)

Admitted Students’ Day is an event held by law schools for admitted students to learn more about the school.

Bar Exam 

The Bar Exam, or sometimes just “bar,” is what most lawyers must take to be licensed. When you graduate from law school, you have a law degree, but you are not a lawyer. You don’t become a lawyer until you pass your jurisdiction’s bar exam and are sworn in. The Bar Exam is a two-day test in either July or Feb. 

Burden of Proof

The duty a party has is to prove the allegations. In a civil case, the plaintiff typically has the burden of proving the elements of their claims. In a criminal case, the prosecution (the government) has the burden of proving the defendant’s guilt. The defendant typically bears the burden of proof on any affirmative defenses. 

Case Brief  

As you read cases for class, you will want to “brief” them. You will receive instructions on how to do this, likely during orientation. It is a summary of the case so that you can remember important facts, issues, and the holding, when you are called on in class and when you need to study and review. 

Case Law

The law is derived from a collection of cases. Essentially, judges will write opinions, and that creates law, or precedent. Case law can be common law, or it can be used to explain and supplement statutory law. 

Civil Law

A body of laws and legal concepts which come from old Roman laws established by Emperor Justinian and which differ from English common law, which is the framework of most state legal systems, or a generic term for non-legal law 

Clerking

Upon graduating from law school, you can apply to clerk for a judge. This typically involves much research and writing, though the experiences may differ slightly from judge to judge and court to court.  

Clinic

Law school training in which students participate in actual cases under the supervision of a practicing attorney or law professor. 

Cold Call  

Some of your professors might use “cold calling” in class. This has long been a staple of law school classes, but not every professor is the same. Essentially, it means calling on students without warning or looking for volunteers. So, the professor might say, “Mr. Jones, what was the holding in Smith v Smith” even though you haven’t raised your hand or volunteered. Every professor runs their class in their way, so after 1-2 classes, you’ll start to get a feeling for how your professor “cold calls” if they do so. 

Constitution

The fundamental law of a state or nation. A constitution sets out the basic structure and operation of government, describes what a government can and cannot do, and defines the rights of citizens. 

Con Law

This is an abbreviation typically used for constitutional law. 

Conditional Scholarships

Any financial aid award, the retention of which depends upon the student maintaining a minimum grade point average or class standing other than that ordinarily required to remain in good academic standing. 

Contracts 

A required first-year course that covers the law of contracts, including the elements of a valid contract, remedies for breach of contract, and defenses to contract enforcement. 

Court of Appeals or Appellate Court

A court above the trial court level reviews trial court proceedings and decisions for legal errors. Courts of appeal do not conduct trials, hear witnesses’ testimony, or take evidence. 

Credential Assembly Service (CAS)

Streamlines law school admissions by combining all components of your law school application in a report that LSAC sends only once to all the law schools to which you apply. 

Early Action (EA)

A non-binding application option where the applicant applies by a specific date and gets a decision by a specified date, in theory, early in the cycle 

Early Decision (ED) 

A binding application option is generally by a specific date relatively early in the admissions cycle. “If accepted ED, you are committing to the school you will matriculate and withdraw applications to all other schools. 

Externship

A student placement program with a government agency, such as a prosecuting attorney’s office public defender’s office, or a court for a semester, during which the student learns under the supervision of experienced lawyers. 

GPA 

You may have many GPAs to your name: undergraduate, graduate, etc. However, your undergraduate GPA is the only one that truly matters for law school admissions. That’s the GPA that schools report to the ABA and other parties. Your undergraduate GPA is calculated by LSAC using all college-level work, whether at your degree-granting institution or elsewhere before your first undergraduate degree is granted. 

GRE

The Graduate Record Examination, or GRE, is a standardized test administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) for prospective graduate school candidates. It assesses verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills. The test is accepted by more than 25% of law schools in the United States (as of the 2020-21 admissions cycle). 

Judicial Clerkship 

Includes federal, state, or local clerkship positions or international or foreign courts. A clerk’s defining characteristic assists a judge in making legal determinations. 

Juris Doctor (J.D.) 

The professional degree a law student receives upon graduating from law school. 

Law Firm 

Includes all private practice jobs as an associate, law clerk, paralegal, or other professional or clerical staff. Private practice includes public interest law firms, which are personal and for-profit firms distinguished from other private firms in that most of their practice involves typically underrepresented clients or groups that advocate for the community rather than corporate interests. 

Law School Admission Council (LSAC)

LSAC is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to advance law and justice by encouraging diverse, talented individuals to study law and by supporting their enrollment and learning journeys from prelaw through practice. LSAC provides products and services that support candidates and schools throughout the law school admission process, and innovative solutions to expand and diversify the range of prelaw students, enhance student outcomes in law school, and support legal professionals throughout their careers. 

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

The Law School Admissions Test, or LSAT, is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for all prospective law school candidates. It is designed to measure the skills law schools value in prospective students: reading comprehension, analytical reasoning, and logical reasoning. There is also a non-scored writing sample portion of the exam. The test is a required and integral part of the law school admission process in the United States. 

Lawyer

A licensed professional authorized by the State to give legal advice and represent a client in legal proceedings. 

Legalese

The overly formal, archaic, and often unnecessary language is used in legal writing when simpler, more familiar words could be used. Examples: “hereinafter,” “heretofore.” 

Lexis/Westlaw  

These are the legal databases you will typically use to research the law. Your school will have representatives from each to help you navigate the database. In addition, you will learn more about them in your legal research course. 

LexisNexis

A legal publisher providing electronic legal research capabilities. One of the top legal research systems for law students and attorneys. A significant competitor of Westlaw. 

LSAT Sections 

Reading Comprehension 

This section will test your ability to identify the purpose and structure of a passage or passages, define main ideas, or evaluate arguments and conclusions. There will be four reading passages with 5-8 questions for each passage. 

Logical Reasoning 

This section contains short, argumentative texts and questions that test your ability to understand, analyze, manipulate, and evaluate arguments and draw conclusions. Each LSAT includes two scored sections with 24-26 questions in each question. 

Logic Games 

You will simultaneously solve problems with many pieces of data that incorporate basic logic, systems of order, and outcomes. There will be four sets of data with 5-7 questions per set. 

LSAT Writing 

LSAT Writing is a proctored, on-demand writing exam administered online using secure proctoring software installed on the candidate’s computer. The writing structure elicits the kind of argumentative writing candidates will be expected to produce in law school. Candidates will still be given 35 minutes to write an essay in response to the prompt that is presented to them. 

Medians 

A school’s median undergraduate GPA and LSAT; a very important factors in law school admissions due to the USNWR rankings. 25th and 75th refer to a school’s 25th and 75th percentile UGPA and LSAT 

Mock Trial

A co-curricular activity in which student teams participate in simulated trials, often as part of a competition, either within the school or among several schools. The students act as trial lawyers, making opening statements, examining, and cross-examining witnesses, admitting documentary evidence, making objections, and delivering closing arguments. 

Moot Court

A fictitious court, usually held in a law school setting, to argue “moot” or hypothetical cases. These cases are generally at the appellate level. 

Moot Court Competition

A co-curricular activity in which student teams participate in simulated appellate court proceedings, including analyzing an appellate record, writing an appellate brief, and presenting an oral argument in front of panels of judges. Some schools have a first-year intramural moot court competition as part of their Legal Research and Writing program. Upper-level students who participate in moot court competitions in regional or national competitions against other law schools.  

Petitioner 

One who appeals from a judgment. 

Plaintiff

The plaintiff is the party bringing the lawsuit or initiating the claim. 

Precedent 

An existing opinion, usually published, which because of its similar facts and legal issues, serves to guide a court in the case before it. 

Pre-law Student

Denotes a student’s intention to pursue admission to law school after completing the baccalaureate degree. The University of Texas at Dallas has no prescribed pre-law curriculum. 

Pro Bono

Latin “for the public good,” legal work performed by lawyers without pay to help people with legal problems and limited or no funds or provide legal assistance to organizations involved in social causes such as the environment, consumers, minorities, youth, battered women, and education organizations and charities. 

Prosecutor  

In a criminal case, the prosecutor is the lawyer who brings charges against the defendant. 

Public interest 

Includes publicly funded jobs. Examples include organizations offering civil legal services, jobs as a public defender or appellate defender, and jobs with private nonprofit advocacy, religious, social service, fundraising, community resources, or cause-related organizations. It also includes nonprofit policy analysis, research organizations, and jobs with unions but not trade associations or public interest law firms. 

Published Cost of Attendance

This is how much the school says it costs to attend, including tuition and cost of living. This figure usually reflects 9 or 10 months of living expenses. Generally, the school’s published cost of attendance dictates how much you can borrow in student loans. 

Respondent

The party against whom an appeal is taken, appellee. 

SCOTUS 

Supreme Court of the United States 

Socratic Method

The predominant law school teaching methodology in the first year, wherein professors generally cold call on students to engage in a dialogue about a judicial opinion assigned for class reading. The Socratic method goes hand in hand with the case method of law school teaching. The Socratic and case methods are described in Chapter 7. See also Case Method. 

Splitter 

An applicant who is above a school’s LSAT and below a school’s GPA. “Splitter” historically meant splitting either LSAT or GPA until applicants created the term “reverse splitter.” 

State Court

A court responsible for administering justice by applying state law within one of the United States. Each of the fifty states has its own state court system. 

Tort

A civil wrong. This subject typically involves things like car accidents and so forth. 

Trial Court 

A court with legal authority to hear and decide cases (civil and/or criminal), conduct trials, hearings, and other proceedings, issue rulings, orders, and decisions, and impose criminal penalties where appropriate in a particular geographic area. Trial courts hear witnesses, admit exhibits, and decide legal and factual issues. 

Tuition

The amount (including fees) you pay a school for their educational services for a defined term, i.e., each quarter, semester, or year. Unless otherwise indicated, the tuition prices we list are the sticker price. The sticker price is tuition without any discount (or scholarship) applied. For public schools, in-state residents usually receive a lower price than non-residents. 

U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) 

U.S. News & World Report is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice, rankings, and analysis. It is known for its annual law school rankings, which include:  

• T1: Tier one schools according to USNWR (1-50) 
• T2: Tier 2 (50-104) 
• T3: Tier 3 (105-139) 
• T4: Tier 4 (the rest) 
• T5: Top 5 
• T6: Top 6 
• T14: Top 14 

Writ of Certiorari  

Used by the U.S. Supreme Court to review the cases the Court decides to hear.