The Law School Data Assembly Service

As Law Services describes it, their Law School Data Assembly Service "provides a means of centralizing and standardizing undergraduate academic records to simplify the law school admission process." You have to register for the LSD AS and follow its rules. You don't have a choice.

Click Here to Find Law Student Jobs on LawCrossing


The LSD AS performs a variety of statistical and record-keeping chores for the law schools. But from your perspective, it has one main task: the LSD AS takes information from the transcripts that you send it and puts the information into a standard form so it can be easily compared with the academic records of other law school applicants. For example, it converts grades to a standard four-point system, allowing 1.0 for each D, 2.0 for each C, and so on. After conversion, grades earned at schools that use a standard A through F grading system can be compared with those earned at schools that use other grading systems. After assembling your academic information, the LSDAS sends a report to each of the law schools you've applied to. The report contains standard name and address information; the converted grades, expressed in a standard year-by-year and college-by-college table; photocopies of each of the college transcripts you've sent to the LSDAS; your most recent LSAT score; up to 12 earlier LSAT scores, if you've taken the test more than once; photocopies of your most recent LSAT writing sample; a maximum of two photocopies of writing samples from earlier LSATs, if you've taken the test more than once; a list of "all law schools reporting your prior matriculation or intent to matriculate and the year in which such reports were made (only if such information has been reported)"; photocopies of certain special documents, "such as a letter from a certified professional regarding a handicap or a letter from Law Services regarding conditions during a particular test administration" (i.e., an explanation that something went wrong during the test, making your LSAT score perhaps unreliable); and whatever index numbers the law school you're applying to has asked the LSDAS to calculate for you, for use in its rolling admission setup (about which more later).

In theory, the LSDAS report gives the law school all the information it needs to make a decision about you, in a form that's easy for the school to use.

Though it eases the burden on the law schools, the LSDAS increases your workload. You must supply the requested information, and you must check up on the LSDAS to make sure that the system is doing its work properly.

Signing Up

Law Services prefers that you register for the LSDAS when you register to take the LSAT.

If you don't register for the LSDAS when you sign up for the LSAT, you can still register at any later time. You use the Law Services Order Form in the Information Book, the same form that you use to register for the LSAT, but you omit the LSAT sections and fill out only the LSDAS part.

The Law Services Order Form asks you to identify all the undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools you have attended. There are enough machine-readable boxes on the Law Services Order Form for you to list your present undergraduate school, a professional or graduate school, and up to three other schools you have previously attended. If you've attended more schools, Law Services requires you to list them on an additional non-machine-readable form, also located in the Information Book, titled "Academic Record Form." You must make sure that Law Services knows about all the schools you have attended since you graduated from high school. If you omit a school and Law Services later discovers the omission, they will suspect you of what they call misconduct. Specifically, you may be accused of trying to make your record look better than it is by concealing some previous poor performance, poor behavior, scandal, or even criminality. Law Services has a procedure, described in the Information Book, for investigating suspicions of candidate misconduct, and can impose a range of punishments. Read this section carefully. The punishment can be severe enough to destroy your ambitions. There's no way to get into law school except through Law Services. You don't want to be on their bad side.

Click Here to Find Summer Associate Jobs on LawCrossing

If you find that you can't obtain a transcript from a former school, perhaps because the school has gone out of business, you must use- what else-a special form in the Information Book. You must explain why you can't obtain a transcript on the Academic Records Form.

The LSDAS does not summarize the records of foreign universities with grading systems unlike those of American schools. If you did part of your undergraduate work at a foreign school, check to see if it is among the participating schools listed in appendix E of the Information Book. If it is, treat it like an American school. If it's not, the best course of action is to arrange for the foreign school to send transcripts both to the LSDAS (using the postcard-sized form) and also directly to each of the law schools to which you are applying.

If you've sent LSDAS transcripts covering six semesters of work and you later decide you want a seventh semester added, all you need to do is ask your college registrar to send LSDAS a seven-semester transcript. (Depending on your college's policy, you'll probably have to pay another small fee.) When Law Services gets this updated transcript, it will reevaluate your file and send your law schools updated reports. Believe it or not, you don't need to fill out a form to request this update from Law Services. They do it automatically.

When Law Services has received transcripts from all the colleges, universities, and professional schools you listed on the registration form, it will perform its computations and send you a printout identified as your Master Law School Report. The Master Law School Report is your copy of what the law schools will receive; it includes Law Services' summary of the academic and biographical information you've provided (on the registration form and from the various transcripts), your LSAT scores, and reports of any prior law school matriculations. (Some graduate work may not be listed.) It's your responsibility to check this information carefully. Errors have been made. I suggest that you keep a copy and send the original back by certified mail, requesting a return receipt. This is an important document! Law Services will notify you of the corrections they make to your file.

Learn the 10 Factors That Matter to Big Firms More Than Where You Went to Law School

Click Here to View the 2015 LawCrossing Salary Survey of Lawyer Salaries in the Best Law Firms