Legal Career Opportunities Program
The Legal Career Opportunities Program (LCOP) invites applications from individuals who demonstrate the ability to succeed in law school but have encountered life circumstances or other adversities that have affected their traditional academic indicators, such as LSAT scores and/or undergraduate grades. In most cases, applicants to the LCOP program have academic indicators that are a bit lower than those of regularly admitted applicants; however, LCOP applicants may demonstrate through their career and professional accomplishments, personal statements, letters of recommendation, graduate work, and/or significantly improved academic performance over a period of time, their likelihood for success in law school.
The Admissions Committee rigorously reviews LCOP applications and seeks to identify:
- the specific life circumstances or adversities the applicant faced;
- that the life circumstances or adversities identified have affected the applicant’s academic indicators;
- evidence that the applicant can successfully manage the rigors of law school.
Admission to LCOP is highly selective. From more than 180 applicants to LCOP, 17.5% were admitted in 2007.
As a non-traditional student, I chose C-M because the Legal Career Opportunities Program gave me a chance to prove myself. Rachel Underwood, |
The LCOP Application Process
- You may apply online via the Law School Admission Council at www.lsac.org. There is no application fee for applications submitted electronically. Please call the LSAC Help Desk at 215-968-1393 in the event you encounter any technical difficulties using the online application service.
Or
You can download our application from this web site and mail it to the address on the application. Download the fill-in form file in Word 2000 Format.
- Complete, sign (certify), and submit an application for admission. Electronic applications are considered certified once transmitted. Application Deadline: March 15
- Provide three letters of recommendation, preferably from professors. Letters may be submitted through the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) or mailed directly to the Law School Admissions Office at the address below.
- Provide an original personal statement that is your own work and represents your best writing. The statement should be a minimum of two typed pages in length and identify, among other things, the nature of your adversity and how it has affected the pursuit of your academic goals or career achievements.
- Disclose and submit a statement of all relevant facts pertaining to any and all probations, suspensions, warnings, sanctions, and dismissals by any college or university for academic or non-academic reasons; criminal charges pending against you; convictions or granted deferred adjudications or diversions for any offense, felony or misdemeanor, including traffic offenses but excluding minor moving violations and parking tickets. Failure to provide truthful answers or failure to inform the admissions office of any changes to your answers may result in revocation of admission, disciplinary action and/or dismissal by the law school, and/or denial of permission to practice law by the state in which you seek admission.
- Take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) no later than February of the year you intend to enroll in law school. When more than one score is reported, Cleveland-Marshall will consider only the highest score.
- Register for the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS). This service will be the clearinghouse for your LSAT score(s), academic transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Cleveland-Marshall College of Law will request your LSDAS report from the Law School Admission Council once your application is received.
Completed applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning in late November.
The Academic Program
Applicants admitted to the Legal Career Opportunity Program begin their studies in the summer by taking Legal Process, a three credit hour evening course. In the Legal Process course, students develop basic analytical skills that are critical to success in law school. Students in LCOP should plan to attend class four nights a week in the summer, Monday through Thursday. The class time is 6 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. The course begins in late May and ends in mid July.
In addition to the Legal Process course, LCOP students are required to participate in the law school's Academic Excellence Program.
LCOP students must have earned their undergraduate degree prior to the start of the summer course.
Financial Considerations
The LCOP program includes a three credit hour course held during the Summer semester. The cost of the course is $633.75 per credit hour for Ohio residents and $869.55 for non-residents.
For additional information about financing your legal education, please contact the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Financial Aid Office at 216-687-6887.