Graduate admissions / Law school admissions / Personal statement
Law School Personal Statement Help
Guidance on the law school personal statement, from choosing a topic through final revisions. You write the essay. We help you decide what it should say and how to say it clearly.
What the personal statement does
The personal statement is the part of the J.D. application written entirely in your own voice. Admissions committees read it to judge your writing and your judgment, and to learn things about you that your GPA, LSAT score, and resume do not show. Most law schools require one. A few ask a specific question instead, so read each school’s instructions before you start.
Length and format
Requirements vary by school. Some schools accept one to three double-spaced pages, and others set a word limit. Follow each school’s instructions exactly. If you use one statement for several schools, check that it fits the strictest limit among them.
Choosing a topic
A good statement is specific. It does not need to explain why you want to go to law school, and it does not need a dramatic event. It needs a clear experience, what you took from it, and how it connects to the person you are now. Topics applicants often work from include:
An experience at work, at home, or in a community that shaped how you see problems
A change of direction, such as a career switch or a return to school
A skill, interest, or project that shows how you think
An academic or professional experience that led you toward law
A statement that mostly praises the school you are applying to rarely tells the committee anything new. If you want to explain why a particular school fits you, an optional essay is usually the better place.
Drafting and revision
Most statements go through several drafts. Early drafts are about structure and what the essay says. Later drafts focus on sentence-level clarity, length, and consistency with the rest of your application, including your resume and any addenda.
How we work with you on it
We start with a conversation about your background and the experiences you could write about. You then outline, draft, and revise with written feedback at each stage. We help you keep the essay specific and in your own voice. We do not write the statement for you.
The statement is one part of a larger application. See how it fits into the law school application timeline, or read the law admissions FAQ.
LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
Personal statement
What to Expect
In a free consultation, we review your background, GPA and LSAT, and school list. Personal statement work then follows three steps.
Topic & Outline
We talk through your background and choose the experience your statement will center on, then build an outline.
Drafting & Feedback
You write the draft. We return written feedback on structure, specificity, and voice, and repeat as needed.
Final Review
We check length, clarity, and consistency with your resume and addenda before you submit.
LAW ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Law applicants work directly with Robert Farbman, an incoming 1L at Harvard Law School and a graduate of Cornell University, where he earned a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations.
Robert has worked on successful applications to Harvard, NYU, Cornell, Northwestern, Georgetown, Duke and UC Berkeley. He scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT and recently went through the law school application process himself.
He has years of experience teaching students, guiding writers as an undergraduate law review editor, and mentoring incoming transfers to Cornell. His internships at Cornell spanned legal research abroad, corporate financial compliance, and federal agency work.
