Washington and Lee University School of Law
Who is eligible to apply for admission to the J.D. program?
Graduates of accredited colleges and universities are eligible to be considered for admission to the Law School.
What degree is required for admission to the J.D. program?
While a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university is a prerequisite for enrollment in the J.D. program, no specific major is required.
What courses should I take in preparation for law school?
There is no required list of subjects which must be taken in preparation for admission to the School of Law. The law covers all facets of human activity and a lawyer should be a person with a wide range of interests and a broad base of knowledge. It can be said, however, that a reasonable degree of exposure to such subjects as history, literature, English composition, political science, economics and philosophy will provide a good background for a full appreciation of the law. The prelaw student should, in any event, be involved in an undergraduate program which is intellectually challenging and demanding and which requires rigorous academic discipline.
When should I apply for admission to the J.D. program?
You should submit your application as soon as possible. The deadline for submitting an application through the regular admission process is March 1 of the year in which you intend to enroll.
We do not offer early decision. Admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis.
W&L begins accepting applications for admission September 1 of the year prior to the year in which the applicant wishes to matriculate. Thus, an applicant wishing to matriculate in August of 2010 could apply for admission as early as September 2009.
I am taking a later LSAT administration. How should I handle the submission of my application?
Admittedly, from cycle to cycle, this is a fairly common predicament. Applicants seem to think that there is something wrong with submitting their application before their LSAC file is complete with transcript(s), LSAT score and recommendations. Please don't worry - sending us your application before everything else is teed up is fine. Waiting? Well, that's less fine.
As a general policy, with all application matters, sooner is almost always better. Consequently, if you're taking a later LSAT, we encourage you to submit an application now, and begin sending along the various constituent parts of your Credential Assembly Service (CAS) report (detailed above) to the LSAC. By doing this, your file will be complete (and therefore eligible for review) much sooner than if you wait until you receive your results to begin the application process or to submit other required documents to the LSAC.
If you've previously taken the LSAT, do not worry that we might somehow review your (technically complete) file before we receive your new LSAT score. Simply provide us, in Section I, Item 8 of our application, the date of your future LSAT administration, and we'll hold your file for review until we receive scores from that test. If you change your mind, (and decide not to sit for the test after all, or decide to sit for a later test administration) please contact us so that we can either remove the "hold" on your file or change the date on which we'll check for a new score.
Furthermore, we make admissions decisions on a rolling basis, and there is no early action program. Each year, we wait until we have a critical mass of applications to begin our review (so that we might have some perspective on the kinds of application we're seeing in a given cycle), and while each year is just a little different than its predecessors, we don't typically achieve this volume until November or December.
What do I need to do to apply?
For your file to be consider complete, J.D. applicants must submit the following:
As you are hopefully aware, W&L has an honor system that has been in place for over 100 years, and in keeping with the pervasive emphasis upon character and integrity on our campus, we also offer applicants an opportunity to discuss an ethical dilemma with which they dealt in an optional essay. While failure to submit this optional essay will have no negative effect on an candidate's application, this essay is often extremely illuminating, informative and helpful as we assess a candidate's qualifications.
With respect to transcripts, letters of recommendation and LSAT score submission, applicants must register for the Law School Admissions Council's (LSAC) Data Assembly Service (LSDAS0. For a nominal fee, this service will process and bundle your transcript, letters of recommendation and LSAT results for submission to the law schools to which you apply. We encourage you to refer to the Law School Admissions Council's website for additional information regarding the application process and the services they provide.
While we do not require a resume or narrative statement of activites from those applicants entering law school immediately after their graduation from college, all applicants are encouraged and welcome to include a resume with their application materials.
We encourage all applicants to closely review our application instructions before applying. For more information regarding the application process at W&L Law, please see our Application webpage.
Can I apply to W&L Law online?
We only accept electronic applications. We assess no application fee for those applications submitted online via LSAC. For more information about applying to W&L Law online, as well as a link to our online application, please see our application webpage.
How are applicants selected for admission?
All applications are reviewed by members of the Admissions Committee which selects applicants for admission to the School of Law on the basis of a comparative evaluation of the credentials submitted by the applicants. We do not use an admissions formula, and applicants are not ranked by any numerical index. We consider undergraduate grades and transcripts, LSAT scores, recommendations, significant employment or post-graduate educational experience, extracurricular activities, special skills and talents, community service involvement and the personal statement. There is no preference for residents of Virginia.
How big is the first year class?
Our entering class size is targeted at 129. Our current first year class consists of 135 students and includes graduates from 95 different undergraduate institutions and 30 different states. Females make up 50% of the class and diverse students comprise 23% of the newest group of students to join our campus community. Our median age is 25.
What are the median GPA and LSAT score at Washington and Lee?
The median GPA for the Class of 2012 is a 3.56; the median LSAT is a 166. Our 25th percentiles for LSAT and GPA are 160 and 3.30, respectively, while our 75th percentiles are 167 and 3.81.
How do you interpret multiple LSAT scores?
In accordance with our policy of reviewing all the materials submitted with an application, we look at each of your LSAT scores as we consider your candidacy. Absent a compelling reason that persuades us otherwise, we place the greatest weight on your highest score because statistical analysis indicates that a student's highest score is the best predictor of his/her success at W&L Law. In accordance with American Bar Association guidelines, the median LSAT score for an entering class is calculated using matriculants' highest LSAT score.
If you elect to retake the LSAT, we strongly recommend you sit for the December test administration. Scores are not reported from the February administration until very late in our application cycle - while some seats typically remain available, we have extended many offers and the competition for the remaining places can be exceptionally keen.
How many letters of recommendation should I submit?
We require two letters of recommendation, but we will accept as many as you wish to include with your file. As a cautionary note, however, we encourage all applicants to identify two recommenders who really know them well, and any more than three letters of recommendation often proves too much. While we appreciate the additional perspectives additional letters often provide, we only have a limited time to spend with each file, and too many letters can potentially do your file a disservice.
How should I submit my letters of recommendation?
We encourage you to use the LSAC Letter of Recommendation Service. This service is included in your law school report, and LSAC's Letter of Recommendation Service (LOR) is offered as a convenience to Credential Assembly Service (CAS) registrants, recommendation-letter writers, and law schools. This service allows you to use your LSAC.org account to have your LORs sent to law schools based on each school's requirements or preferences. To have your letters sent in this fashion, you should identify your recommenders, print out your pre-filled letter of recommendation forms, and give the forms to the appropriate recommenders. Your recommender must sign the letter, insert it in his or her own envelope along with their letter of recommendation form, and send it directly to LSAC. LSAC will send your letters to law schools as assigned by you. You must assign each letter to each school to which you want it sent.
Alternatively, letters of recommendation may be submitted directly to the School of Law. We will accept letters submitted by the applicant, but prefer that your recommender mail their letter directly. We will accept additional letters of recommendation, but will consider your file complete when two have been received.
Any advice about the personal statement?
At Washington and Lee, our mission is to craft as lively a classroom conversation as we possibly can. With only about 130 seats, this can be quite a challenge. The personal statement is your opportunity to give us a sense of who you are beyond what we can glean from the rest of the paper we've required of you. The best use of that opportunity? Tell us something about yourself that we won't discover otherwise. As a starting point, we recommend you imagine that our admissions committee has one seat available, and is considering your file and one other, both with the same numerical qualifications. Your personal statement will be read aloud. What do you want us to know about you before we make a choice? What makes you who you are?
We know this is still a daunting prospect, so here are a few concrete guidelines:
We read thousands of files, so you should strive for your personal statement to be memorable... within limits. Accordingly, if you summarize your resume, you've wasted the opportunity. On the other hand, iambic pentameter, baked goods, photo albums or the necessity of a decoder ring are not the sorts of "memorable" we're after. (You think we're joking, don't you? We're not.)
While the topic of your statement should actually be personal, it should stop short of triggering a "TMI" response. For most, this will rule out your assessment of the state of any particular aspect of the law, on one hand, and anything overly intimate on the other. In the world of personal statements, unique is good… unless it's very, very bad. If you'd feel queasy asking an acquaintance or potential employer to review your statement, we suggest you redraft.
Every year we receive numerous well-written personal statements that highlight the aspects of W&L Law the writer finds attractive. This sort of statement almost never hurts an applicant, but hardly ever helps as much as a personal statement can. Your discussion of an aspect of the educational experience available here, no matter how eloquent, is not likely to stick with us very long. We know about us; tell us about you.
Don't discuss your LSAT score or your grades in your personal statement. We accept any number of explanatory attachments to your application, and recommend you deal with these issues in a separate submission. There's more to you than your numbers, after all!
Write it yourself. We know there are writing services and even fill-in-the-blank forms – every year applicants taking advantage of these tools find themselves defending allegations of misconduct before the LSAC. We can assure you: it's not worth it. We also know there are plenty of people whose thoughts you value, and we're occasionally treated to the details of an applicant's editing process in a "show changes" version of their personal statement. By all means, consult with people you think are knowledgeable, consider their comments as you draft and redraft. But before you submit your essay, pause for a day or two. Read it again. If it isn't your voice you hear when you read it, start over. You're embarking on a career where your ability to write persuasively will be your stock in trade. Consider this your first assignment.
Proofread. You'll have read this thing innumerable times, so get someone you trust to read it too – preferably someone who knows the difference between its and it's, and other common errors that spellcheck won't cure. We're lawyers, and we can spot typos in our sleep – we just can't help it! We're also amused by the many errors and absurdities that mail merge can yield. These sorts of mistakes are unlikely to be serious enough to get you rejected out of hand (we're human too!), but they most definitely alter the impact of your personal statement.
Follow the rules. We provide guidelines on length and font size on our application. Ignore them and you run the risk of offending tired eyes, and worse, setting the bar for your statement higher than that applied to those who abide by the rules. It's never in your best interest for your actions to imply that your file is worth twice the review time as every other. (Consider the necessary editing process to be good practice for your chosen profession: courts all over the nation prescribe typeface, font size, margins and filing length; non-conforming filings are summarily rejected by the court clerk.)
We're willing to take your application as sufficient evidence of your interest in studying law, so you needn't try to convince us of the sincerity of your ambition. Remember, we're trying to get an idea of the voice you might bring to campus. While you'll do a lot of talking about law here, of course, we're after a sense of what might inform your contribution to the conversation. So tell us about your losing season, your musical aspirations, that pivotal vacation experience, the single most important piece of advice you've ever received, your troubled (or wonderful) relationship with your sibling, why you volunteered… you get the idea. Those are the things that bring manila folders to life.
Who should I get to write my letters of recommendation?
The selection of recommenders is entirely up to the applicant. Our only advice is that you identify two people who really know you well and can provide us with a rich and detailed sense of just who you are. We also recommend at least one of your letters from a professor or someone who knows your academic abilities well. As previously noted, we will review all aspects of your file as we make our admissions decision, and these letters, along with the more personal and qualitative aspects of your application, are our only meaningful opportunity to get a feel for you as a person.
Can I provide a supplemental statement explaining my GPA, LSAT, etc.?
We have a fairly liberal supplemental statement policy, and we will gladly include any such statements, addressing any aspects of your file you believe necissitate further explication, with your application.
When should I expect a decision?
As previously noted, admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis. To ensure we have sufficient perspective on the applications we receive during a given admissions cycle, we often wait until we have a "critical mass" of submissions to begin our review process. Historically speaking, we find that we often achieve this number around mid to late November. Consequently, file review does not typically commence until late November or December, with our first offers of admissions being mailed shortly after the first of the new year. For all applications received by our application deadline (March 1), we guarantee a decision by no later than March 31.
Please note that this timeline is only intended as a general guide and can vary from year to year. Applicants are encouraged to submit their application as soon as possible. Files will not be reviewed until application materials have been received, i.e. the file is COMPLETE.
For 2009-10 tuition is $37,025. The total cost of attendance for Financial Aid purposes (including Cost of Living adjustment as well as various student fees) is $57,105. One of the great aspects of life in Lexington is the low cost of living, and many sutudents find they can live on much less than the Cost of Living allowance ($15,843).
If I am admitted, what are my chances of being awarded a scholarship?
Approximately 60% of our students receive some form of merit-based aid. These awards typically range from $5,000 to, for a few students, full tuition. Most recipients' awards fall somewhere between these two values. Please note, we have no need-based scholarship aid. All our scholarships are merit-based. Loans are our only form of need-based aid.
For first-year students, qualification for a merit scholarship is based on undergraduate academic records, Law School Admission Test scores, probability of superior scholarship in the School of Law and potential for leadership in the legal profession. Scholarship assistance in a student's second and third year will continue in the amount originally awarded, contingent upon satisfactory academic performance. We expect to make our first round of merit scholarship awards by mid-February. Thereafter, awards are made periodically throughout the remainder of the admissions cycle.
How does the scholarship process work?
Applicants whose files are completed by December 31, 2008 will receive full consideration for merit-based scholarships. Application files completed after December 31 will be considered for merit-based scholarship assistance to the extent funds remain available. After the first round of scholarship awards, which occurs around mid-February, scholarship notification can be expected two to three weeks after admission.
While we do encourage applicants to complete their applications by December 31 in order to be eligible for merit scholarship consideration, this is not a hard deadline. We typically make our initial round of scholarship decisions in mid-January, and at this point in the admissions cycle, we have our entire scholarship budget at our disposal. We will continue to make scholarship awards throughout the coming months, however, we have less money with which to work with each successive month. Consequently, as this analysis indicates, the chances of you receiving a scholarship award are much better the earlier you complete your application, but it is nevertheless possible to receive a scholarship even if you do not complete your application until after December 31st. As with many other aspects of the law school application process, the sooner you can complete your application the better.
Where can I find more information about financial aid?
About 90% of our students are on some form of Financial Aid. As previously noted, we have no need-based scholarships. Loans are our only form of need-based aid.
Students who wish to finance their legal education with educational loans must complete a FAFSA and direct that it be sent to Washington and Lee; the University's Financial Aid Office will not begin work on your file until your FAFSA has been received. Loan packages are typically mailed in mid-March. Absent unique circumstances, admitted students are offered loans to meet the total cost of attendance at W&L Law (see above). Qualification for state and federal educational loans is determined by applicable regulations and by the availability of funds.
For more specific information regarding the multiple steps in the educational loan application process, please consult the Financial Aid loan website. If you have additional questions not addressed by the web resources, please contact Cynthia Hintze, Senior Assistant Director of Financial Aid, at (540) 458-8032 or chintze@wlu.edu.
I'm interested in public interest work. Does W&L Law have a Loan Repayment Assistance Program?
Graduates of the School of Law working in the public interest may qualify for financial assistance from the Shepherd Loan Assistance Program. Please see our summary of our LRAP for additional information..
The American Bar Association summarizes other sources of loan repayment assistance (states, the federal government, employers) here.
Does Washington and Lee enroll part-time or evening law students?
Currently, W&L does not offer a part-time or evening program, although some upper-level courses are taught in the evening.
Can W&L law students begin the J.D. program in the spring or summer?
No, all first-year law students begin classes together in the fall.
Does W&L Law offer any tracks or specializations?
As a liberal-arts approach to legal education, we do not offer any tracks or specializations. At no point during your three years on campus will you feel any institutional pressure to focus on a particular area of the law. We find this generalist approach serves our students well. Students who are primarily interested in a single area of the law have the freedom to schedule a significant number of courses in that area, while students who are interested in taking a wider variety of classes during their second and third year of law school have the requisite latitude to do.
I'm interested in International Law. What opportunities are there for me to pursue this interest at W&L Law?
There are more opportunities than ever at W&L Law for those students interested in legal topics. We have recently added Transnational Law to our first year curriculum. We hired a number of new faculty members who teach subjects with a global orientation. We have added a host of upper-level courses that touch upon international subjects ranging from International Commercial Litigation and Arbitration and Human Rights. A number of our new practicum-styled, third year courses touch upon international legal areas and have allowed our students to travel to Cambodia, Liberia, and, starting this fall, Serbia. Students are also able to pursue this interest during their summers and after graduation through internship placements facilitiated by our Transnational Law Institute.
What classes will I take during my first year?
All first year students receive their schedules on the first day of Orientation, and for the first time in a very long time, you will not register for any of the courses you take during your first year of law school at W&L Law
First year students take a wide variety of classes during their first year. During your first semester, you will take Civil Procedure I, Contracts, Criminal Law and Torts. Second semester you will take American Public Law Process, Civil Procedure II, Property and Transnational Law.
Please also see our online course catalog for more detailed information regarding individual courses.
What classes will I take during my second year?
There are just three courses you must complete during your second year of study at W&L Law: Constitutional Law, Evidence and one of three courses in legal ethics. The remainder of the second year is comprised of elective, at least one that requires research and writing and many of which set the foundation for the third year.
Please also see our online course catalog for more detailed information regarding individual courses.
What classes will I take during my third year?
The new third year at W&L is entirely based on learning through engagement - combining practicum courses, practice simulations, client interactions, the formation of professional identity and the cultivation of practice skills. Third year students will now move beyond the learning process of the first and second years of law school to prepare for the transition to professional practice.
Students will take four (4) elective courses, consisting of three (3) problems-based practicums as well as one "real client" experience which will consist of participation in either a clinic or an externship. Students will also participate in a year-long professionalism program led by our Dean which will investigate topics and issues currently relevant to the legal profession. Students will also engage in a year-long legal service component, as well as two different legal skills immersions at the beginning of each semester.
For more information about our third year, please feel free to consult our new third year webpage, as well our more detailed examination of the third year curriculum in its first academic year of full implementation (2009-10).
For more information about our many clinical and expternship opportunities, please see our Clinics and Externships webpage.
What clinical and externship offerings are there at W&L Law?
We have a number of clinical and externship opportunities, spanning a variety of practice areas. As a result of our third year curricular reform all W&L Law students will be required to have a "real-client" experience during their third year of law school. Our Clinic and externships are as follows:
Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, Washington and Lee Community Law Clinic at the Oliver Hill House, Community Legal Practice Clinic, Black Lung Legal Clinic, Public Prosecutors Program, Tax Clinic, Judicial Clerkship Program, General Exernship Program, and, as of Fall 2009, Criminal Justice Clinic.
For more information about our clinical and externship offerings, go to: http://law.wlu.edu/clinics/
What journal opportunities are there at W&L Law?
We have four (4) journals in which our students are invited and encourage to participate. They are as follows:
Washington and Lee Law Review, German Law Journal, Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice, and the Journal of Energy, Climate and the Environment
The journals have varying methods by which they select their staffwriters, and the timing of these decisions can often vary between journals. For more information about our journals,visit: http://law.wlu.edu/journals
How does the Moot Court program work at W&L Law?
Our Moot Court program is a little different, practically speaking, than programs found at other law schools. Rather than having a fixed Moot Court team of ten or twelve individuals who represent the law school at all external competitions, we have internal competitions to determine the individuals who will represent the school externally. These competitions are not mandatory, but they are open to all second and third year students. The competitions include Negotiations, Appellate Advocacy, Mock Trial, Client Counseling and Mediation. First year students are not able to compete in these competitions, however, they are able to participate as clients, witnesses and bailiffs.
All participating students are able to have at least one round of experience at the school level. Those students who perform well, advance to subsequent rounds, and the students who win, ultimately go on to represent W&L Law at regional competitions, and potentially, nationally.
The Moot Court program is run by the Moot Court Executive Board. This organization consists of third year students, and while there is some faculty involvement, the students are responsible for the administration of the competitions. Faculty, practitioners and judges are often brought in to judge the later and final rounds of the individual competitions.
For more information about our Moot Court program, please see our Moot Court webpage.
W&L Law is located in the beautiful historic town of Lexington, Virginia. The school is a 3 hour interstate highway drive from Washington, DC and a 45 minute interstate highway drive from Roanoke, Virginia. Washington and Lee University is the ninth oldest institution of higher learning in the nation, and the law school dates back to 1849. For more information about the history of the law school, please consult this brief history of W&L Law.
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What is there do in Lexington?
A town of roughly 7,000 residents, Lexington is home to Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute. There are more than 100 culturally and historically significant sites in the Rockbridge County area, and the historic core of the City of Lexington is a Nationally Registered Historic District, as are the Washington and Lee Colonnade and the Virginia Military Institute Post. Washington and Lee law students attend a variety of events on and off campus. From flag football to casual and formal events sponsored by the Student Bar Association and other student organizations, students find opportunities to relax and to enjoy their time in Lexington. After all, where else can you find a foam rendering of Stonehenge, America's only community owned drive-in movie theater, a 38,000 slab of pink granite dedicated to Lexington-born statesman, politician and soldier, Sam Houston, a Dairy Queen once frequented by Tom Cruise and the best hamburger in Virginia?
For more information about Lexington, please feel free to consult our Life in Lexington webpage. Additional information is also available on the Lexington Visitor Center's website.
For a more comprehensive listing of available activities, please see our list of things to do in Lexington!
Can you explain the Honor System?
W&L has an Honor System that has been in place for over 100 years. The system is based on the fundamental principle that a spirit of trust makes Washington and Lee a unique educational institution. As it is not codified, the Honor System applies to all aspects of campus life, and it works because our students really do buy into and support it. Because of the honor system, our students know they can trust each other, and this trust allows them to relax and focus on being law students.
Students charged with violating the honor system are subject to a hearing process (conducted by their peers), and a great many law students are meaningfully involved with the various aspects of this process. Some law students serve as law class representatives to the Executive Committee (or "EC" as it is more colloquially known), the student organization responsible for the hearing and adjudication of all honor disputes. A few law students have even served as executive offers in this organization. Other law students are involved as Honor Advocates. These students assist individuals accused of an honor or conduct violation in preparing and presenting their cases to the Executive Committee.
To learn more about the Honor System, visit: http://ec.wlu.edu/
Are law students typically involved in many extracurricular activities?
We have over thirty (30) student organizations at the law school, ranging from the intellectual to the extremely extracurricular. Where else can you find an International Law Society, an American Constitution Society, a Black Law Students Association, an OUTLAW group, an American Pacific American Law Student Association, and an Epicurean Society? A great many of our upper level students are involved in two or three different organizations during their second and third years of law school. For a complete listing of the many ways in which you can get involved during your time at W&L Law, please see our Student Organization Directory.
What recreational opportunities are there on campus?
There is a Fitness Center on-campus to which law students have access, as well as regular Yoga, Hip-Hop, Spin and other group exercise classes. For more information regarding group exercise courses, please see the University's webpage for group fitness. The Washington and Lee University fitness center is available for use by W&L students, faculty and staff, spouses and children of W&L employees and W&L alumni living in Rockbridge County. Eligible parties may bring one guest with them, but the eligible person must be present.
For other Campus Recreation opportunities, including intramurals, please see the University's Campus Recreation webpage.
Intramural sports are also a big part of law school life. In fact, the law school has its own intramural league, run by third year law students affectionately known as Sport Czars. Students play a variety of sports throughout the year – football in the fall, floor hockey and basketball in the winter and soccer and softball (the annual Dean's Cup softball tournament is a popular campus event) in the spring. These games are a great way to get to know your classmates and a great outlet during law school. Visitors to our campus in the fall are likely to find most of the student body on the law school lawn watching the glory, the majesty the passion that is the Law School Football League. The individual law classes often field teams to compete in the campus-wide intramural competitions. For more information regarding intramurals, please the University intramurals webpage.
Interested in playing a club sport? See the University's webpage for Sport Clubs.
What is the relationship between the two campuses?
W&L is a very friendly place, but the degree of interaction between law students and undergraduates really seems to vary from law student to law student. Some law students know quite a few undergrads. Others do not know any at all. Those law students who seem to know the most undergrads are those who are involved in organizations with constituents from "both sides of the creek." (The University campus is bifurcated by Woods Creek, with the undergraduate campus on one side, and the law school on the other). While the law school is set apart from the undergraduate campus, law students have full access to and are within a five minute walk of all campus facilities and are encouraged to attend the many speakers, presentations and panels regularly hosted on the undergraduate campus.
Where can I find additional information for applicants with families?
Lexington is a wonderful area to raise your family. Its small town charm, low cost of living, good schools and strong sense of community provide a high quality of life for those law students relocating to the Lexington area with spouses, significant others or families. For an in-depth guide to living in Lexington with a family, please visit our Students with Families page
In addition, Law Families is an informal group open to law students and their spouses/partners. Meetings are generally held twice a month; some are informal pot-luck suppers, while others have programs and speakers. The group sponsors several social events each year, and it is a good network both for those accompanying a law student to Lexington and for those students combining the challenge of law school with family responsibilities.
Where can I find Career Planning information?
Students interested in learning more about the various services provided by our Office of Career Planning (OCP), as well as employment statistics, on-campus interviewing, the various job fairs in which our students participate and the additional career resources available to our students, are encouraged to consult our Career Planning webpage.
What do W&L students typically do after graduation?
One of the greatest things about a law degree is that you can do many—and very different—things with it, and our students pursue a variety of careers upon graduation. Whether you're interested in a multinational firm headquartered on Wall Street, small-town practice on Main Street, a prosecutor's office, legal services to indigent clients, lobbying on Capitol Hill, a judicial clerkship, an in-house counsel position with a corporation, an advanced degree or any of the other possibilities open to Washington and Lee graduates, your job search will benefit from the expertise, support and guidance of the law school's Career Planning office. Staffed by two placement professionals, both of whom are lawyers, Career Planning assists students with the logistics of the job search, such as preparing resumes and cover letters, honing interview skills and developing a search strategy.
Where do your graduates typically practice?
While we have alums in all fifty states, certain markets have traditionally been more popular with our students. While some students choose to remain in Virginia, about one-fifth of each graduating class chooses to practice in Washington, DC. In recent years, New York City has become an increasingly popular post-graduate destination with approximately twenty students each year electing to work in the Big Apple. The Southeast has traditionally been a strong area for our students when searching for our jobs, and many of our graduates choose to practice in places like Atlanta, Birmingham and Charlotte. We believe that a degree from W&L Law opens a great many doors, and our career planning professionals are ready and willing to serve you as you pursue whatever career path you choose.
For those students wishing to connect with employers, there are a variety of resources available to you. Our students regularly participate in on-campus interviewing, resume drops, as well as a number of job fairs located throughout the country. We participate in job fairs in Boston, NYC, Atlanta, Chicago, Texas and Southern California, as well as many more in a variety of other markets and practice areas. Please see our OCP's Index of Job Fairs and Interview Programs for additional information.
How many of your graduates clerk for judges after graduation?
Approximately 20% of our graduates clerk after graduation, and they do so at both the state and federal levels.
How strong is your alumni network?
Our alumni network is extremely strong and one of the biggest assets available to W&L Law students as they begin their employment searches. We have alumni in all fifty states, and, given the redolence and fondness with which a great many of our alums recall their time in Lexington, they are often extremely eager and excited to connect with a current law student.
Our Office of Career Planning also maintains an alumni mentoring database which consists of alumni who have expressly offered to speak with students interested in working in their georgraphical and/or practice areas, that students are also encouraged to utilize as they begin their employment search. For more information on Alumni Affairs, please feel free to consult our Alumni Affairs webpage.
Questions? Email lawadm@wlu.edu or call 540-458-8503.
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Washington and Lee University • Lexington, VA 24450 • (540) 458-8400