The Question

Common FAQ

Here are a few of the questions I get asked most often; just click each question to see the answer.
Ann Levine, the Founder and Chief Law School Admission Consultant at Law School Expert has personally helped over 2,000 law school applicants reach their law school admission goals. Ann is also the author of the bestselling law school admission guidebook, The Law School Admission Game. You should take the time to review her success stories to understand more about how she has been helpful to others. If you select the The Works Package or the Personal Statement PLUS Package, you work directly with Ann Levine and she is available to provide you with advice and feedback during the entire admissions cycle for every school to which you apply. She picks up the phone, answers your emails, and personally edits the components of your applications in addition to much more.

Law School Expert’s top differentiators are as follows:

  1. You get to work with someone who has more than 18 years of experience in law school admissions, who has actually worked in law school admissions, and helped make admission decisions for law schools. You are working with someone who has a JD degree and who is a full-time admission consultant dedicated to serving law school applicants. You get to talk to your consultant before making a decision – we offer a free initial consultation. When you get started, you will have direct access to your consultant by phone, email, Zoom, and even Slack if you’d like! There is no middle management or receptionist here.
  2. Ann Levine, who has made law school admission decisions for two ABA-approved law schools and who has been a full-time law school admission consultant since founding Law School Expert in 2004, literally wrote the book on law school admissions. The Law School Admission Game was a bestseller when originally published in 2009, and the updated version, published in 2013, is consistently an Amazon.com bestseller. She is also the author of The Law School Decision Game (2011), which is geared toward helping applicants decide whether law school is right for them and how to make good decisions regarding their prospective legal careers. Ann has personally coached more than 2,000 law school applicants since 2004 and clients who sign up for The Works Package or the Personal Statement PLUS Package work directly with Ann throughout the process.
  3. With Law School Expert you know (before payment) the caliber of the admission counselor who will be guiding you through such an important time in your life. You will talk with her and make sure it’s a good fit.
Ann Levine, Law School Expert’s law school admission consultant, has actually made admission decisions and recruited students as director of admissions at ABA-approved law schools. As Director of Admissions for two ABA-approved schools, Ann reviewed every application, decided whether to admit, reject, waitlist, or send a file to committee review. She made scholarship and waitlist decisions.Ann is also the author of the Amazon.com bestselling (and award winning) law school admission guide, The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert, available digitally and as an audio book.
Feel free to call 805-604-5039. Ann Levine personally fields all calls to that number. You may also fill out this web form or email us to schedule a free consultation.

Ann Levine works with all clients that purchase the The Works Package or the Personal Statement PLUS Package. As Ann explains, “I take on the same number of clients each year so I have it down to a system. It’s really important to me that I turn personal statements around within a business day or two, that I return resumes and addenda and shorter review items within a day or day and a half, and that I return all e-mails and phone calls promptly.After 18+ years, I can estimate really well whether I’m capable of continuing to take on clients. I do everything in my power to deliver the absolute best customer service, to be so responsive to my clients that it actually surprises them how quickly I get things back, and to provide the highest quality law school admission advice available. Contact me if you have questions about availability.”

For more about what Ann’s clients think, please visit our success stories.

Our three different consulting options were developed in order to meet the needs of any law school applicant:UNLIMITED CONSULTING (aka THE WORKS) This is the soup-to-nuts, all-inclusive, everything-you-need-to-apply to law school option. It’s perfect for the following people:
  1. The strong applicant who wants to make sure he/she is doing everything possible to maximize chances for success.
  2. The applicant who has a few concerns about presenting things in the application, whether it’s a character and fitness issue, or a low GPA or LSAT score, and who wants to make sure he/she is doing everything right.
  3. The applicant who benefits from following a personalized timeline and checking off boxes as things are accomplished.
  4.  The person who wants to be able to reach out to ask an expert whenever little questions pop up throughout the process.
  5. Someone who is going to be doing a diversity statement and/or other optional essays and who anticipates tailoring essays to individual schools.
  6. If you want to have someone who wants to help you make strategic decisions throughout the process (such as whether to re-take the LSAT, how to proceed with an interview or school visit, what to do when on a law school waiting list, and how to negotiate scholarships).
  7. If you just want to make sure you are doing everything possible, leaving nothing on the table.
  8. If you want to work directly with Ann Levine and become her new best friend. (Ann’s clients often become life-long friends! This February she is going to the wedding of a client from 7 years ago, and her former clients often reach out to update her on their new jobs, marriages, babies, etc.)
PERSONAL STATEMENT PLUS PACKAGE This option is ideal for JD applicants who have a well-planned strategy and want advice on their personal statement and resume or addendum. You will receive end-to-end advice with a final 2-page and 3-page version of your personal statement while working directly with Ann Levine.
As soon as you’ve purchased The Works Package or Personal Statement PLUS Package on the website, we can get started. Make sure you enter the email address that is best for you so we can get in touch with you quickly.If you sign up for the unlimited advice package, we create a password-protected online workspace for you that allows us to share documents and drafts and send messages to each other in a way that can be accessed no matter where you are (work, school, home, etc.). Then, we will send you a Questionnaire for you to complete and a “Getting Started Packet” with a to-do list, information about how to start working on your law school personal statement and a brainstorming exercise, a sample letter of recommendation and other tools. After Ann receives your questionnaire responses, she creates a personalized timeline that takes you through the entire process from the day you sign up until your last application is out. You can even sync this calendar with iCal or have it send you e-mail reminders. This method really helps you prioritize, stay motivated, and avoid feeling overwhelmed by all of the work there is to do. Plus, you check off each item as you finish it so we both monitor your progress. If you sign up for the Personal Statement PLUS Package, you will receive an email with a Questionnaire for you to fill out and return to your consultant. Once your consultant receives the completed Questionnaire, they will contact you to get started.
Yes. Unlimited review and editing of as many essays as you write is included in the The Works Package. Ann Levine will even help you tailor each essay to each school’s requirements. For example, cutting down Berkeley’s 4-page personal statement to Tulane’s requirement of 250 words. Ann will also provide guidance on answering questions like “Why Duke” and “Why SMU Dedman” and school-specific nuances that help move you from the “waitlist” pile to the “admit right now” pile. For the Personal Statement PLUS Package, it would be up to you to change your personal statement as appropriate for each school.
Your personal statement needs to portray your individual strengths, maturity, work experience, accomplishments and diversity. The personal statements in the essay books tend to be over-the-top sob stories that would never work in real life. You need an essay that conveys who you are and what is important to you. It must sound like you; you will find no cookie-cutter essays here. Every personal statement is different, and should be different, because it should highlight your own strengths and personality. We do not generally believe in personal statement samples or examples – we give each client direction on how to get started writing and what to write about, followed by intensive feedback on content and subject matter. However, the following is an example of a personal statement that worked wonders for one of our clients. He was accepted to Berkeley, Cornell, and other top law schools.
Example of a personal statement for law school application: “Where do you live?” This was the easy question. It was the follow-up questions that posed a greater problem. This was not just any ordinary person asking, this was an attorney in the law firm where I worked. If I hid now, from a lawyer, I knew a series of complicated semantic shifts and half-truths would follow, requiring me to constantly be on guard. I ran through my informal checklist. Andrew was male, over 30, and while not overtly religious, I did not know where he was educated or where he grew up. Based on this information (or lack thereof), I chose not to tell him that I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my partner, whose gender would have given away the fact that I am a homosexual. In high school I lived in fear of being discovered after a teacher warned that coming out of the closet would jeopardize my safety. My experience in college differed dramatically; my floor mates accepted my homosexuality. I thought the world of hatred was behind me until I joined the Coming Out Group, a group of men who met in secret. I went to the first meeting expecting a social group, but soon found myself in shock over the intense difficulties my peers faced. Each week, I heard horror stories of classmates whose parents refused to talk to them, put them into therapy or threatened to disown them if they stayed gay. One student never got invited to social events with his male co-workers. As I worked more with the group, eventually becoming its leader, I helped classmates deal with these hardships. As I watched others struggle, I started treading more carefully. The trick was figuring out who could be trusted and who could not. I developed a foolproof way of distinguishing one from the other. It was at this point that I began forming the mental checklist. Then I found myself back in Andrew’s office, where he asked me about my weekend plans. This time, I began my response with the words: My boyfriend and I. Without a moment’s hesitation he simply replied, Oh, that sounds like fun. His reaction, or lack thereof, stunned me. My checklist had pointed me in the wrong direction. Even more troubling was the realization that I was the victim of my own stereotyping, not Andrew’s. Because of fear, I began to judge some people more harshly than they judged me. My own fear has held me back from relationships with people far more than reality has. Each incorrect judgment I made in the past perhaps halted a relationship from forming. Since becoming aware of this pattern, I have changed the way I approach meeting new people. I admit I still use my checklist; but I remember the items on that list are just guidelines, not rules, and I am cautious in making judgments too quickly. Approaching a problem with a rigid mind loses critical nuances. As I enter law school, I will take this lesson with me. By P.A., New York
For ideas and strategies on writing your law school personal statement,  The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert offers an entire chapter dedicated to this topic.
We have a lot of testimonials on our site. Visit the Law School Expert client success stories page and the client videos pages for more client stories about working with Law School Expert. If you have any further questions, just contact us.

With The Works Package, we provide as much time as you need. You are welcome to call and e-mail Ann Levine as often as you like. It’s like having your own law school expert on retainer. There is no “use it or lose it” 3-month time limit; Ann is with you through the entire admission cycle. The sooner you sign up, the more you will be able to take advantage of having a personal coach through the law school admission process within a particular admission cycle. Ann is known for her fast turnaround times, responsiveness and availability, and really being a supportive, accessible coach to you throughout the law school application process.

Very! We have worked with clients who are all over the world, who are admitted to law schools throughout the U.S. All law schools are looking for the same qualities in their students and we know how to best bring those qualities to the forefront of your application.
No matter what your dream school is we take your goals very seriously and help you create your strongest possible application. We have former clients attending nearly every law school in the U.S.
We no longer assist foreign attorneys seeking LL.M.s in the United States.

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