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I am actually posting for my wife before we put forth the money and effort to get her into law school. We both are currently serving in the military and it has been her dream to attend law school. She has a 3.4 and a 154 on the LSAT without studying so we are trying to improve the LSAT but do not want to put the effort if she will be getting rejeced. When she was 16 she was convicted of a dui, 21 arrested for possesion of controlled substance and plead down to a public intox, and while driving in north carolina received a wreckless driving for 15 over the speed limit. Now i called the bar in ohio and they gave me the typical company answer "There is nothing that solely rejects anyone from the bar." Now she is 31 and will be 35 by the time she graduates law school. She currently owns a secret clearance and the only thing on her fbi file is the public intox. she is willing to disclose everything, but what are the actual chances of being rejected for these things. I am looking for a straightforward answer. Thanks for your help.

No one really knows the answer of how this affects an App (except Adcomms) but I'll give my 2 cents

Disclose everything and write an addendum. The biggest damage to her app right now is the LSAT score, not these stupid things she did 10 years ago. There's plenty of advice about how to write an addendum, but being honest, accepting responsibility and understanding what you did generally solved the issue.

In general, I don't believe, especially giving the timing, that this would be the straw that breaks the camel's back on her admission/rejection.

So, no, these issues aren't an auto-reject.

As far as I know, unless you were jailed for a serious felony (murder etc), it doesn't matter.

I think the OP is asking about whether the criminal history will disqualify her from passing the bar AFTER law school. And I don't think very many people on this board are qualified to answer that question.

I don't think either of those will fail her on C&F... as long as it is completely disclosed (even the parts that don't show on the record check) both during school applications and to the bar. Obviously, none of us can give an ironclad answer for that, but they are not unforgivable transgressions and she has a lot of time and demonstrated maturity between her old mistakes and the present.

Will it hurt her application cycle? Obviously it would be better if it had never happened, but I doubt that it will ding her anywhere. It was a long time ago (10 and 15 years) and that distance really helps. I would say that the bump she will get for her military experience will more than make up for the ding from those old mistakes. The LSAT score is her biggest problem, but if she got that score cold then she can almost certainly get it over 160 with some focused study. That will be a big help.

Thanks to both of you for your service, and good luck to your wife on her upcoming law school application cycle

Thanks for the help. We are about to pay for a private tutor due to her busy schedule so she can score well on the LSAT, but do not want to fork the money out if she cant get into law school or be admitted into the bar.

My suggestion, if it's really a concern, is to speak with an attorney in Ohio that specializes in this sort of law. They should be able to help answer your questions and give you advice on how to word both the law school application as well as the bar application to have as few problems as possible.