TLS: Abbreviations and Jargon Forum

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TLS: Abbreviations and Jargon

Post by TLS_user » Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:08 pm

Legal (and TLS-specific) abbreviations and jargon:

With respect to students:
  • 0L - Law school applicant
  • 1L - First-year law student
  • 2L - Second-year law student
  • 3L - Third-year law student
  • 4L - Fourth-year law student (part-time JD programs only)
  • AA - African-American
  • FGP - First-generation professional - a member of the first generation in the family to attend college or graduate school
  • MA - Mexican-American
  • PR - Puerto Rican
  • Reverse splitter - A law school applicant (or prospective applicant) with a low LSAT but a high GPA
  • Splitter - A law school applicant (or prospective applicant) with a high LSAT but a low GPA (sometimes "reverse splitters" are referred to as "splitters")
  • Super splitter - A splitter with a particularly extreme GPA/LSAT divergence (e.g., a sub-3.0 GPA and a 170+ LSAT)
  • URM - Underrepresented minority (law school admissions purposes only)
With respect to the LSAT:
  • Bibles/PS - PowerScore (LSAT prep)
  • BP - BluePrint (LSAT prep)
  • LG/AR - Logic Games/Analytical Reasoning (LSAT section)
  • LR - Logical Reasoning (LSAT section)
  • PT - Practice test/practice test score
  • RC - Reading Comprehension (LSAT section)
  • Retake - Common advice on TLS to retake the LSAT to obtain a higher score
  • TM - TestMasters (LSAT prep)
  • WS - Writing Sample (LSAT section)
With respect to law schools & law school applications:
  • 1L elective - One or more optional classes that 1Ls can choose to take (at almost all law schools, 1Ls are generally assigned to most of their classes)
  • 1L summer - Summer between the first and second years of law school (i.e., summer after 1L)
  • 2L summer - Summer between the second and third years of law school (i.e., summer after 2L)
  • 25%/50%/75% - The 25%/50%/75% undergraduate GPA or LSAT score of a law school's admitted students
  • 250 - The unique 250-word essay required as part of YLS' application
  • AA - Affirmative action
  • ACS - American Constitution Society - a liberal advocacy organization
  • Adcom/Adcomm - law school admissions committee/admissions committee member
  • Admin - Administrative law (a required class at many law schools)
  • APALSA - Asian/Pacific-American Law Student Association
  • ASD/ASW - Admitted Students' Day/Weekend
  • ASU - Arizona State Law
  • Auto ding - Opinion/prediction that an applicant is guaranteed to be rejected by a particular law school based on their GPA/LSAT
  • BC - Boston College Law
  • BLS - Brooklyn Law
  • BLSA - Black Law Student Association
  • BU - Boston University Law
  • CALI/Book award - Highest score in a law school course (not all law schools award CALIs/book awards) (Used as verb: CALI'd/booked)
  • CCN - Chicago Law, Columbia Law, NYU Law (referred to as a group)
  • CCNP - Chicago Law, Columbia Law, NYU Law, Penn Law (referred to as a group)
  • Chi/UofC - Chicago Law
  • Civ pro - Civil procedure (a required 1L class at all law schools)
  • CLS - Columbia Law
  • COA - Cost of attendance (including law school tuition, casebooks, living expenses, etc.)
  • COL - Cost of living (often used to compare living expenses in different cities - e.g., NYC would be "high COL" compared to New Haven)
  • Con law - Constitutional law (a required 1L class at almost all law schools)
  • Crim - Criminal law (a required 1L class at all law schools)
  • Crim pro - Criminal procedure (a required class at many law schools)
  • Curve - The permitted range of each letter grade at a law school - unlike at most colleges, law school grades are generally based exclusively on a student's performance relative to his/her classmates; a student's absolute performance relative to an objective standard is largely irrelevant
  • Ding - Rejected
  • DLS - (Admissions) decision letter sent
  • Dozo - Cardozo Law
  • DS - Diversity statement
  • EA - Early Action - a non-binding application option. Apply early, and get a decision by a specified date
  • ED - Early Decision - a binding application option. "If accepted to school X, I will attend."
  • EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation - a liberal advocacy organization
  • FedSoc - Federalist Society - a conservative advocacy organization
  • FSU - Florida State Law
  • GMU - George Mason Law
  • GTM - Getting to maybe
  • GULC/Gtown - Georgetown Law
  • GWU - George Washington Law
  • HLS - Harvard Law
  • HYS/YSH/YHS - Yale Law, Stanford Law, Harvard Law (referred to as a group)
  • IBR - Federal government-operated income-based educational loan repayment program
  • IU - Indiana Law
  • K - Contract law (a required 1L class at all law schools)
  • K-JD - Kindergarten to J.D. - a student who's gone "straight through" from grade school to college to law school, without any full-time work experience (aside from summer internships)
  • LALSA - Latin-American Law Student Association
  • LEEWS - Law essay exam writing system
  • Leg reg - Legislation & regulation (a required class at many law schools)
  • LOCI - Letter of continued interest
  • LOR - Letter of recommendation
  • LR - Law Review (a law school's flagship journal)/member of Law Review board
  • LRAP - Law school-operated educational loan repayment assistance program; can be combined with one or more federal government-operated loan forgiveness/repayment assistance programs, such as REPAYE or PSLF
  • LRW/LW - Legal research & writing (a required 1L class at almost all law schools)
  • MC - Moot court (a required 1L activity at almost all law schools; sometimes included as part of a LW course)
  • MELSA - Middle Eastern Law Student Association
  • Mich/UM - Michigan Law
  • MVP - Michigan Law, Virginia Law, Penn Law (referred to as a group)
  • MVPB - Michigan Law, Virginia Law, Penn Law, Berkeley Law (referred to as a group)
  • NALSA - Native American Law Student Association
  • NLG - National Lawyers' Guild - a liberal advocacy group
  • NW - Northwestern Law
  • NYLS - New York Law School (distinct from NYU Law)
  • Outline - Concise summary of the rules and cases taught in a black-letter law course, for use as a study aid and during open-book final exams
  • PR - Professional responsibility (a required class at all law schools)
  • PS - Personal statement
  • PSLF - Federal government-operated educational loan forgiveness program (only for qualifying public interest jobs)
  • PSU - Penn State Law
  • RA - Research assistant
  • RD - Regular decision - the regular/default way of applying to law schools (as opposed to EA/ED)
  • REPAYE/PAYE - Federal government-operated educational loan repayment assistance program
  • SALSA - South Asian Law Student Association
  • SHU - Seton Hall Law
  • SJU - St. John's Law
  • SMU - Southern Methodist Law
  • Softs - All parts of a law school application aside from an applicant's UGPA & LSAT score; includes LORs, PS, DS (if applicable), extracurricular activities, WE (if any), etc.
  • SLS - Stanford Law
  • T1 - Tier 1 schools according to USNWR (1-50)
  • T2 - Tier 2 (50-104)
  • T3 - Tier 3 (105-139) or (less commonly) HYS
  • T4 - Tier 4 (the rest)
  • T6/Upper T13 - Top 6 schools (1-6)
  • T13/T14 - Top 13/14 schools (1-13/14)
  • T20 - Top 20 schools (1-20)
  • T&E - Trusts & estates (a required class at many law schools)
  • TA - Teaching assistant
  • TAMU/A&M - Texas A&M Law
  • TTT/TTTT - Third-tier/fourth-tier toilet - a derogatory reference to T3/T4 schools
  • UCD - University of California, Davis Law
  • UCI - University of California, Irvine Law
  • UF - Florida Law - particularly renowned for its Tax LL.M. program, third only to NYU and Georgetown
  • UGA - Georgia Law
  • UGPA - Undergraduate GPA
  • UNC - University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Law
  • UNH - New Hampshire Law
  • URM boost - The increase in chances of admissions for a URM applicant vis-a-vis a non-URM applicant with the same UGPA & LSAT score
  • URM status - Whether an applicant is a URM for law school admissions purposes
  • USC - University of Southern California Law
  • USD - University of San Diego Law
  • USNWR - US News and World Report's law school rankings
  • UH - University of Houston Law
  • UT - Texas Law
  • UVA - Virginia Law
  • Vandy - Vanderbilt Law
  • W&L - Washington and Lee Law
  • W&M - William and Mary Law
  • WE - Work experience - generally excluding internships during college
  • WFU - Wake Forest Law
  • WL - Waitlist/Waitlisted
  • WUSTL - Washington University in St. Louis Law
  • YP - Yield protection - when a law school waitlists or rejects an "overly qualified" candidate (generally based on the candidate's UGPA and LSAT score) in order to protect its yield
  • YLS - Yale Law
With respect to large law firms and market-paying boutiques:
  • A&B - Alston & Bird
  • A&O - Allen & Overy
  • A&P/APKS - Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
  • AmLaw 100/200 - The largest 100/200 BigLaw firms by revenue, as ranked by American Lawyer
  • BB - Baker Botts
  • BL - BigLaw - generally denoting a firm that pays associates at the top of the market; the firm or office may or may not actually be "big" in raw head count, e.g., BigLaw generally includes well-paying boutiques which may have relatively few associates
  • BSF - Boies, Schiller & Flexner
  • CL - Cover letter
  • Cov/C&B - Covington & Burling
  • CSM - Cravath, Swaine & Moore
  • CWT - Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
  • Deb - Debevoise & Plimpton
  • DPW/DP - Davis Polk & Wardwell
  • F&R/FR - Fish & Richardson
  • GD/GDC - Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
  • GT - Greenberg Traurig
  • H&B/HB - Haynes & Boone
  • HH - Hughes Hubbard & Reed
  • H&K/HK - Holland & Knight
  • HL - hogan lovells
  • JD - Jones Day
  • K&E/KE - Kirkland & Ellis
  • K&S/KS - King & Spalding
  • KVN/KVP - Keker, Van Nest & Peters
  • L&W/LW - Latham & Watkins
  • ML/MLB - Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
  • MoFo - Morrison & Foerster
  • MTO - Munger, Tolles & Olson
  • NR/NRF - Norton Rose Fulbright
  • NYC market/Cravath scale - The lockstep associate salary scale established by CSM - often used to describe firms that pay associates using the same or a substantially similar salary scale ("market-paying" firms)
  • OCI - On-campus interviews, generally conducted at the end of 1L summer for 2L summer SA positions
  • OM/OMM - O'Melveny & Myers
  • PH - Paul Hastings
  • PW - Paul, Weiss
  • QE - Quinn Emanuel
  • S&C/SullCrom - Sullivan & Cromwell
  • S&G - Selendy & Gay
  • SA/Summer - Summer associate/summer associate position (generally at a BigLaw firm)
  • SEO - Pre-1L summer internship position (generally at a BigLaw firm; students of color only)
  • SRZ - Schulte Roth & Zabel
  • STB - Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
  • V&E - Vinson & Elkins
  • V10/V20/V50/V100 - The top n BigLaw firms, as ranked by Vault
  • W&C - Williams & Connolly or White & Case
  • WH - WilmerHale
  • WLRK - Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
  • WSGR - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Internet/TLS-specific abbreviations:
  • +1 - Endorsement of the quoted/replied-to post
  • 180 - A perfect post (a reference to the highest possible LSAT score)
  • AFAIK - As far as I know
  • ATL - Above The Law (legal news & gossip)
  • ETA - Edited to add
  • FFS - For f***'s sake
  • Flame - A fake profile, persona, or hypothetical situation designed to mislead, antagonize, or annoy
  • FTW - For the win
  • FWIW - For what it's worth
  • HTH - Hope this helps
  • HYP - Harvard College, Yale College, Princeton University (undergrad) (referred to as a group) - sometimes also used to refer more generically to the top U.S. colleges
  • IIRC - If I recall correctly
  • IME - In my experience
  • IMHO - In my humble/honest opinion
  • IMO - In my opinion
  • IRL - In real life
  • ITE - In this economy (generally used to refer to the legal job market post-2008 crash)
  • ITT - In this thread
  • JFC - Jesus F****ing Christ
  • LAC - Liberal arts college
  • LDR - Long-distance romantic relationship
  • LSN - Law School Numbers
  • LST - Law School Transparency (employment data & more)
  • LTR - Long-term romantic relationship
  • Midlaw - A firm that pays associates substantially less than BigLaw, but still >$100k; the firm or office may or may not actually be smaller in raw head count than BigLaw firms, and may or may not require associates to work less hard than their BigLaw counterparts
  • OP - Original poster in the thread
  • OTOH - On the other hand
  • PM - Private message
  • QFT - Quoted for truth
  • QOL - Quality of life - generally used to describe how much free time one will have with a particular job; BigLaw is notorious for requiring long and unpredictable hours
  • rn - Right now
  • ROI - Return on investment - generally used to describe how much someone can expect to benefit (or lose) economically from attending law school
  • Scooped - Another poster beat you to what you were going to say
  • S**tlaw - A derogatory reference to small law firms, particularly those that pay <$50k
  • Small law - A firm that pays associates substantially less than midlaw; the firm or office is usually, though not necessarily, smaller in raw head count than midlaw or BigLaw firms, and may or may not require associates to work less hard than their midlaw or BigLaw counterparts
  • SMH - Shaking my head
  • SO - Significant other
  • Tax bomb - The (generally huge) tax liability incurred by lawyers who have their educational loans forgiven under a federal government-operated educational loan repayment assistance program, such as PAYE or REPAYE; the main benefit of PSLF (for lawyers who qualify) is that loans forgiven under PSLF do not result in a tax liability
  • TBF - To be fair
  • TBH - To be honest
  • Ties - A personal connection to a particular city/state (e.g., you or your SO previously lived there or have relatives there) - ties can be "strong" (e.g., you're a born-and-raised Houston native looking for a job in Houston) or "weak" (e.g., you've never lived in LA, but you have an uncle there)
  • Ties-sensitive - A legal market that tends to be wary of hiring applicants without local ties
  • TITCR/TCR - This is the credited/correct response
  • tl;dr - Too long; didn't read
  • Troll - Someone whose sole intent is to irritate/annoy
  • UCB - University of California, Berkeley (undergrad)
  • UG - Undergrad
  • UMC - Upper middle class
  • Unicorn - A prestigious, highly sought-after, but extremely rare/hard to obtain legal position - often used to describe U.S. Supreme Court clerkships, law school professorships, appellate litigation positions at BigLaw firms, impact litigation positions at national public interest organizations (e.g., ACLU), or positions in international law (e.g., legal positions at the U.S. Department of State or the U.N.) - sometimes also used to describe high-paying legal positions with good QoL
  • wrt - With respect to
General legal abbreviations:
  • A3/AIII - Article III federal court (generally used to describe a D.Ct. clerkship)
  • AUSA - Assistant U.S. Attorney
  • BK - Bankruptcy
  • BL/BLL - Black-letter law/black-letter law course - (a course focusing on teaching) the main rules underlying a particular area of law, e.g., the "black-letter law" of contracts; black-letter law courses are distinguished from other classes (often seminars) that focus more on legal theory or skills instead of teaching students a particular body of law
  • C&F - Character & fitness (law school or bar admissions purposes)
  • CoA - U.S. Court of Appeals
  • D.Ct. - U.S. District Court
  • DoJ - U.S. Department of Justice
  • E&E - Examples & Explanations - a series of primers covering various legal subjects (also used as a generic term encompassing similar primers and other ancillary law school study materials)
  • FC - Federal court clerkship
  • Fed - Federal government legal position or Federal Reserve
  • IP - Intellectual property
  • L&E - Labor & employment
  • Lit - Litigation
  • MJ - U.S. magistrate judge
  • OSG/SG - U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General
  • Patent pros - Patent prosecution (the legal work of applying for a patent)
  • PD - Public defender
  • PI - Public interest
  • PTO/USPTO - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  • SLIP - U.S. Department of Justice's Summer Law Intern Program
  • SC/USSC/SCOTUS - U.S. Supreme Court
  • Solo - A solo practitioner (a lawyer hanging their own shingle)
  • SSC - State Supreme Court (the highest court of a state, which may not necessarily be called a "Supreme Court" - see, e.g., NY Court of Appeals)

I figured I'd create a list so newcomers know what we're talking about and a whole thread isn't created for each abbreviation question someone has.

Last updated by QContinuum 11/22/18

Important Note: The above is only a list of commonly-used abbreviations and jargon on TLS. It is not, and is not intended to be, a comprehensive or "best of" list of the items in each category.
For example, the law school list doesn't include Cornell, because there's no commonly used abbreviation for Cornell Law. The list doesn't include Jewish, IP, Palestinian, sports, or women's groups, because the names and abbreviations of such groups varies between different law schools. Likewise, the law firm list doesn't include firms like Skadden, Weil, Sidley, Cleary, or Ropes & Gray that aren't associated with commonly used acronyms.

If you have any suggestions for additional acronyms/jargon to add to the guide, or any questions about anything currently in the guide, please post at http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 2&t=298560

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