LoR for people out of school for a few years Forum

[postn0bills]

While I understand most law schools require two letters of recommendation and favor those coming from professors, would it be terrible to provide one from a professor and one from a recent employer? I ask because I have been out of my undergraduate since 2007, and been working at a law firm for the past two years. I reached out to a professor who knows me very well and has agreed to write a good LoR in addition to my current employer, but I am having trouble coming up with a third LoR from a professor who knows me as well as the others. I would really appreciate any thoughts and suggestions. This is getting pretty stressful since time is running out. Thank you.

[sarahh]

Most schools are okay with it if you have been out of school for a few years.

[nosaj123]

Based on my limited experience, lacking an academic LOR will not significantly hurt you. I also graduated in 2007, and without any academic LORs I am 2 for 2 so far this cycle, and for one of those schools, a T20, I was at the LSAT 75th and just above the gpa 25th. [although I have suspicions that Michigan rejected me today:-( ]

Of course, maybe academic LORS matter to most schools, and I've only heard back from the few schools that don't care. Maybe I will eventually get rejected from schools that would have accepted me if I applied with 2 academic LORs. Or, maybe these two acceptances w/o an academic LOR are not the norm. Just take my experience to-date as one data point, and hopefully other people with similar experiences from previous cycles can provide you with a fuller picture.

My (somewhat speculative) guess is that it's more important to get a great rec than an academic one.

[ahduth]

I went with 1 and 1, I've been out longer than you though. My impression is if you have 2 in hand already, you're good to go, but you might want to get a third lined up - if it turns out to be a great rec or you turn out to be wait listed, it could be handy.

[whymeohgodno]

I think the standard is to have at least 1 academic LOR if you've been out of school for 1-2 years, and it's up to you after 3 years.