First of all, a great resource is the Law School Predictor:
http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com/wp-co ... atcher.htm
Put in your stats and you'll get a good understanding of where you stand. There are many schools in the T-50 where you are competitive.
I'm a splitter too (not as bad as you, though), and it's always a crap-shoot for us. In general, though, most schools in the top 30 take a somewhat holistic approach, and if you have a good upward trend and ROCK the rest of your application (I mean every piece: perfect PS, good resume, no typos, killer recs) you can really diminish the impact of one component. That being said, for T-14 a 2.5 GPA is really bad and probably not going to happen (all else being equal).
Law schools want to know that you can do well in (law) school, that's why there care about GPA. Is there anything in your transcript, apart from overall GPA, that would indicate you're a strong student? (For example, is it low because your first few years you took a lot of science and then got straight A's in later years doing research and writing heavy stuff? Was it low in a few years because you were in the hospital every week with bubonic syphilis and killer in other years?) You mention an upward trend, to a 3.5, that's a good start and can help if you pitch it well. If so, write an addendum and it could help, but if your 2.5 is pretty evenly spread out, I'd rely on the predictor above. (NOTE: do NOT say something like "I screwed up my required classes but did great in my electives; law school has required classes too and they have no sympathy for "torts didn't speak to me"
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One more thing. I would think long and hard before retaking the LSAT for a 2 point gain. I would STRONGLY advise against retaking the LSAT unless you are very confident that your score will improve significantly (by significantly I mean, say, 178 or higher). I say this for four reasons:
1. A drop in LSAT score is a HUGE red flag, especially since LSAT is the best thing you have going, why jeopardize it?
2. Even LSAC will admit that about 3 points of your score depends on luck. If you've been consistently hitting PTs at 175 (for example) you can expect your actual LSAT score to be anywhere from 172-178 depending on how the test clicks with you. So even if you're hitting your PTs at 175 by December, you can still hit a hard game or a bullsh*t reading section and lose points.
3. Fairly or unfairly, AdComs expect your score to bump a few points just from retaking the test (you're used to the stress, the real situation, etc), so while you have much to lose from a small drop you have little to gain from a small increase.
4. In your case there isn't much advantage to raising your score. Look at the LSAT numbers for the schools you are interested in. Anyone above their 75th percentile will hep their rankings and be attractive. Beyond that there are diminishing returns. For example, UMN (#19 and a "reach" for your stats on the predictor) has a 75th of 165. Your LSAT is already sexy to them because you would boost their stats, but they aren't going to care much about 173 vs. 179.
Good luck!
