Law schools

United States

In the United States, law school is a postgraduate program lasting three years and resulting in the conferral upon graduates of the Juris Doctor (J.D.). Some schools in Louisiana concurrently award a Graduate Diploma in Civil Law (D.C.L.). To gain admission to a law school that is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), applicants must usually take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), and have an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree in any major. Currently, there are 203 ABA-approved law schools that grant the J.D. degree. There currently are eight law schools that are unaccredited by any state bar or the ABA but registered by the State Bar of California, 21 law schools approved solely by the State Bar of California, 2 law schools accredited solely by statute in Alabama and 1 law school accredited solely by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. Non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than ABA-approved law schools, and do not submit or disclose employment outcome data to the ABA. However, as of 2020, 10 ABA-accredited law schools were out of compliance with its bar passage standard.