This isn't a full post-mortem on the 2020-2021 application cycle, because it's not over yet. But we're at the point when we can start to get a feeling for what happened this year.
Now that the 2020-2021 LSAT (note: not admissions) cycle has finished, it's worth looking at some various metrics.
Today is coincidentally the last day before January LSAT data comes out, and the day we can see cycle volume through February 1st. We're well into the application cycle now, so let's take a brief look at how things stand.
Well, it's finally 2021, so we'll take a quick look at how applicant volume shaped up in the 2020 part of the 2020-2021 application cycle.
The ABA released the 509 required disclosures for all ABA-approved law schools today, which include a wealth of information about entering class credentials, class sizes, etc.
Three weeks ago we wrote a blog taking a look at how cycle volume was shaping up and might look for the rest of the year. This is our follow up three weeks later — and it's been an important three weeks.
We wanted to give some data-centric historical context for this application cycle and its relative competitiveness.
We’re a couple months into the 2020-2021 application cycle, and so far our increase in applicants hasn’t slowed down. If anything, it’s sped up.
Now that October 2020 LSAT registration has closed, a very brief update on how volume compares to the last couple of years.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Spivey consultants Derek Meeker and Paula Gluzman catch up with two former applicants and aspiring environmental attorneys, Shasta Fields and Cameron Moody, with whom they worked years ago and who are both now law school graduates. They discuss their experiences in law school, reflections on their application processes now that they've graduated, and their advice for current and future applicants. Plus, where did their goals of working in environmental law take them?
Cameron is a recent graduate of UVA School of Law, where they participated in the Holistic Youth Defense Clinic, the Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic, the Virginia Environmental Law Journal, and the Public Interest Law Association, and they were awarded the Clinical Legal Education Association’s Outstanding Student Award for 2024-25. Shasta is a graduate of UCLA School of Law, where she served as President of the Environmental Law Society and was a member of the Order of the Coif, Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, Trial Advocacy Team, and Native American Law Student Association. Listen to the episode to learn about the work they're doing now!
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike sits down with the original LSAT cheating scandal whistleblower, who we call “Travis” in this podcast, and Dave Killoran, Founder and CEO of PowerScore. They discuss Travis' investigation process, how he tried to sound the alarm, LSAC's response, why he came to Mike and Dave, and an analysis of what happened and what's next for the future of the test.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike Spivey hosts Trey Cox, co-chair of Gibson Dunn's global litigation practice group, on his legal career (4:18, 31:27), law school selection (9:20), hiring philosophies (16:42), and advice for aspiring law students and lawyers.
Trey and Mike both recommend the book Brain Rules by John Medina, which you can learn more about here.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.
The landscape of legal recruiting in law school has changed significantly over the past 5-7 years. What should prospective law students know about what's changed so rapidly, and how has it impacted how admissions officers make their decisions? What caused these changes (11:04), how do they impact 1Ls (16:15), and what are admissions officers increasingly valuing in the application review process in response to these changing trends and practices (25:07)? How can incoming students best prepare themselves for this new world of recruiting (39:54)?
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco sits down with Rob Cacace, long-time Georgetown Law career services professional and Spivey Consulting Pre-L Program Director, and Kristen Mercado, former UC Davis Law admissions dean and one of Spivey's newest consultants, to discuss these questions and more.
Here are two short documents from the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) that provide additional context for this discussion:
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Anna Hicks-Jaco interviews Natalie Blazer, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Chief Admissions Officer at the University of Virginia School of Law, on the upcoming 2025-2026 admissions cycle, how applicants should be thinking about and taking into account relevant current events, and advice for prospective law students preparing to submit their applications. They discuss predictions for the 2025-26 cycle (1:56), rising LSAT and GPA medians (20:22, 27:45), changes they've made to their application this year (12:30), the new student loan cap (30:26), how admissions offices are considering applicants writing about politics and protest in the current political climate (4:18), how they evaluate applicants who have been unable to get a job after graduating from college (7:36), whether writing about AI is overdone (36:34), advice for the “Why UVA” essay (13:05), and much more. As a brief disclaimer, Dean Blazer speaks for herself and often for UVA Law in this episode; her opinions do not reflect those of all admissions officers.
In addition to her work at UVA Law, Natalie has served as Director of J.D. Admissions at Georgetown University Law Center and was Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia Law School. She hosts the UVA Law podcast Admissible, which "offers insights into the world of law school admissions and a behind-the-scenes look at life as a law student through interviews with students, faculty, alumni and staff."
We've interviewed Natalie twice for Status Check before, and though we weren't able to get to all of the questions that Redditors requested we ask, we answered many of them in these past episodes:
Please note: At the time that we recorded this episode, we noted that August 2025 LSAT registrants were up 27% relative to August 2024 registrants but that that number would come down over the days of the test administration. Ultimately, August LSAT registrants landed at a 23.7% increase vs. last year.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. You can read a full transcript of this episode with timestamps below.
In this episode of Status Check with Spivey, Mike interviews Kate Reder Sheikh, a Partner at Major, Lindsey & Africa, one of the top recruiting firms for legal hiring in the nation. Mike and Kate discuss the legal hiring market, how legal hiring may be impacted by the state of the economy in the coming months and years, what you can do to best position yourself for the employment opportunities you aspire to, and more advice and tips for law students and graduates.
Before becoming a recruiter, Kate was a litigator in San Francisco for almost a decade. She is regularly the highest performing associate recruiter at Major, Lindsey & Africa globally, and she was named a partner after 4 years with MLA, among the fastest in company history.
You can listen and subscribe to Status Check with Spivey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, YouTube, and Google Podcasts.
