The LSAC letter of recommendation form is a cover sheet you generate inside your JD Services account that ties each recommender’s letter to your Credential Assembly Service file. Once you create the request, LSAC either emails your recommender a secure upload link or you print the form and hand it to them to mail with their signed letter. Either way, the form is what lets LSAC’s processing center match the letter to your account.
Set Up the Recommender in JD Services
All letter management happens on the Letters of Recommendation page inside JD Services. To create a request, enter the recommender’s full name, professional email address, job title, and organization. Spelling matters here, because these details populate the header of the official form that travels with the letter to law schools.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
Then indicate how many letters that recommender will submit and write a short description of each one. The description is for your own tracking — it helps you pair the right letter with the right school later. LSAC suggests three categories:
- General use, meaning a letter not tailored to any particular school, assignable to any or all of your targets.
- School-specific, meaning a letter written for one institution, such as a professor who attended that school.
- Program- or specialty-specific, meaning a letter tied to an area of law like environmental law, assignable only to schools offering that specialty.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
Make the FERPA Waiver Choice
Each form asks whether you waive your right, under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, to view the letter. The choice is permanent for that form once the request goes out to the recommender.
Waiving means you will never see the letter. Federal law makes the waiver voluntary; schools cannot require it as a condition of admission or financial aid.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1232g – Family Educational and Privacy Rights If you keep the right, you could theoretically ask to see the letter after enrolling at the school that received it.
Most applicants waive. Admissions readers know a waived letter is more likely to be candid, because the writer had no reason to soften criticism. If you trust the recommender enough to ask them for a letter, waiving is almost always the right call.
Electronic Submission
Once you finalize the request, LSAC emails your recommender a secure link. They click through, upload the letter, and they’re done. Electronic submissions are processed faster than paper, so this is the path to prefer when the recommender is comfortable with it.
Paper Submission
If your recommender wants to mail a physical letter, print the LOR form from JD Services and give it to them. Two things must happen or the letter gets sent back to the recommender rather than processed: the printed form has to be included in the envelope, and the recommender has to sign the letter.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
The printed form carries a unique identifier — a barcode or QR code — that lets LSAC’s processing center match the paper letter to your electronic file. Without it, there is no way to connect the letter to your account. The mailing address for LSAC’s processing center is printed on the form itself.
Assign Each Letter to Each School
This is the step that trips people up: LSAC does not automatically distribute your letters. You must manually assign each letter to each law school on your list, or it will not be sent.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
On the Letters of Recommendation page, click the “LOR Requirements” link beneath each school’s name to see how many letters that program wants and any specific rules it has. Most schools ask for two, though some accept up to four. If a school requires two and you have four on file, choose the two that best fit that program. You can reassign letters through the same portal if you change your mind early enough in the cycle.
Track Status and Time Your Deadlines
Each letter’s status shows on the Letters of Recommendation page. Electronic letters update faster; for paper, allow about two weeks from the day LSAC receives the envelope for processing to finish.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
When a letter’s status flips to “Received,” it becomes available for inclusion in your CAS Reports, which bundle your academic summary, transcripts, LSAT scores, and assigned letters into one file for each school.3Law School Admission Council. Credential Assembly Service Reports Because of the two-week paper window, a recommender mailing a letter should send it well before any application deadline. A cushion of three to four weeks is sensible; postal delays and holiday closures can stretch that further.
Reusing an Older Letter
Letters on file with LSAC stay active for the life of your file and are never returned or copied back to you. If you reapply in a later cycle, you can reuse a letter already on file, but LSAC recommends contacting the recommender first as a courtesy. A recommender who learns their letter was reused without permission can rescind it.1Law School Admission Council. Letters of Recommendation
Letters Written in Another Language
If a recommender writes in a language other than English, you are responsible for providing a translation; LSAC does not translate documents. Translations should be literal and line-by-line, matching the format of the original as closely as possible. Some schools also require the translation to be certified, so check each school’s requirements before submitting.4Law School Admission Council. Help for LLM and Other Law Program Applicants