LSAC Letter Upload: A Recommender's Guide

LSAC Letter Upload: A Recommender's Guide

You write one letter and send it to LSAC, not to each law school. Create an Applicant References account from the request email, upload a saved file (LSAC does not accept pasted text), and wait for the confirmation email and the status "Submitted". LSAC then copies your letter into every report the applicant assigns it to.

This page is for the professor, manager or supervisor who just got that email. The format questions about letterhead, signatures and sealed envelopes come from the paper route. The electronic route has fewer rules, and a mistake after you submit can be fixed with an Edit feature. If you want feedback on the draft first, there is a free review of the letter at the end of this page.

Every LSAC and law school page quoted below was checked on November 3, 2026. The applicant's side of the system (descriptions, assignments, how long letters last) is covered in our LSAC letter of recommendation guide for applicants. This page covers only what you, the writer, do.

How the upload works, step by step

LSAC's Applicant References FAQ sets out the recommender's side:

1. Open the request email. The applicant asks for the letter in JD Services. LSAC then emails you. LSAC's applicant page says the email asks the recommender to "complete and upload a letter for you" (LSAC, Letters of Recommendation).
2. Create an account. "LSAC does not create an account for you." Follow the link in the email and select Create an Account. If you already have an account from an earlier student, log in and use "Add New LOR Reference" with the reference number from the new email.
3. Write the letter offline and save it. "Your LOR should be created using a word processing software package on your computer. After you save the document, you will be able to upload it into the Applicant References website."
4. Upload, do not paste. The FAQ asks "Can I copy and paste my Letter of Recommendation instead of uploading?" and answers "No".
5. Verify your details. The LOR Form "will be appended to the letter automatically after you verify your account information".
6. Check the receipt. "You will receive an email from LSAC confirming the receipt of your letter, and the status of the letter on the Home page of the Applicant References website will indicate 'Submitted.'"

Lost the email with the reference number? LSAC's answer is to contact the applicant and ask them to resend it from their LSAC account.

What the LSAC form asks your letter to cover

The LOR Form is the cover sheet LSAC attaches to every letter. It asks for your "candid appraisal of the applicant's ability, academic and otherwise, to study law", and its recommender block (LSAC sample LOR Form, PDF) continues:

"You may wish to include how well you know the candidate and in what capacity, your assessment of the relative strength of the candidate within the reference group in which she or he is being compared, and how the candidate will add to the diversity of the law school."

That gives you a checklist of three items the form invites, all after "You may wish to include":

• How you know the applicant, and in what capacity. Course, term, class size, or the job and how long you supervised them.
• Where they stand in a named group. "Relative strength … within the reference group" means you say which group. "Top student" with no group is the kind of general praise LSAC warns about. LSAC's applicant page says "Letters that compare you to your academic peers are often the most useful" and "Most schools do not consider general, unreservedly praiseworthy letters helpful."
• What they would add to the school. Only what you saw yourself.

How to build the whole letter around those sentences, with a labeled sample, is in our law school recommendation letter professor sample. For length, see how long a letter of recommendation should be.

Electronic or paper: the rules that differ

Sources: LSAC LOR Form, Applicant References Learn More, JD Services FAQ, LSAC letters page. Fax is out: "No. LSAC no longer accepts letters of recommendation via fax." Sending the letter straight to a school is possible only where the school allows it: LSAC says "unless a law school states that you must use this service, you may choose not to use it," and Duke, for one, says its letters "must be submitted through the LSAC Letter of Recommendation Service".

Our view: for an uploaded letter, letterhead and signature are not the hard rules. The one hard rule LSAC states for uploads is a saved file, not pasted text. We still recommend a PDF on letterhead with your signature (scanned or typed), because LSAC's own FAQ defines a letter as "a signed letter" and it costs you nothing. What LSAC does with an unsigned uploaded letter is not stated on any page we checked.

The countercase: if you mail the letter, or a campus credential office sends it for you, the paper rules are the real rules. A missing form or signature gets the letter sent back to you, and processing adds two weeks.

Why LSAC asks for your email

The form says: "LSAC will only use your e-mail address to acknowledge receipt of your letter. This form is included in the law school report." So the schools see the form too. Enter the title and institution you want them to read beside your name, and state your role again in the letter's first paragraph.

One general letter, or one for a named school

LSAC's recommender FAQ: "You may be asked to complete one letter to be used by several law schools, or you may be asked to complete a letter for a specific law school. If you receive a request for more than one letter, you may wish to verify that the applicant actually needs more than one."

The applicant writes a letter description on the form, such as "General Use" or the name of one school (LSAC letters page). Read it before you write.

• General letter: it goes to every school the applicant assigns it to. Address it "Dear Admissions Committee" and name no school. That is our recommendation, not an LSAC rule; a school name in a general letter is wrong for every other school that receives it.
• School-specific letter: name the school only when the description names it.
• Two requests from one student: ask what the second letter is for before writing it.

When it is due, and what happens if you are late

LSAC gives recommenders no fixed date: "Please complete the letter of recommendation as soon as possible, as the fulfillment of this request may be required in order to release the applicant's law school report."

Schools can make the letter the bottleneck. Duke's page for the 2027 entering class lists "Two required recommendation letters (LSAC will not release the CAS report until a minimum of two letters are included)", and its Round I Early Decision complete deadline is November 6, 2026 (Duke Law, JD application). Ask the applicant for their earliest deadline, not their last one. If you mail the letter, add LSAC's two weeks.

Fixing or replacing a letter after you submit

From the Applicant References FAQ: for "a minor error, like using 'he' instead of 'she' or 'they'" or a missing point, "use the Edit feature within the Electronic Letter of Recommendation (LOR) section to replace the existing letter with the corrected version of the letter. If reports have already been sent to the law schools, an update will be sent if the reporting period is still current." The same Edit feature applies to new information that would better support the applicant.

The applicant cannot fix your letter. LSAC's applicant page says letters "will be neither returned to nor copied for you, the candidate." Only you can replace it.

Pre-law committee letters and campus credential files

• LSAC "accepts copies of letters from undergraduate school credential services or career planning offices," but "There must be one LSAC LOR Form for each letter your campus service will be sending to LSAC."
• The applicant enters you, the individual writer, in JD Services, not the office. If your letter sits in a credential office file and you have since left the institution, LSAC still wants your name on the form, with the office's contact details.
• If an old advising sheet asks you to fill in an LSAC evaluation grid: "The Evaluation Service was discontinued on August 7, 2016. Evaluators will no longer be able to fill out evaluations."

If you would rather not write it

"LSAC does not contact the applicant if you choose not to respond to an applicant's letter of recommendation request." Ignoring the email leaves the student waiting on a report that may not release. Tell them directly and early; LSAC's FAQ says to "contact the applicant immediately". Wording for that email is in how to decline writing a recommendation letter. If you taught the student as a TA or graduate instructor and are unsure you count, see whether a TA can write a law school reference.

Recommender checklist before you click Submit

1. The request email is from LSAC and names the applicant you expect.
2. You read the letter description: general, or one named school.
3. A general letter says "Dear Admissions Committee" and names no school.
4. The first paragraph says how you know the applicant, in what role and for how long.
5. Any comparison names its group (which course, which years, how many students or staff).
6. The file is saved and uploaded, not pasted. A PDF on letterhead with your signature is our recommendation.
7. Nothing else is attached: no résumé, no transcript.
8. Your title and institution on the form match the letter.
9. You received LSAC's confirmation email, and the status reads "Submitted".
10. You told the applicant it is in. LSAC emails you the receipt; the applicant tracks status in JD Services. For an applicant whose GPA and LSAT split, see what a recommender can evidence for a splitter.

Get a free review of the letter

Get a free Quick Review of your recommendation letter while it is still a saved file on your computer. It uses GradPilot's general graduate school recommendation letter rubric (there is no law-specific letter rubric) and reads how you know the candidate, incidents instead of adjectives, comparisons that name their group, and the strength of your endorsement. GradPilot's letter reviews aren't for a letter a student drafted for a recommender to submit as their own.

More law school application guides are in the law school essays hub, and the recommendation letter review page explains how letter reviews work.

Sources

Retrieved November 3, 2026, except where noted.

• LSAC, Applicant References FAQs (undated recommender FAQ): account creation, upload rule, no copy and paste, LOR Form appended, confirmation email, Edit feature, timing, declining, Evaluation Service ended August 7, 2016.
• LSAC, Applicant References: Learn More (undated): candid appraisal wording, paper signature rule, LOR Form required for every letter.
• LSAC, Letter of Recommendation Form, sample PDF (undated sample): recommender block, paper mailing rules, no supporting materials, email use.
• LSAC, JD Services FAQs (undated): "a signed letter", no fax, one general letter.
• LSAC, Letters of Recommendation (undated): submit once, letter descriptions, paper processing time, campus credential services, letters not copied for the applicant.
• Duke Law, JD application (2027 entering class): two required letters, CAS release rule, November 6, 2026 Round I Early Decision deadline.