Massachusetts School of Law
Address:

Massachusetts School of Law
500 Federal Street
Andover, MA
01810

978.681.0800 phone

http://www.mslaw.edu


Best Known For:

  • Affordable Tuition
  • No LSAT
  • Successful Mock Trial Teams

Chief Competitors:
  • Suffolk University Law
  • New England School of Law
  • City University of New York

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The Massachusetts School of Law at Andover

The Massachusetts School of Law is a law school based
in Andover, Massachusetts.   It was founded as a law
school in 1988, and currently has 635 students on its
rolls.   One immediate distinguishing feature of this law
school as opposed to others in the United States is that
it doesn’t require an LSAT grade from you before it
considers your application.   But before all those would
be legal eagles start sharpening their pencils to write a
neat letter, thinking it’s an easier way in to the study of
the law, it is worth bearing in mind that the
Massachusetts School of Law is no pushover.

While they don’t demand the LSAT, they have their own
test, called the MSLAT, which is by no means any easier
than the more widely recognised LSAT examination.  In
fact, if anything, it is viewed as being more rigorous.   In
addition, to get into the Massachusetts School of Law,
you will find yourself facing an application interview, and
will have to produce letters of recommendation.   Rest
assured, these will be heartily scrutinized.

Now, if this sounds a bit like overkill because it appears
just too stringent and rigorous a process, the school’s
ethos offers valid reasons for it.  The school prides itself
in being one of the most affordable law schools in New
England.  In addition, it looks at the whole student
before offering a seat in an incoming class.  It is almost
as if scores mean nothing, or at least less than the
student’s determination to study law.   So their mission
statement refers freely to their student body, mentioning
that it serves students from working class backgrounds,
people who want to make a change in mid-career, and
immigrants.

But the Massachusetts School of Law is not famous for
its affordable law school tuition quality or its noble ethos
as regards to its incoming student body.   The school is
instead famous for taking on the mighty American Bar
association (ABA) over issues that are relevant to all law
schools in the United States.

When the Massachusetts School of Law was allowed to
award the Juris Doctor degree in 1990, at the same time
it actually filed a lawsuit against the ABA and their
draconian accreditation standards, arguing that they
were rife with antitrust violations, and actually
compromised the quality and accessibility of legal
education.

All this legal ruffling of the feathers is due to the
Massachusetts School of Law having some of the lowest
fees in the country, in an attempt to accommodate low-
income students.   However, whatever the merits of their
legal salvoes, a high proportion of the Massachusetts
School of Law’s graduates go on to public service,
which, of course, can only be a good thing for the
country.  The school has also made quite the name for
themselves with their educational television programs
and successful mock trial program.

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