Law School Personal Statement Review

Barb

With over 12 years experience of law school advising, Barb has assisted individuals from around the world with their applications to law school in both the United States and Canada. She has had clients accepted to all of the top ten law schools but is just as proud to say that she has helped hundreds of clients figure out the best law school for them. Barb was the Assistant Director for Pre-Law and Graduate School Advising at Brandeis University for four years where in addition to advising, she created and presented to hundreds of students on the application process and organized a law school and graduate school fair. She was trained and certified by NAPLA (The Northeast Association of Pre-Law Advisors). Prior to that, Barb worked in residence life at both Boston College and Florida State University. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Michigan State University - master's degree is in Higher Education Administration and bachelor's in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy with a minor in Psychology. When not working with future law students, Barb enjoys spending time with her family at the beach.

Brenda

Brenda has been with Kaplan's Law School Admissions Consulting Program since its inception and has helped clients gain acceptance to nearly every law school in the United States and Canada. She obtained her J.D. from NYU and practiced public interest law in New York City for ten years. She then moved to Madison, Wisconsin where she founded a writing and editing business, The Essay Expert LLC. Brenda worked as a J.D. Career Advisor at the University of Wisconsin Law School for one year before devoting herself fully to The Essay Expert and Kaplan.

Brenda's training in life coaching often leads her to come up with questions and ideas that give her students a new perspective on their lives—both where they're coming from and where they're going. If you work with Brenda, be prepared to see a strength or a theme in your life that you did not know was there. Also be prepared for a comment on your letter of acceptance mentioning something in your essay or resume that impressed the admissions committee.

Helaine, 2008 Law Consultant of the Year

Helaine is currently employed as the Deputy General Counsel for the New York City Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH). OATH oversees four New York City Administrative Tribunals--the OATH Tribunal, the Environmental Control Board (ECB), the Health Tribunal and the Taxi and Limousine Tribunal. Much of Helaine's time is spent training Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers. She also acts as Legal Director to the ECB, a thirteen member body that employs hearing officers who hear and decide approximately 250,000 notices of violation per year. Prior to becoming Deputy General Counsel, Helaine was employed as a managing attorney and as a hearing officer for ECB's Brooklyn office where she supervised and reviewed the decisions of a staff of forty attorneys. She also heard and decided cases that had a substantial impact on the quality of life in New York.

While it is true that the contribution Helaine makes to the people of New York City is valuable, the work that she does for Kaplan is far more rewarding on a personal level. Helaine's experience includes many years of Admissions Consulting, LSAT teaching, essay review and Kaplan teacher training. Assisting people who are completely enthusiastic about learning law provides a refreshing and infectious perspective and allows her to continually renew her commitment to the discipline.

In addition to teaching for New York City and Kaplan, Helaine has held adjunct faculty positions at New York Law School and the City University of New York.

Jesse, 2007 National Consultant of the Year

Jesse R. Borges is Senior Graduate Admissions Consultant and Trainer with Kaplan. He begins his twenty-second year in the field of educational / professional advancement and 16th with Kaplan having personally advised more than 1,500 applicants of widely varying racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, from every geographic region of the U.S. and the world. In the process, he's helped applicants secure admission to nearly every ABA-approved school in North America, including the top ten law schools, as well as most schools in Canada. Jesse not only has extensive experience with JD, Transfer and LLM applicants, but also joint degree applicants. Indeed, his primary field of expertise covers not just admission to law school, but also business school, public policy, international affairs, health, social science, health and humanities programs, as well as a range of additional professional schools.

Given his breadth and depth of experience, Jesse has often been called upon to handle Kaplan's most challenging and high profile admissions consulting cases; he was named Graduate Admissions Consultant of the Year, and was the first Kaplan employee (and one of only two) ever to win the company's National Consultant of the Year Award. On the administrative side, as Senior Admissions Consultant and Trainer for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions since shortly after the program was created in 1997, Jesse has screened and trained nearly every consultant in Kaplan's Graduate Admissions Consulting Program, facilitated most of the team's professional development sessions, and conducted more than 100 seminars on JD, MBA, and Graduate School Admissions.

Jesse is also a National Science Foundation Fellowship winner who has a Masters degree and Ph.D. from Princeton University. As a graduate school applicant, he was himself accepted with full university fellowship offers to every leading graduate program to which he applied, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT, and the University of Michigan. He also has a decade of teaching experience, having served as a faculty member at institutions such as Haverford College and Barnard College of Columbia University, and he has presented his research at a variety of universities, including Yale, Wesleyan, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard.

Kathy

Kathy has worked with university and post-university students for over 35 years at Stanford University where she serves as Associate Director of Undergraduate Advising and research. She enjoys working as the primary pre law advisor at Stanford University, and has served in that capacity for the past 25 years. Kathy has also served as the past president of the Pacific Coast Association of Pre Law Advisors (PCAPLA); and as a past member of the Pre Law Advisors National Council (PLANC); and as member of the PLANC National Conference planning committee.

Law applicant advising has been one of the most enjoyable aspects of her work. Kathy has coached over 1500 candidates for law school, read thousands of draft essays, and gained expertise that she uses to help applicants effectively communicate with admissions committees. She has visited many law schools to gain first hand knowledge of specific programs, and to strengthen networking opportunities with school admissions staff. Kathy is eager to share her knowledge and skills in helping prospective law students across the country.

Michelle, 2006 and 2008 Consultant of the Year

Michelle is a law school graduate having earned BSL and JD degrees from Glendale University College of Law. She worked in personal injury plaintiff/defense firms in LA and Beverly Hills before moving to Hawaii where she is a published writer and former successful real estate agent. She is especially helpful with the essay, Resume, diversity statement portions of the application. Her calm and nurturing manner make the application process easier. She is currently enhancing her admissions consulting skills through training to become a motivational coach. She specializes in working with clients who come from unique backgrounds and circumstances, and many of those she works with receive multiple acceptances, including to their dream schools.

Recent successes include: Acceptances to USC, UCLA, Columbia, Duke, NYU, Emory, with clients receiving full tuition, merit scholarships and stipends.

Tani

Applying to law school can be exciting, frustrating and more than a little scary. Am I applying to the right schools? Is my personal statement strong? Is my LSAT score high enough? As a Kaplan Admissions Consultant and teacher (I have taught LSAT, GMAT, GRE, ACT, SAT and more) over the last nine years, Tani has successfully guided hundreds of students through Kaplan's LSAT course, helping them build that all-important aspect of their quest for law school admissions. On the business school side, she has helped several hundred students gain admission to the top business schools in the world. She can help you answer the hundreds of questions you are dealing with during this stressful time.

Tani received her MBA from Harvard in Marketing and has held increasingly demanding positions in Product Management, Advertising and Consulting for over thirty years including 15 years in Fortune 500 food companies. In the end, the application process builds on three key marketing concepts—who is your target audience, what are their wants and needs and how do you position yourself to meet those needs. The intellectual process behind these questions is the same whether the product is dog food, emergency lighting, burritos, or you.

In tackling your application, Tani will first help you identify the programs you are applying to and understand what drives your selection. Then, she will help you discover what will make you appealing to the admissions committee. Tani's job is to broaden your thinking, to help you recognize the things that make you unique and interesting. It is important to remember that admissions committees see literally thousands of applications, most of which present perfectly acceptable LSAT scores and GPAs. Tani will help you find the factors that will make your application sparkle, that will make you stand out from the other qualified applicants.

Bill, Consultant of the Year Recipient

For the past 12 years, Bill has been one of Kaplan's most active and requested consultants and has helped hundreds of Kaplan clients successfully thread their way through the application maze. As Bill likes to say, the process is not so much difficult as it is detailed, so he makes sure all clients get those details right. He is particularly good at reducing the "challenging" (dreaded?) law school personal statement into entirely manageable bite-sized pieces. Bill says he enjoys working with every one of his clients including applicants targeting the ultra-competitive national schools to others looking at strong regional law schools.

While pre-law advisor at Princeton University, for more than 16 years, Bill advised and counseled hundreds of students and alumni in their applications to literally ALL of the most competitive law schools in the United States and Canada. At Princeton Bill developed and hosted numerous panels and workshops on legal careers, the law school application process, writing winning personal statements, graduate school decision-making and the job marketplace. In addition he has written nationally published articles on law schools and legal careers, careers for the liberal arts graduate, job-hunting and interview skill techniques, salary negotiation and aviation operations. Bill was personally invited to visit many law schools throughout the United States and work directly with their deans and senior admissions staff.

His prior 30 years of professional experience has included: Recruiting Manager for a large Wall Street bank; Associate Career Services Director at Columbia University Graduate School of Business; Deputy Commander, Admissions Liaison Office for the United States Air Force Academy (Lt.Col); Florida Institute of Technology School of Aeronautics Associate Admissions Director; Director of Engineering/Science Placement Director; Commercial pilot Shadow Traffic™.

Graham

Graham has counseled law students and applicants for 18 years at the largest law school in the West, where he learned the admissions process from the inside. He is an expert on the legal job market and helps applicants mute the noise of law school rankings and surveys so they can select the right schools for their targeted markets. This combined understanding of admissions and the job market has been valuable for clients choosing the right schools. His clients have gained admission to such elite schools as Berkeley, Chicago, Cornell, NYU, Georgetown as well as UCLA, USC, Loyola Law School (LA); Hastings, William and Mary, Miami, Tulane; Seton Hall, NY Law and others.

Joy

Prior to entering the nonprofit industry as a fundraiser, Joy was Director of Admissions at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Her responsibilities included serving on the Admissions Committee, reviewing applications and recommending candidates for acceptance, deferral, or denial; recruiting prospective students at law forums and undergraduate pre-law days throughout the country; providing counseling to law school applicants regarding school policies and procedures, the application process, and other related concerns; and evaluating and selecting scholarship recipients. Joy's in-depth insider's perspective serves her Kaplan clients well; she knows what admissions officers are looking for and assists her clients to position themselves in the best light possible.

Joy's favorite part of the application process is the personal statement. She believes that it is through the personal statement that the Admissions Committee learns who you are, and what makes you special and different from the other thousands of applicants. You are unique, and you need to write in a manner that best fits your style. Many of us have not taken the time to explore what makes us who we are. Joy understands that this can be frustrating at times, but it's well worth the effort. She encourages you to take advantage of this opportunity to sell yourself. The bottom line is that Joy wants your essay to come from a place of strength. It is what makes for a powerful personal statement.

Judy

After more than fifteen years in admissions and career services at both Harvard and Boston College Law Schools, Judy has mentored countless young attorneys, counseled hundreds of law students and reviewed thousands of law school applications. Earlier in her career, she practiced health care law for nearly eight years and established a non-profit organization linking law students to pro bono opportunities.

Judy works closely with clients to research and evaluate those law schools to which they will apply. In addition, she discusses the most appropriate people to submit recommendations on behalf of her clients and helps them to prepare an effective resume to submit with the application. She finds the most satisfying part of the process to be crafting the personal statement. Each client has a story to tell that distinguishes him or her, communicates why law school is the appropriate next step and demonstrates what s/he will bring to the entering class. When clients find their voice and tell their story in a coherent, compelling manner, they know they are submitting the best application possible. That is the ultimate goal of the admissions consulting process.

Laura

Laura brings diverse and extensive experience to law school admissions consulting. She worked as a construction litigator in the private and public sectors, and sat on the admissions committee at Boston College Law School. Sitting on the other side of the fence gave her a firsthand view of the admissions process as she reviewed thousands of applications reflecting a wide diversity of candidate profiles. These and other experiences have allowed her to develop an ability to effectively counsel law school applicants.

Prior to law school, Laura worked as a structural engineer for Bechtel Power Corp.

Loren

During Loren's nineteen years with Kaplan, the last nine of which have focused exclusively on law school admissions consulting, he has helped thousands of students achieve their dream of going to law school. His clients have been admitted to schools as diverse as Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, University of Kansas, University of Missouri, and University of Missouri - Kansas City. A licensed attorney since 1993, Loren studied law at the University of Kansas, where he was a Rice Scholar (a distinction which provided him a full scholarship).

Although he is well-versed in all aspects of the law school application process, his strengths include assisting clients in writing an exceptional personal statement and offering support and guidance as his clients navigate the waters of the law school application process. While working for Kaplan, Loren has worked with a wide-variety of clients – from traditional students graduating from Ivy League schools near the top of their class to returning students who graduated from their local college 20 years ago and, as they readily admit, did not take school very seriously. He worked with each of these clients to help them develop a unique theme for their application packet – a theme which clearly presents the assets the client will bring to any law school they attend.

In 2005, Loren was awarded with Kaplan's first ever Law School Consultant of the Year award.

Ricky

Richard (Ricky) begins his second decade helping students earn acceptance to a national array of law schools on behalf of Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. As a University of Minnesota Law School graduate and an attorney in multiple jurisdictions (including service as Assistant Attorney General for the States of Texas and Illinois, Assistant Legislative Counsel for the State of Oregon, and Legal Counsel for the Aurora Colorado Public Schools), he worked and continues to enjoy relationships with an impressive list of law school admissions deans and committee members. He is a regularly invited guest to join law school deans to lend his expertise on national admissions panels. He most recently moderated a law school admissions consortium at the Sam Houston State University attended by the leading Texas law schools.

As a 2011 Kaplan LSAT Teacher of the Year, he also brings a unique perspective of the LSAT's role in an effective law school application. He is especially proud of success stories from international and English as second language applicants for whom the LSAT presented special challenges.

While an attorney by trade, Ricky is an educator at heart. He earned a Masters in Education from Northwestern University and taught Education Law at the college level. Ricky cites his education experience as an essential asset "teaching" Kaplan law school applicants how to best embark on a rewarding career as a successful law school applicant, law student, and attorney.