Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School in Provo, Utah, combines a small JD class with a religious educational mission. Its strengths include business law, law and religion, negotiation, and legal design.
This guide walks you through how to get into BYU Law.
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1. BYU Law Admissions Numbers and Statistics
BYU Law Class of 2029:
- LSAT: 75th: 173 | Median: 172 | 25th: 167
- GPA: 75th: 3.99 | Median: 3.95 | 25th: 3.82
BYU Law Class of 2028:
- LSAT: 75th: 172 | Median: 170 | 25th: 168
- GPA: 75th: 3.98 | Median: 3.95 | 25th: 3.82
BYU's fall 2026 entering class raised the LSAT median two points, while the GPA median held at 3.95. The LSAT's upper quartile increased one point and its lower quartile fell one point. Class size decreased from 122 in fall 2025 to 112 in fall 2026. Both cohorts are full-time JD classes.
Aim to be at or above at least one median to be competitive. Above both puts you in a stronger position. Below both medians, this is a prayer, not a reach.
For context on how medians affect your strategy, see How to Build a Smart Law School List.
2. BYU Law Application Essays
Personal Statement (required)
Submit a two-page personal statement about yourself.
For more on how to write a personal statement, see my Personal Statement Examples and Personal Statement Guide.
Background and Contribution Essay (optional)
BYU permits a one-page essay explaining how your background and experiences have affected your life and would help you contribute uniquely to the law school.
For more on how to write a diversity or perspective statement, see my Diversity Statement Examples and Diversity Statement Guide.
Why BYU Response
The application's school-interest response asks about your connection to BYU.
For more on how to write a Why X essay, see my Why X Essay Guide.
Honor Code and Ecclesiastical Endorsement
The Honor Code commitment and ecclesiastical endorsement must be complete before review. Both Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint applicants participate. An existing unexpired commitment and endorsement need not be replaced. First-time or expired endorsements require the applicable clergy interviews, including the BYU chaplain for non-Latter-day Saint applicants.
For more on making all of these essays work together, see my Cohesive Narrative Guide.
Addenda and Character & Fitness Resources
I'll be publishing a guide to addenda and character and fitness.
3. BYU Law Resume Requirements
BYU requires a one-page resume covering academic, extracurricular, and professional experience. Select the responsibilities and accomplishments that make your preparation clear within that limit.
For more on preparing your resume, see my Resume Examples and Resume Guide.
4. BYU Law Letters of Recommendation
BYU requires two letters of recommendation through LSAC. Academic recommendations are preferred; professional recommenders are acceptable for nontraditional applicants.
For more on recommendations, see my LOR Guide (Applicants) and LOR Guide (Writers).
5. BYU Law Interview Process
BYU does not routinely interview JD applicants. The Admissions Committee may request an interview case by case. Ecclesiastical endorsement interviews are a separate requirement, not an admissions interview invitation.
6. BYU Law Deadlines and Decision Options
Testing Policy
BYU accepts the LSAT, GRE, or JD-Next. An LSAT exemption requires at least a 3.85 LSAC undergraduate GPA and an ACT or SAT score in the top 15% from undergraduate admission, without superscoring. A reported LSAT, or a GRE or JD-Next score reported to BYU, makes the exemption unavailable. Every route requires LSAC's Credential Assembly Service.
If you're considering the GRE, read my LSAT vs. GRE guide before deciding.
Application Dates and Fees
For fall 2027 entry:
- Application opens: September 1, 2026
- Clark Scholarship application deadline: December 31, 2026
- JD priority deadline: March 1, 2027
- Published final application deadline: May 1, 2027
- Application fee: None
BYU reviews completed applications on a rolling basis, generally responding within four to six weeks. The ecclesiastical endorsement is part of a completed file, so it belongs on the same calendar as your essays and recommendations.
BYU does not offer a general binding Early Decision program. The Clark Scholars process has its own early selection schedule and scholarship requirements. Do not confuse early scholarship consideration with a blanket commitment to withdraw applications elsewhere. BYU's standard JD is a full-time program with fall entry.
7. BYU Law Scholarships and Financial Aid
Tuition and Fees
Annual tuition for 2026-2027 is $16,472 for Latter-day Saint students and $32,944 for non-Latter-day Saint students. Church support subsidizes both rates. Tuition does not include housing and other living expenses.
Merit Scholarships
General merit awards receive automatic consideration and range from $1,000 to full tuition for three years. GRE-only, JD-Next, and LSAT-exemption applicants can receive general merit aid but are ineligible for the Clark and Dean's scholarships.
J. Reuben Clark Scholarship
For fall 2027, initial eligibility requires an LSAT of at least 173 and a completed application, including endorsement, by December 31, 2026. Selected nominees submit a one-page essay and attend the February 4-5, 2027 recruiting events. The award provides three years of tuition plus a $10,000 annual stipend, subject to good standing.
Good standing includes at least 8.5 credits, a cumulative GPA of at least 2.7, and a current ecclesiastical endorsement. Three-year scholarships cover six semesters, excluding summer externships and courses outside law school in a joint degree. Some awards carry additional academic conditions beyond the general good-standing requirements.
For more on scholarship strategy, see How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships.
8. BYU Law Joint Degree Programs
BYU's joint programs with the Marriott School of Business include:
- JD/MBA: Four full-time years combining legal education with business management.
- JD/MPA: Four full-time years pairing the JD with public administration.
- JD/MAcc: Four full-time years combining law and graduate accounting.
Admission to each program is separate. Students can apply to the other program during their first year. The first two years are generally divided between the schools, followed by combined coursework. Both degrees are awarded only after both sets of requirements are complete. JD scholarships do not fund the non-law portion of a joint degree.
9. BYU Law Employment Outcomes (Class of 2025)
BYU Class of 2025 employment outcomes (reported to the ABA, measured 10 months after graduation):
- Full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (ABA): 89.8%
- BigLaw (firms with 101+ attorneys): 34.6%
- Federal clerkships: 7.1%
- Public service (including government): 15.7%
Utah is the largest employment destination, followed by Texas and California. BYU combines that regional base with substantial large-firm placement and a distinct federal-clerkship pathway. For applicants seeking Utah practice, the employment pattern fits the school's location. For applicants targeting another market, connect the school to a specific employer network or practice area rather than assuming the same geographic reach everywhere.
10. BYU Law Areas of Study and Specializations
Business Law: The Global Business Law Program connects transactional study with professional exposure. William Clayton's Deals Academy takes first-year students to New York City to study business-law practice, while the Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic adds supervised work for emerging organizations.
Law and Religion: The International Center for Law and Religion Studies supports comparative and international research on religious freedom. Student summer research fellowships connect that scholarship to practical projects, with Brett Scharffs's work providing a foundation in legal reasoning and law-and-religion questions.
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution: The Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution combines teaching with mediation and arbitration services. The Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Clinic adds live-client projects focused on negotiation and dispute-system design, connecting classroom analysis to the way organizations manage conflict.
Legal Design and Access to Justice: LawX applies design thinking to legal-service problems. Students investigate users' needs, develop prototypes, and revise them through feedback. The focus is on building and testing a workable response to an actual problem rather than stopping at a research paper.
Tax and Corporate Structure: Gladriel Shobe's work addresses taxation, business structures, and the terms surrounding public offerings. Courses such as the Tax Policy Colloquium connect those issues to sustained scholarly discussion, while the Marriott JD/MAcc supplies a separate accounting-intensive route.
11. BYU Law Clinics and Experiential Learning
BYU's clinics and community partnerships connect legal training to client representation, organizational problems, and public service.
- LawX Legal Design Clinic: Students develop and test prototypes for a live client's legal-service problem, using interdisciplinary teamwork and user feedback.
- Community Legal Clinic: Second- and third-year students provide supervised representation involving immigration, housing, and contracts, along with community legal education.
- Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic: Students work under faculty supervision to represent entrepreneurs, startups, and nonprofits navigating legal issues.
- Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Clinic: Students work with live clients on negotiation and the design of systems for managing disputes.
- Government and Legislation Clinical Alliance: Placements with the Utah Legislature, Attorney General, and local government counsel involve research, memoranda, proposed legislation, and litigation-related work.
- Timpanogos Legal Center Partnership: BYU students participate in community legal clinics, including the weekly online clinic serving Utah residents; the center also provides family-law document-preparation opportunities.
Pro Bono and Experiential Learning
The JD requires six professional-skills credits, which can come through clinics, clinical alliances, externships, and approved skills courses. Timpanogos Legal Center's Family Justice Center clinic in Provo adds a community-service setting. The Government and Legislation Clinical Alliance places students with identifiable Utah public offices rather than treating government work as an abstract classroom exercise.
12. BYU Law Notable Faculty and Journals
Faculty
- William Clayton: Professor and associate dean for faculty and curriculum. He studies private equity, contracts, and corporate governance and directs the Global Business Law Program, including its Deals Academy.
- Gladriel Shobe: Professor studying tax and corporate law. A former Weil attorney, she writes about Up-C structures and tax receivable agreements and has received multiple teaching awards.
- Brett Scharffs: Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law, and director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. He coauthored Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives.
- David Moore: Dean, Sterling and Eleanor Colton Endowed Chair, and Professor of Law. His fields include international and foreign relations law; he serves as an adviser to the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law.
Journals
- BYU Law Review: The student-edited flagship publishes general legal scholarship.
- BYU Education and Law Journal: A former peer-reviewed publication managed through the McKay School of Education, with law-student participation rather than the flagship's student-edited model. It covered education law and policy. The journal has retired.
13. BYU Law Culture and Student Life
BYU's 112-student entering class makes the law school a small professional community. The J. Reuben Clark Building sits on the university's Provo campus, where religious commitments and service are explicit parts of institutional life. Applicants from different faiths participate in that setting under the same Honor Code framework.
Provo connects students to Utah County practice, entrepreneurship, and the broader Utah legal market. The Government and Legislation Clinical Alliance and Timpanogos Legal Center provide concrete local settings for that work. Texas and California also appear among graduates' leading destinations, but Utah remains the center of gravity.
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Related Reading
→ How to Build a Smart Law School List
→ Should You Apply Early Decision to Law School?
→ How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships
→ 6 Proven Steps to Get Off a Law School Waitlist
→ How to Get Into Law School Below Both Medians
→ What Holistic Law School Admissions Really Means
→ Blog Directory
Note: While I try to keep this guide up to date, always verify deadlines, requirements, and policies at the BYU Law website before applying.
Think you spotted an outdated requirement or something that doesn't look right? Email moshe@sharperstatements.com with the school and a link to the current information.
