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Yale Law School Personal Statement Examples

Yale Law School personal statement examples are useful tools to understand the content, structure, and narrative flow of strong personal statements. The personal statement is only one component of how to get into Yale Law School , which also includes a 250-word essay and other, supplementary essays. There are many types of law school personal statement examples , but Yale Law School has specific requirements for their program. One unique aspect of the Yale Law School personal statement is that candidates do not have to explain why they want to go specifically to Yale Law School, but rather why they want to go to law school in general.

This article will detail other, sought-after characteristics of personal statements for Yale Law and provide examples.

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Article Contents 10 min read

How to get into yale law school.

As an Ivy League school, Yale is one of the most prestigious law schools in the world, and there are thousands of applicants each year for only a few hundred spots. The Yale Law School’s acceptance rate hovers around 8% of applicants, so it is a very competitive program. All aspects of a potential candidate's application, including personal statements, are considered in the admissions process.

LSAT and GPA 

Two central components of a Yale Law School application are your LSAT and GPA scores, which should be higher than 155 and 3.32, respectively. However, if you're exploring how to get into law school with a low GPA , keep in mind the importance of your personal statement and other writing samples like a law school letter of intent .

Law School Diversity Statement

Yale Law School also asks – but does not require – that applicants submit a law school diversity statement , which is more of an opinion-style essay about what your identity means to you than a personal statement, which is a general narrative about your motivation for going to law school and becoming a lawyer.

Addenda 

Applicants may also submit any addenda as a supplement to the rest of the application. Reading law school addendum examples is a good way to brush up on what to include and how to write one, but they are not that different from personal statements, and you should consider whether you need to include one with your application.

Letters of recommendation from two professors who you studied under are also a part of any Yale Law School application.

Activities Section

Another written section of the Yale Law School application is the activities section, which covers basic questions, including what you have been doing since you graduated (if it has been more than three months), what you did as an undergrad, what you did when you had time off during your undergrad, and a general question about personal activities or pursuits.

Standardized Tests

Yale Law School will accept scores from several types of standardized tests, including the LSAT (Law School Application Test), GRE (Graduate Record Examinations), LSAT-Flex, and GRE General Test at Home. However, you must submit scores from only one of your tests and declare which test score you are submitting on your application.

Yale Law School has specific formatting requirements for personal statements that include:

Yale Law School also asks applicants to pay attention to what the school’s admissions officers refer to as “movement” in the personal statement. “Movement” is a law school personal statement tip that can help push along your story, so you don’t get stuck describing one single event in unnecessary detail.

Two to four pages is more than enough space to encompass important, relevant aspects of your personal story, but you should not feel like you must write up to four pages. Write down things about your past, present, and future that affected your decision to become a lawyer, but do not deviate into recalling difficult moments in your life, or inane details from your law student cover letter .

Yale Law School Personal Statement Example #1

I had two choices before me: working as an entry-level inventory clerk at a high-end clothing retailer or becoming a community organizer in a low-income neighborhood, organizing residents to improve their environment. I was very proud of my application to the luxury clothes retailer and was charmed by my interviewer, who was friendly, outgoing, and sympathetic.

At the time, I was in my second year of undergrad at Emory as a philosophy major. A lot of my classes were about modernist and existentialist philosophy – Spinoza, Heidegger, and Sartre – but by some accident, I had started reading more politically minded thinkers like Antonio Gramsci, Rosa Luxembourg, and Marx himself.

I felt a kind of bombast when I started learning more about political and economic exploitation in our society. I had always had a keen desire for the pursuit of justice, and after learning more about the ingrained, systematic exploitation our society is based on, I felt the need to put my reading, learning, and knowledge into action.

The job at CORE (Community Organization for Residents of Emory) seemed to offer that opportunity – at least, I thought it did at the time. I called the personable interviewer from my other job offer, who graciously accepted my refusal and even supported my decision when I told him the job I was taking. I felt even more justified in my decision.

My first day at CORE involved going door-to-door in high-rise buildings trying to organize (read: sign up) new members and get them to commit to paying monthly dues to support the organization. I was a little disappointed that my job as a community organizer involved getting money from working-class people and immigrants.

I imagined rousing residents of these high-rises into action, marching in the streets to demand more affordable rents, more accountability from landlords, more maintenance and repairs, and better living conditions, in general. But people were not interested. In my first few weeks, I went to various low-income neighborhoods trying to sign people up.

I told my supervisor about my reservations, and he put things into perspective. “All those things you are talking about,” he said, referring to my desire for direct political action, “will only be possible if we remain independent, which means collecting dues and having a strong, active membership who supports the organization."

I took his words to heart and rededicated my efforts to sign up more people. But my zeal took me to another extreme. I did not realize how far I had gone to the other side until we had a free tax clinic at our offices. Before they met with our accountant, I was supposed to pitch people to become a dues-paying member of CORE.

I met with one woman who was initially receptive to my pitch but declined when I asked her to become a member. I had been trained to answer a “no” with prepared prompts that could skirt their refusal, and every time she repeated “no,” I kept pushing. Frustrated with my insistence, she got up and said she was going to leave if I didn’t stop.

Taken aback, I stopped, got up, and left the room. This is not what political organizing was supposed to be. I was ashamed that I had not listened to that woman who was clearly not interested and concluded that I did not have the skillset to become a community organizer, even though I still had an intrinsic desire to do good.

It was around that time that Obama had been elected president, and I remembered one day as I rode the bus home that he too had worked as a community organizer in Chicago after completing his undergrad and before attending Harvard Law School. I don’t have any political aspirations, but I understood that real, definitive change is won through the framework of the law, more than direct political action.

I switched my major from philosophy to political science and graduated with Honours. By the time I graduated, I knew that I wanted to become a lawyer, but I wasn’t sure of what law to practice. I worked as a summer associate for Alden Reid, a law firm in Atlanta, where I spent time carrying out law research, conducting mock interviews with lawyers, and drafting motions for all kinds of cases.

I formed a close relationship with one of the lawyers at the firm, Galen Rizzuto, who encouraged me to apply to Yale Law School because it was where his mentor went. The flashy Mr. Rizzuto was always dressed to the nines and could remember the fineries of a legal brief faster than anyone I have met.

After my stint at Alden Reid, I spent another year working as an intern at the Legal Defense Fund for the South Side, which helped low-income offenders find legal representation. The people who came into my office had not committed violent crimes but had other legal problems, like unpaid parking tickets, misdemeanor, and simple loitering charges. Their lives had been upended for little more than jaywalking, and things snowballed from there. Hearing their stories made me see the other side of what I did at CORE. Instead of getting people to sign up and pay dues, I was listening to people who needed help for their very real problems.

It was in that clinic that I realized I could actually help people and not just promise them change in exchange for a few dollars a month. I knew that my future lay in learning the law, preferably housing and tenant law, which is an area of the law that has grown in significance with the colliding interests of corporate ownership, gentrification, and the loss of affordable housing.

We had spent almost a year preparing the motion to grant a new trial, and it felt like another year waiting in the courtroom hallway for the judge’s decision. I was part of a twelve-member team made up of pre-law students that worked to help exonerate James Sweeney, who had been convicted of a double murder based on dubious, now-discredited evidence.

Sweeney was an itinerant, drug-addicted unhoused person who was caught with clothes and other personal items he claimed he found, but which the police believed made him the prime suspect in the murders of a local, married couple. Having no idea of his right to legal representation, Sweeney went willingly with the police, believing he could get a warm meal and a few hours out of the cold.

The police interrogated Sweeney for almost twelve hours, and he offered up a full confession, even though he knew he was innocent. The officers celebrated, and the prosecutor’s office was more than happy to go to trial, but on the legal advice of a comprised and incompetent public defender who has since been disbarred, Sweeney accepted a plea deal that saw him go to prison for life.

Sweeney entered prison with a fourth-grade education, but seeing that he had nothing but time, he set about educating himself. He earned his GED within a year of entering prison and later applied to a pre-law correspondence course, which he successfully completed in four years. Having gained an in-depth knowledge of the law, Sweeney began advocating for his innocence, writing letters to law firms all over the country.

While Sweeney was writing his letters, I was still pondering my future. I had entered undergrad at Cornell as an English major because I had vague ambitions to become a writer, even though I knew I was not particularly talented. One evening, I went with a friend to see the Norman Jewison film, The Hurricane, which was – something I did not know at the time – based on the true story of the wrongly convicted boxer, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. As Carter’s story unfolded on-screen, it was easy to see how racial prejudice, police overreach, and prosecutorial malpractice could all combine to create an environment ripe for injustice. Yet no one spoke up, save Carter himself.

As you will know, Carter was ultimately exonerated and became involved in helping free other wrongly incarcerated prisoners. Carter’s story was a revealing portrait of the complexity of the law and how it can be used to send an innocent man to prison – but also to free him. I left that cinema wanting to know more about Carter’s story, which eventually led me to the work of Bryan Stevenson. He runs the Equal Justice Initiative and has participated in the exoneration of countless wrongly convicted people.

However, as inspiring as Stevenson’s story is, I realized that it is a sad commentary on how our society has barely changed since the time when Carter was falsely accused and convicted. People continue to be caught up in legal dragnets without any oversight or accountability, and it takes the Bryan Stevensons of this world to shine a light on these injustices.

I read that the Equal Justice Initiative and other similar organizations offer internships to pre-law students to help with researching and investigating. I immediately became excited at the prospect of working with other dedicated students to help right the wrongs of a disinterested and indifferent justice system.

I decided to change my major to criminology with a focus on habeas corpus, sentencing prejudices in the modern jury system, and how social changes can move toward legitimacy via the legal system. In my third year, I applied for an internship at the Innocence Project, which is where I worked on the Sweeney case. Sweeney continued writing letters until he reached a partner at a Toronto firm who had attended a lecture given by Stevenson and referred Sweeney to the Innocence Project. The case was easy enough to investigate given that many of the witnesses, police officers, attorneys, and prosecutors were still alive.

Sweeney’s conviction was based entirely on his confession, so there was no physical evidence tying him to the crime. When none of Sweeney’s DNA matched any found at the crime scene, we decided it was time to file a motion to have his case dismissed. We worked to collect as much exculpatory evidence as possible from witnesses who saw Sweeney when he was supposedly committing the murders.

The lead attorney had delivered arguments in court, but we were not permitted to be in attendance and had to wait outside. Word came from the court clerk that the judge had reached a decision. The attorneys went back inside, while we listened on the closed-circuit TV. The judge granted the motion, and Sweeney walked free that same day.

I got the chance to befriend Sweeney, and he was a great source of inspiration and motivation. He helped me define my interests in the law and focus on social justice as a form of social defiance that uses the law to undo or right injustices performed by the law. James Sweeney passed away a few months ago, and his memory, dedication, and perseverance in the face of such incredible odds are what inspire me to write this letter and apply for this program.

Yale Law School personal statement examples are key to helping you write your own personal statement for Yale Law, along with all the other writing pieces you need to submit. The personal statement is required, but the other parts, like the diversity statement and other addenda, are optional, so you should think about the scope, content, and structure of your personal statement before submitting additional writing.

There are only a few unique aspects of writing a personal statement for Yale Law School, like the formatting requirements, but you also do not have to specify a reason for attending Yale Law specifically.

The Yale Law School personal statement requirements are that your statement must be two to four pages in length, double-spaced, and divided between an inciting incident and your reflection on it. 

You should include personal details about why you decided to go to law school and become a lawyer, and the fact that you are ready to commit yourself to law school. 

You should not overshare about a personal problem that is unrelated to your academic career, or mention things about your CV, resume, or transcripts. You should also keep your story short and make connections between it and your desire to become a lawyer. 

Yes, a written personal statement is a requirement to enter Yale Law School, along with submitting your score from a standardized test, three letters of recommendation, and a letter outlining your activities during your undergrad. 

Yale Law School admissions officers emphasize that your personal statement should embody “movement”; that is, your statement should not get bogged down in describing irrelevant details. You should move your story along to create a compelling narrative. 

The current acceptance rate for Yale Law School is around 8%, but it varies every year. College admissions consulting can help you focus on your grades and test scores if you need help. 

Yes, it is possible to be accepted into Yale Law School if your GPA is lower than the threshold, as admissions officers examine all aspects of your application and judge them against each other to create a fuller picture of you as a candidate. 

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How to Write a Legal Cover Letter for Law Firms (that Gets you Noticed)

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Whether you’re just starting your legal journey or are an experienced legal professional seeking a new role, there’s no way around it: demand for legal positions is high, and the job outlook for lawyers in the US grows at a faster-than-average pace . Pair this industry growth with movement from lawyers already working in the industry (the 2022 Legal Trends Report found that in the 12 months before April 2022, nearly one in five lawyers left the law firm they were working for, and nine percent planned to leave their firm in the next six months), and it’s clear that many lawyers will find themselves needing to stand out in a competitive job market. 

However, despite the high demand for legal positions, people still need legal expertise—and law firms need capable legal professionals to fill open roles.

Whether you’re a law student, recent graduate, or experienced legal professional, this post will help you with your legal cover letter writing. We’ve started by providing sample cover letters for legal positions below and will then guide you through the essentials of writing a compelling cover letter for law firms. 

Legal cover letter examples

If you’re feeling overwhelmed when drafting a cover letter for law firms, don’t worry. Seeing a legal cover letter example can give you the confidence to write your own. Below, we’ve compiled some sample cover letters for legal positions, covering different backgrounds and levels of experience.

• Cover letter examples for summer associates and interns, Columbia Law School.  
• Cover letter examples for 1L – 3L students, Harvard Law School .
• Cover letter examples for 1L – 3L students, Yale Law School .
• Cover letter example for applying to an immigration law firm by a recent graduate with previous paralegal experience .
• Cover letter example for applying to a Big Law firm, Boston University. 
• Cover letter example for an IP lawyer with 11 years experience, Monster .
• Cover letter example for a litigation attorney with 12 years experience, My Perfect Resume .
• Cover letter examples for applying for private sector roles, Yale Law School .
• Cover letter example for seeking a summer judicial internship, University of Georgia School of Law .

Berkeley Law also provides an excellent guide for legal cover letters. 

You can start by using one of these examples as inspiration when structuring your cover letter and what you may want to highlight. You can also take insights from these sample cover letters for lawyers—insights you can apply to your own cover letter when following our tips below.

How to draft a cover letter for a law firm

It’s one thing to review examples of legal cover letters, but how to write one? By following the standard etiquette and structure—and then personalizing it—you can draft an effective cover letter. First, let’s review some legal cover letter best practices.

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Even after reviewing some legal cover letter examples, the dos and don’ts of legal cover letter writing aren’t always easy to spot. You may ask yourself: what should a legal cover letter include for a law firm? While the content of your cover letter will differ between employers, these points of etiquette should not.

• Don’t skip it. The first—and potentially most important—element of legal cover letter etiquette is just writing one. While job sites and hiring portals may state “Cover Letter Optional,” disregard this, it is always best to send a cover letter.
• Be concise. The hiring manager is likely receiving dozens, or maybe even hundreds, of cover letters a day. Respect an employer’s time by getting straight to the point. Long legal cover letters may also indicate an inability to achieve quick and succinct results.
• Match their tone. Write as if you’ve already been hired for the role. It’s subtle, but an employer will appreciate this personal touch.
• Prioritize the employer. Don’t include unnecessary details about your life that won’t impact how you’ll perform the job.
• Don’t recycle legal cover letters. Be original. It’s time-consuming work, but it’ll show your potential employer your dedication.
• Triple-check it. Spelling and grammatical errors should be avoided at all costs. Given the highly competitive nature of the legal job market, you don’t want to be passed up over a simple error.

Addressing cover letters for lawyers

To whom it may concern: Always take the time to find the correct contact. When writing cover letters for law firms, it’s a common misstep to dedicate so much time and attention to the body of the letter that you overlook the basics—like who and how you’re addressing the letter. 

Here are some best practices for addressing your legal cover letter:

• Know who you’re speaking to. Do your research and be specific. Address your cover letter to the person responsible for hiring at the firm you’re contacting, like the senior partner or hiring manager. If you don’t have this information, the law firm’s website might come in handy, or you can contact the law firm’s human resources department for guidance. 
• Be careful with salutations. The salutation is a place to convey respect and showcase that you’ve taken the time to personalize the letter. Mistakes in the salutation are a sign that you’ll miss details, which won’t bode well for your chances of impressing your potential employer. If you’re certain of the recipient’s preferred gender-identifying language, you can write the salutation as “Dear Ms.” or “Dear Mr.”; however, if you aren’t certain (and don’t make assumptions) or you don’t want to use gender-identifying language, drop the “Ms.” or “Mr.” and write out the person’s full first and last name.
• Double-check your spelling. People will always notice if you spell their name wrong, and there are multiple ways to spell even common names. Ensure you start on the right foot by getting the basics right.

Introductory paragraph

In your cover letter’s opening paragraph, you have two main goals:

• Introduce who you are.
• Explain why you’d be a good fit for this particular firm. 

In the first paragraph, include details about:

• Who you are. Are you currently a law student? Are you an associate at a law firm?
• Who you know. Mention any referrals or mutual acquaintances right away.
• Why you’d be a great fit for the firm. Include specific reasons—you’re looking for a way to create connections with the senior partner or hiring manager.

Main cover letter body

The body section of your cover letter is your chance to shine—and to concisely summarize exactly how you meet the requirements in the job description. 

In one or two paragraphs, give a high-level overview of your legal education and experience to show:

• Why you want to work for this firm. Elaborate on what makes you genuinely excited about the firm—whether it is an area of interest you’ve specialized in, the firm’s reputation or mission, or past experiences that will make you a uniquely good fit.
• Why this firm should hire you. Make clear connections between your qualifications and aspects of the role you’re applying for. If there is a job posting, look closely for key attributes that the firm is looking for, and then detail how you meet those expectations. 

Highlighting your qualifications

Above all else, ensure your legal cover letter highlights your skills. Relevant qualifications for a law firm cover letter include: 

• Past legal work experience or positions.
• Community service roles.
• Academic or research specializations.
• Publications.
• Relevant awards you’ve received.
• Your personal background.

For example, consider a job posting that describes their ideal candidate as someone with personal injury litigation experience, excellent communication skills, and who works well both independently and as a part of a team in a fast-paced office environment.

If you were applying for this role, your cover letter’s body paragraphs might detail your past personal injury litigation experience and specific examples of how you’ve successfully communicated within a team and in a fast-paced environment.

Remember: Be specific, but keep in mind that this is not the place to restate your resume —if you can grab the hiring manager’s attention here, they will read your resume for those details. Your cover letter is where you can entice the reader to move on to your resume by providing context and highlighting how your experience lines up with what’s needed for the role.

For tips on writing a standout lawyer resume, read our blog post here.

Concluding paragraph

Finally, your concluding paragraph is where you’ll succinctly wrap the cover letter up, close the loop, and leave a positive impression. In your closing paragraph, be sure to:

• Say thank you. Gratitude can make a difference, so always thank the reader for their consideration.
• Assert your next steps. It’s fine to clearly outline how and when you will follow up on your application, rather than waiting indefinitely for an answer. And, if you say that you’ll follow up at a specific time, be sure to do it—and hold yourself to your word.
• Provide relevant contact details. Let the reader know how to reach you by phone or email, if these details are not already outlined in your letter’s header.

Tips for using your legal cover letter to stand out

The legal industry is rapidly evolving, and job hunters need to set themselves apart to get hired (unless, of course, you decide to start your own law firm ). 

If you’re applying for a job as a lawyer, whether it’s a traditional position or a legal work-from-home job , here are five tips to make sure your cover letter lands at the top of the pile.

1. Make it personal

Perhaps the most important tip for writing cover letters for lawyers is to make it personal. 

Many of your competitors have similar education and professional experience, so being generic is a fast track to being forgotten. 

Use a personalized cover letter to showcase the unique reasons why you’re the best candidate. Show that you know the person you’re writing to, and highlight any connections. If that isn’t possible, you can always write about the firm to show that you’ve done your research. 

2. Prioritize the positive 

When writing a lawyer cover letter, focus on what you have to offer. Regardless of why you’re looking for a new job, you bring a unique mix of attributes to the table. Highlight these attributes, whether they’re your: 

• Other legal careers
• Relevant work experience 

If you’re a law student or recent graduate, you may not have a long legal career to highlight. However, you can still note strengths like technology skills that make you an asset.

To a hiring law firm, being tech-competent and familiar with certain cloud-based tools like Clio could be an advantage that sets you apart from other candidates.

For example, more and more law firms are adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help them run their practices more efficiently, with the 2023 Legal Trends Report finding that nearly one in five legal professionals are using some form of AI in their practices already. With this in mind, lawyers up-to-date with AI technology may stand out for hiring law firms.  

3. Get to the point

Legal cover letters are not the place to be long-winded, and droning on will almost certainly have the opposite effect of what you’re going for. Keep cover letters for attorneys short, to the point, and persuasive—the trick is to be memorable and limit yourself to one page. Because you want to make a lasting impression on a single page, it’s also a good idea to check your cover letter’s sentence structure. Do you start all of your sentences the same way? Are they all the same length? Ensure there’s some variety so your reader stays engaged.

4. Set the right tone

Tone matters. While what you say in a cover letter for lawyers is obviously important, it also matters how you say it. 

No matter what type of legal job you’re applying for, you always want to convey a professional tone. However, depending on the law firm you’re applying to, using a personal tone may work to your advantage. Tailor your tone to match the law firm you’re applying to. 

If you’re writing a Big Law cover letter, for example, you’ll want to err on the side of being more formal. For a smaller local law firm? Check their website and match the tone to demonstrate your familiarity with their firm. 

5. Proofread

There is zero room for typos or grammatical errors in cover letters for lawyers. With so much competition for legal jobs, don’t give hiring managers a reason to eliminate you. Take the time to carefully proofread your cover letter yourself, and consider enlisting someone else to proofread your cover letters as well.

Final thoughts on how to write a legal cover letter for a law firm

In a crowded legal job market, there’s no better way to outshine the competition than an excellent legal cover letter. Ensure you’re putting your best foot forward with your future employer by: 

• Making it personal. At every step, customize your cover letter to the firm you’re applying to—from the tone to the specific skills you detail.
• Keeping it brief. Cover letters for lawyers are a one-page summary to let the hiring manager know that you’re a candidate they should talk to further. You want to give them enough information to draw them in, but not overwhelm them and risk losing interest.
• Showcasing your strengths. Focus on the positives, and don’t be afraid to highlight how your past experiences make you uniquely qualified.

While finding a new legal job in a competitive market isn’t exactly easy, staying resilient and adaptive will lead you to success. By crafting a great cover letter, you’re more likely to be noticed in this—and any—job market. 

And, no matter what job you’re applying for, knowing technology can help set you apart—both when job hunting and once you’re working at your new firm. If you’re a law student and want a head start, you may be able to get free Clio access via Clio’s Academic Access Program (CAAP) at your law school. Learn more about CAAP here .

Do law firms read cover letters?

In a competitive job market, hiring managers at law firms read cover letters to help determine which candidates may be the best fit. A well-written legal cover letter can entice the reader to review your resume—and, hopefully, invite you for an interview—by showcasing how your experience and skills align with the role. 

We published this blog post in June 2020. Last updated: June 13, 2024 .

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Yale SOM Cover Letter Template

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View the Yale SOM Cover Letter Template to assist in creating your cover letter.