The American Bar Association is considering dropping the LSAT as an accreditation requirement for law schools.

If the ABA officially nulls the LSAT obligation, law schools would be able to decide on their own whether to use the test in their admission processes.

Donald Polden, American Bar Association’s Standards Review Committee chairman and Dean at Santa Clara Law, is part of the group reviewing the necessity for the LSAT.

“What the LSAT is considered to be able to predict, in other words it’s valid and reliable in predicting, first-year performance,” Polden said. “It does not predict whether somebody will be a great lawyer or a good lawyer, or actually for that matter, how they will finish their law school careers or do on the state bar exam.”

Polden said after the Standards Review Committee reviews the matter, they must present it to the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The entire process will take a couple of years.

School of Law Dean Lawrence Dessem said he believes even if the requirement is abolished, laws schools wouldn’t make many changes.

“So the question for me is, if the ABA does not require an admissions test, which is for virtually all schools the LSAT, will schools continue to require that of the students?” Dessem said. “I suspect that many will, even if it was not required as a condition of accreditation.”

Dessem said MU wouldn’t make any immediate decisions regarding the LSAT.

Senior Nick DeCoster, who plans on applying to law schools in the fall of 2011, said he feels discouraged that the LSAT might be eliminated as an accreditation requirement.

“I feel like the LSAT right now is almost a barrier to entry, and it’s not exactly a bad thing because people that want to go to law school will study for the LSAT, and they’ll do well on it,” DeCoster said.

DeCoster said getting rid of the LSAT could have benefits.

He said removing it would allow for a more diverse group, by removing the test and allowing to pick more personalized groups of students coming in.

Polden expressed similar opinions. He said dropping the LSAT could have positive results.

“It would give schools some incentives or leeway to work with groups of prospective students,” Polden said. “This might be students who have a lot of talents or abilities, but not ones that are reflected on an LSAT score.”

Although dropping the LSAT might be useful, Dessem said he still thinks the test has many beneficial qualities. This year, for the incoming first-year law school class at MU, more than 1,000 people applied for the 150 available spots.

He said he believes it helps to put all the candidates on a level playing field.

“In a different sort of way, I think the LSAT is kind of the gold standard, in terms of admissions tests, to legal education,” Dessem said.