LSAC's Credential Assembly Service: What It Does for Law Applicants

What CAS actually does

CAS exists to save every law school from processing your transcripts and letters separately. You send your undergraduate and any graduate transcripts to LSAC once, and LSAC summarizes and authenticates them into a standard format every school in the CAS system recognizes. LSAC does the same for your letters of recommendation, then combines all of it with your LSAT score into a single law school report, according to LSAC's own service description .

Instead of mailing separate transcripts to 10 or 15 schools yourself, you request one report per school through your LSAC account, and LSAC sends the full package electronically. Nearly every ABA-approved law school requires applicants to use CAS rather than accepting documents directly.

What's included in the subscription

• Transcript summarization and authentication for every undergraduate and graduate school you attended

• Processing of both paper and electronic letters of recommendation

• Your LSAT score history combined into the final report

• Access to electronic applications for ABA-approved law schools

What it costs

A CAS subscription costs $219 and stays active for 5 years from the date you purchase it, so you do not need to repurchase it if you apply again in a future cycle within that window. Each individual law school report costs $45, charged separately every time you request one for a specific school.

Applying to 10 schools means 10 separate $45 report fees on top of the subscription.

LSAC offers fee waivers to applicants who qualify financially, covering the CAS subscription and a set number of law school reports. This lowers the cost of applying broadly for applicants who qualify.

How to set it up

Subscribe to CAS through your LSAC account before you request your first transcript or letter. Request transcripts directly from each school's registrar to be sent to LSAC, either electronically or by mail depending on what the school offers. Set up your letters of recommendation service in the same account and give your recommenders instructions for submitting through LSAC rather than sending letters straight to schools.

Once your transcripts and letters are in the system and your LSAT score has posted, request a law school report for each school as you apply. Give yourself at least 4-6 weeks before your first application deadline for transcripts and letters to fully process, since schools and recommenders do not always submit immediately after you request them.

Why nearly every school requires it

Law schools rely on CAS because it standardizes GPA calculation across thousands of different undergraduate grading systems, which makes applicants easier to compare fairly. It also reduces fraud risk, since LSAC authenticates transcripts directly with your school's registrar rather than accepting documents you submit yourself.