Law school is a scary place for any new student. For an older ("non-traditional") student, it can be intimidating as well as being ill-designed for the needs of an older, second-career student with children, mortgages, and the like. This book compiles advice from the author, lawyer-editors, and dozens of current and former law students, on such matters as dealing with families and children, the LSAT and GPAs for the older student, the law school application process and law school rankings for non-traditional students, paying for law school, surviving first year and non-academic hurdles, and the occasional skeleton in the non-traditional closet.

Law schools are, by their nature, traditional in attitude and in structure. Most books about law school take the same approach: they do not address the unique needs of the significant nontraditional segment of their student body. Other law school books focus on largely irrelevant factors such as rankings and employment in "prestigious" law firms. In short, while a large fraction of law students today would be considered non-traditional, there is little accurate, relevant material to help nontraditional students navigate the admissions process and ultimately succeed in law school. And that's where this focused guide steps in.