PHILADELPHIA – Aspiring attorneys unhappy with the costs of applying to law school could be helped by a recently filed antitrust case that challenges fees charged by the Law School Admission Council.
Linvel Risner of Georgia filed a class action this month in Philadelphia federal court against LSAC, which is alleged to charge prospective law students hundreds of dollars for doing very little work.
Though individual schools can charge whatever they want for law school applications and sometimes waive those fees altogether, students still must use the LSAC application processing platform. The suit says LSAC does “little more than transmit basic application information” while making more than $30 million annually.
“This astronomical sum is untethered to any actual costs or the value of LSAC’s Law School Application Platform in a competitive market,” the suit says.
“Without LSAC’s unlawful price fixing and monopolization of law school application platforms, law school applicants would not pay the mammoth, standalone LSAC platform fees.”
Students pay a $215 upfront fee then another $45 per application, the suit says, costing them an average of nearly $500 paid to LSAC. Filings for Fiscal Year 2023 show LSAC has $250 million in net assets despite being a nonprofit.
“LSAC has violated federal antitrust law and gouged law school applicants attempting to follow their dreams,” the suit says.
The case appears to be the first alleging antitrust violations against LSAC. It was filed by Peter McCall of Hilgers Graben in Pittsburgh, William Burgess of Atlanta and Bennett Rawicki of Dallas.
Though the fee LSAC charges has recently increased, applications have not decreased. The lawyers say this is evidence of LSAC’s hold on the market and that there was a 23% increase in applicants in the 2025 cycle.
“There are no procompetitive benefits of LSAC’s monopolization scheme, nor was there a legitimate or sufficient business justification,” the suit says.
