The U.S.-based, not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting quality, access, and equity in law and education worldwide – Law School Admission Council (LSAC®) – has recently announced two scholarships that will bestow aspiring lawyers taking the upcoming LSAT-India test the opportunity to study at some of the best law schools in India.
Being awarded for the second consecutive year, the LSAT-India Topper Scholarship will offer up to a maximum of INR 4 lakhs to the 2020 LSAT-India Scholar. The test taker who achieves the overall highest reported score on the LSAT-India sceduled on May 17, 2020 test administration will be adjudged the 2020 LSAT-India Scholar.
Moreover, LSAC is also instituting a new scholarship – the Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice Scholarship – which will be based on the results of an essay competition. Under this new scholarship, a maximum of INR 4 lakhs will be awarded to the 2020 LSAT-India test take who will submits the winning essay. The details about the application process and deadline will soon be available on the discoverlaw.in website. The submission deadline for entries is Friday, May 8, 2020.
The chair of the LSAC Board of Trustees, Kevin Washburn said that diversity has always been central to the Law School Admission Council’s mission, and he was pleased to introduce the Shamnad Basheer Access to Justice Scholarship that extended LSAC’s longstanding commitment to improving access to legal education for deserving students across India’s socioeconomic groups. Mr. Washburn was hopeful that along with the second edition of the LSAT-India Topper Scholarship, these opportunities will empower law students on their journey to becoming world-class lawyers.
The spokesperson for IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education) Charitable Trust said that Prof. (Dr.) Shamnad Basheer had founded IDIA Charitable Trust to foster greater diversity, inclusion and accessibility in the legal ecosystem. He further stated that the scholarships announced by LSAC are a great step forward in this direction and IDIA hopes to see many more such initiatives for benefit of law aspirants. In the end, IDIA also extended its congratulations to LSAC for this wonderful initiative honoring Prof. Basheer.