The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), a centralised test for admission to leading law schools in India, has competition. LSAT — India, a version of the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) conducted globally by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is extending its reach to prominent law colleges in India.

LSAT-India scores will be accepted by 25 colleges this year as against 4 colleges last year. LSAT — India, is administered by assessments and testing company Pearson VUE. India has 13 national law schools (NLS) and around 900 law colleges.

The list of Indian law colleges accepting LSAT — India scores include Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), University of Petroleum & Energy Studies — Dehradun and JSS Law College — Mysore among others. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur has also decided to accept LSAT — India scores for admission to its three-year bachelor of law (LLB) programme in intellectual property law. With India’s emergence as a knowledge superpower, IP law is fast becoming a lucrative career option for students from science, medicine and engineering backgrounds.

“We are very optimistic about the Indian market as an increasing number of India’s schools are adopting the test as their primary admission requirement. This is an endorsement of the quality benchmarks established by the LSAT. The test would also accommodate students who apply to more than one law school in India,” says Daniel O Bernstein, president, LSAC.

LSAT — India 2011 will be conducted on 30 April, 2011 at 17 cities across the country.