I got in because I had absolutely amazing LOR’s from nationally known advocacy groups. These were people I worked with and who know me extremely well– not just people who know me in passing. I also had a solid history of legal writings, as in motions and docketed commentary on cases, to point to. I know people who sit on admission committees (not anywhere I applied, ironically!) and they told me unequivocally that if you can write, and I mean really write, it makes up for a hell of a lot. I wrote way longer explanations for my C&F issues than I read was necessary, but it felt right to me. They were long, but every word counted. I wasn’t writing just to read myself. My admission committee friends also told me that the further you are from your undergrad, the less your GPA matters and the more your work matters. Obviously, this isn’t going to be true for some schools, but for a lot of them it certainly is. Finally, the places I was accepted are places where my LSAT was very comfortably in the higher margins of their medians.

Applying with some extreme negatives on your record doesn’t always work, but it’s always worth a try. The odds were extremely against me, but I went into it with three rock solid beliefs:

The law school I most want to attend is the one that accepts me. By this I mean I was not going to get all hung up on where I went and their ranking, especially when places like ATL have much different rankings based on entirely different (and some might argue more relevant) criteria. I know people who went to rock bottom schools they hate even admitting in public, and they are successfully making six figures now and enjoying their best lives.
I don’t actually want to go to law school; I want to be a lawyer. This is really 1a. It’s just further reminder of how the goal is not to go to a special favourite school– it’s to get a law degree so I can sit the bar and be a lawyer.
Even if no one accepts me, so what?! I’ll be in the same position I am now, and just try again later! This is something I think more people would be better off remembering when it comes to their dreams. People often say “oh I can’t do that– in X years I’ll be 30/40/50/whatever” and I can’t help but think “yeah and you will be even if you don’t, so what?” One of my mentors started law school at age 71 after a long career in public health. And rejection… listen, rejection sucks. Look at that red sea of rejection I have down there! But I’ve been rejected for far more important things. I’ve also got another shot in the future. And it changes nothing about my current situation if I get rejected. It just means I continue on as I am now. It doesn’t change my value as a person; it doesn’t change the work I do (whether or not I go to law school, I’m going to be working with lawyers doing social justice work); it doesn’t do anything. So shoot your shot!

So the biggest pieces of advice I can give are as follows:
Don’t be too proud to take an LSAT prep course. Even something simple online like 7Sage or whatever. If you’re broke, okay cool, use every single resource LSAC has. Study. Because your LSAT is going to be what a hell of a lot of your application will ride on if you have some big time negs on your record. I only studied for a month before my first LSAT in Dec, and got a 156. I was pissed. So pissed. I needed way more than that to make up for the crap in my background. So I studied for another couple months and took the March LSAT and got a 160. I wasn’t thrilled with that either. If I had been walking around with 170+ I would have felt way more comfortable, but I was going to try anyway. So prep for that LSAT and do it hard. But don’t count yourself out just because you’re under 170! Try anyway.
Be very honest, but do NOT paint yourself as a victim when explaining C&F or bad grade issues. The important part of these is to show what you learned, your understanding that this was bad / wrong, and steps you’ve taken to ensure it never happens again.
Make sure you have solid LORs from people who genuinely believe in you and are not just writing a generic “yeah sure, Burly should go to law school. She’s smart.” They should explain specifically why they think you should go, why they would love to work with you as a lawyer, and they should be excited to write this for you. If you have to bug someone for a LOR, this is not someone you want writing your LOR. If you feel a bit sheepish because they seem more excited about it than even you are, that’s exactly the kind of LOR (and support!) you need.
Don’t be afraid of rejection. Assume everywhere will reject you. Once you presume that is your outcome, then any acceptance is gravy. Keep your mind on the goal. Surround yourself with encouraging people who believe in you. Look to people who have gone down a similar path. If you have terrible grades, find people who got in with awful grades. If you have serious C&F problems (a speeding ticket is not a serious C&F issue) find people out there who went to law school after prison. There are tons of us out here. Sure, there are some rockstars who now work in criminal law or advocacy– but there are way more people who got a felony DUI, cleaned their life up, and now work in BigLaw making BigMoney doing generic M&A or contract work. We Are Everywhere.
Consider keeping this quest on a need-to-know basis until you get an acceptance somewhere. I barely need two hands to count the people I told prior to my first acceptance, and four of them were LOR writers. Some people will be very encouraging– but some others will be very negative, and try to talk you out of it. This is not what you need. “Well, I just don’t think that’s very realistic” is the last thing you need to hear. You already know that! So there is nothing wrong with keeping it close to the vest and looking to anonymous online forums (such as the chat here!) for support. It makes it all the sweeter when you tell them. I got to tell my dad I got accepted for his birthday, and he actually cried. And it was so much better telling him “oh hey look what I did” instead of “so I’m trying to do this…” and having him try to lower my expectations in some sort of misguided effort to keep me from being crushed.

And never forget: if you don’t get in, R&R, and try, try, try again! If you want it, you can get it eventually!