Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The American Bar Association law school accrediting arm on Friday approved a plan to remove an admission test requirement for accredited law schools.

The change, approved by the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, must be adopted by the ABA House of Delegates. If passed, it will pave the way for schools nationwide to more easily use the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and other tests besides the Law School Admission Test. It's unlikely that law schools will opt to admit students with no standardized test scores at all, even without a formal accreditation standard requiring the LSAT or another test.

“The schools are still going to have to show that any test they use is valid and reliable, and the LSAT has been shown to be,” said Kellye Testy, the president of the Law School Admission Council, last month when a committee recommended the change to the accrediting body.