Harvard Law School Admissions Veteran Karen Buttenbaum to Join Spivey Consulting

The Spivey Consulting Group today announced that Karen Buttenbaum, Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, will join the group as a partner and consultant as of September 1, 2013.

Buttenbaum, presently Director of Admissions at Harvard Law School, has served at HLS for the past 12 years. In this time she has read over 16,000 applications to Harvard Law, has conducted  thousands of interviews with those applicants, and has maintained contact with businesses,  pre-law societies and students at many of the top undergraduate universities in the nation. Further, Buttenbaum has been involved in several innovative methods of law school applicant review, including the practice of Skype and telephone interviewing of law school applicants.

Mike Spivey, founder and partner at The Spivey Consulting Group, had this to say regarding Karen’s arrival:

“Karen is an exciting addition to the team, bringing unparalleled experience and insight into the law school admissions process. She has gained national recognition in her time at Harvard and will vastly enhance the admissions and law school consulting services that we provide.”

“Karen and I have had many discussions over the years on how to do law admissions consulting ‘the right way,’ and I know Karen is committed to our mission to offer the most value to law school applicants. She is, without question, committed to the integrity of the law school admissions process and will now bring that passion and dedication to the service of the individual applicant. The goal of The Spivey Consulting Group is to continually improve our services and to be the absolute best in the business; with Karen as a leading member of our team, we are putting the right person – one with experience on both sides of the application process – behind our vision.”

Buttenbaum agrees.

“Helping prospective law students gain admission to their top school(s) is something I know Mike is exceptionally passionate about, and our shared vision for how to do this as professionals with an insider’s knowledge and more than 24 combined years of industry experience is what has me so excited. We are both in this for the long-haul and believe that we offer unparalleled insight and experience. Our combined perspective on the process should give clients a substantial advantage and we will continually seek to do everything we can to help prospective law  students in this competitive and important step in their legal careers.”


Spivey Consulting offers premier services for law school applicants, current students and job seekers, and law schools. Years of experience in admissions, career services, and strategic initiatives at leading law schools combined with a highly individualized and client-centered approach have afforded hundreds of Spivey Consulting clients the ability to navigate the admissions process from an insider’s perspective and has helped law schools to reengineer their admissions and career placement operations.  For more information contact:info@spiveyconsulting.com