Two questions in this one:
I know that professional letters are acceptable as long as you've been out of school for some time. I graduated in 2015 and have been working at a large, well-known company since then. I think that my manager could provide a strong rec letter accounting for my time since graduation. I have one strong academic reference, but the other professors I plan on asking for rec letters don't know me as well as my manager does. Given my situation, what would carry more weight for a law school---a strong second letter from a manager or a second letter from a professor whose class I did well/participated in, but who doesn't know me as well?
I was a TA for a semester in college, but being a TA was technically counted as a class. I had to learn all of the material that I was teaching on top of participating in weekly meetings with the course professor and the other TA's. In these meetings, we learned how to teach classes made sure we understood the material for the week. We were also graded. If I ask this professor for a reference, would it count as academic?
You could also just submit a new pic with the beard and not shave. :)