Diversity in the Legal Profession: The Challenge Ahead

The ABA Presidential Diversity Initiative, convened to examine the diversity crisis within the legal profession, issued its final report on april 10, 2010.  Click here to download a copy of the ABA Presidential Diversity Initiative, Report on Diversity in the Profession, April 2010. 

A preliminary report was issued in February 2010 and the authors of the Report on Diversity invited comments. On March 15, 2010, SALT submitted its letter, applauding the effort, but asking some hard questions about why the legal profession lags behind other professions in reflecting the demographics of the country.  Click here to download a copy of SALT's March 15, 2010 Comments. 

The collaboration between SALT and Columbia Law School’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic to revise its 2007 analysis of law school admissions was cited in the ABA Report.   “A Disturbing Trend in Law School Admissions,” a website hosted by Columbia Law School, analyzes the demographics of law school admissions over the last fifteen years.  The results are indeed “disturbing.”  The percentage of African-American and Mexican-American students enrolled at U.S. law schools declined in the last 15 years, even though students in both groups improved their grades and LSAT scores. 

According to this new analysis of Law School Admissions Council data, percentages for both groups dropped even though 3,000 more first-year seats became available as the number of ABA-approved law schools increased to 200. 

Despite these circumstances, there was a 7.5% drop in the representation of African-American students entering the class of 2008 compared to 1993, with an 11.7 percent decline in Mexican-American students during that period.  This trend is especially disturbing because the number of applicants held relatively constant and average undergraduate grade-point averages and LSAT scores improved over the 15-year period.  None of the new 3,000 seats at the twenty-four new law schools have been filled by students from these traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. 

The Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic analyzed data that found that 61% of black applicants and 46% of Chicano applicants were denied acceptance from all law schools to which they applied, as compared to 34% of white applicants.

SALT is particularly concerned about this trend, especially at a time when a less diverse pool of lawyers and judges might lead to a diminished faith in the administration of justice and credibility of the legal system generally. 

On January 14, 2010, LSAC issued an email to the deans of American law schools questioning this analysis.  Click here to read the LSAC's email to deans. 

Columbia Law School’s Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic and SALT stand by the conclusions drawn from the written data provided by LSAC to those involved in the study.  Click here to read Professor Conrad Johnson's response to the LSAC criticism. 

1. The statistical charts provided by LSAC are more detailed than the information on LSAC’s public website and do not contain an asterisk or other indication of a change in methodology.

2. LSAC’s statement does not controvert the conclusion highlighted in our study that the number of African-American and Mexican-American first year matriculants has failed to keep pace with expansion of law school seats as more law schools are approved by the ABA. Nor does LSAC’s statement contest the principle assertion of our analysis that African Americans and Mexican Americans captured none of the nearly 3,000 additional first year seats that became available between 1993 and 2008, the period cited in our study.
     
3. Instead, the figures provided by LSAC in its January 14, 2010 email circulated to deans speak in terms of “diversity among law school matriculants” and not specifically to the decrease in proportional representation of African Americans and Mexican Americans.

4. We do not contest the assertion that diversity has increased somewhat. However, representation in the first-year class of African Americans and Mexican Americans has decreased over the 15 year period between 1993-2008. In our study and press release, we were careful to make this important distinction.
 
5. LSAC’s email states, “While there may be positive or negative movements in figures from one end point (e.g. Fall 2001) to another (e.g. Fall 2008), there is variability in the interim years.” What it fails to state is that in each year between 1994-2008, the number of African-American first-year matriculants is less than the number in the base year of our study, 1993.  For Mexican Americans the number of first-year matriculants was lower in 10 of the 15 years reported by LSAC, including each of the past 9 years.

Go to:

“A Disturbing Trend in Law School Admissions.” 
Graphs & Data
Best Practices
The Grutter Decision
Diversity Resources

Read the January 6, 2010 article in The New York Times.

Read the January 7, 2010 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Watch January 15, 2010 interview with Professor Conrad Johnson on Legal Broadcast Network.

ABA Presidential Diversity Initiative, Report on Diversity in the Profession, February 2010

SALT's March 15, 2010 Comments