Compounding Inequities in Law School Are Not Insurmountable

Newly released data reveals that, although students of color are steadily making up a higher percentage of those receiving law degrees, racial diversity in law school admissions, and attendance remains relatively stagnant. Some measures of academic success also declined for law students of color in 2023.

AccessLex Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates access to legal education, released its biannual summary of demographic, financial, and academic data about U.S. law students and applicants. AccessLex found that in 2023, the proportion of law degrees awarded to students of color was the highest recorded — 31% of degree recipients were non-white.

Tiffane CochranHowever, the percentage of first-year law students who were people of color — 35% — barely changed between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years. Additionally, in the 2022-23 school year, Black and Hispanic students made up a significantly higher proportion of first-year law school attrition than they did the prior year. In 2022-23, 15% of students who withdrew from law school after their first year were Black, and 19% were Hispanic, up from 8.7% and 13% the previous school year.

“We know that that attrition measure isn't just picking up on academic attrition,” said Tiffane Cochran, AccessLex’s vice president for research. “It also includes attrition for other reasons — so that could be financial reasons, that could be, ‘I'm having financial or health or family difficulties that just don't allow me to persist at this point in my legal education.’ And those issues tend to disproportionately affect students of color and their experience.”

Angela Winfield, vice president and chief diversity officer for the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), said the jump in attrition rates demonstrates why “it's not just about getting [students of color] in the door, it's about ushering them through.” Access is important, but law schools must also focus on supporting students of color along their academic journeys, she said.

Law school admission rates for applicants of color remained low and stagnant between 2022 and 2023, with just 47% of Black applicants, 57% of Hispanic applicants, and 53% of Indigenous applicants receiving at least one law school admission offer in 2023, compared with 79% of white applicants. On the other hand, 69% of Asian applicants received at least one offer, nearly on par with the average for all applicants, which was70%.

Low acceptance rates for minority students are heavily influenced by two main factors, Cochran explained. First, Black and Hispanic students, on average, earn lower LSAT scores than their white and Asian peers. Second, they tend to apply for law school later in the rolling admissions cycle, after many spots have been filled.