A Disturbing Trend in Law School Diversity

STEADY DEMAND

Over the past 15 years, African Americans and Mexican Americans have been applying to law schools in relatively constant numbers.

IMPROVING QUALITY

These African American and Mexican American applicants are doing better than ever on the leading indicators used by Law Schools to determine admissibility: undergraduate grade point average and LSAT scores.

RISING CAPACITY

During the same 15-year period, the size of law school classes and the total number of law schools have increased, resulting in nearly 4,000 more first-year matriculants.  There were 176 ABA-accredited law schools in 1992. In 2006, that number increased to 195 schools.

And yet...DECLINING ENROLLMENT

The percentage representation of both groups has actually trended downward since 1992.  In real numbers, there were fewer African American and Mexican American first year law students in the Fall, 2005 class (3595 combined) than existed in Fall, 1992 (3937).

Even taking into account the 2006 upswing in African American entering enrollees, heralded as the largest such increase in the past ten years, first-year African American and Mexican American enrollment has declined (3937 combined in 1992 v. 3914 combined in 2006). Mexican American first year enrollment has diminished by almost 10% since 1992.

The net result is that for African Americans and Mexican Americans, law schools are not progressing towards more inclusive admissions.  This affects everyone who is concerned about better education and a more representative legal profession.

Within this site you will find statistics, best practices and an analysis of Grutter that can provide a clearer sense of this disturbing trend and how it can be addressed. The underrepresentation of African Americans and Mexican Americans in law school will not go away on its own.