A Snapshot of Racial Disparities in Legal Education

A new report from the AccessLex Institute finds that 11 percent of all students who applied to law school in 2022 were Black. Whites made up nearly 60 percent of all law school applicants.

Some 78 percent of White applicants who applied to law school were accepted to at least one law school. In contrast, only 48 percent of Black or African American applicants were accepted to a law school.

During the 2021-22 academic year, Blacks made up 8.1 percent of all enrollments in law school and 8.7 percent of all those who did not return for their second year.

Blacks earned 7 percent of all juris doctorates awarded in 2022. Whites earned 63 percent of all such degrees.

One half of all Black students in the nation’s law schools were enrolled in just 36 law schools.

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