2023 Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms

Overall, women, people of color, and LGBTQ lawyers continued to see incremental improvements in representation at major U.S. law firms in 2023 as compared with 2022, according to the latest demographic findings from the analyses of the 2023 NALP Directory of Legal Employers (NDLE) — the annual compendium of legal employer data published by NALP. For the first time ever, women made up the majority of associates in 2023, with that percentage likely to grow in the coming years. Another bright spot in this year’s report is the largest ever year-over-year increase in the percentage of associates of color — growing by 1.8 percentage points to 30.15%. Additionally, women saw record annual growth at the partnership level — where they now comprise 27.76% of all partners (a 1.1 percentage point increase) and Black and Latina women each finally accounted for 1% of all partners for the first time in 2023. Despite these improvements, both women and people of color are particularly underrepresented within the partner ranks, with women of color accounting for less than 5% of partners overall. While progress was made at the associate and partnership levels in 2023, for the first time since 2017 the percentage of summer associates of color declined. However, by both gender and race/ethnicity, summer associates are more diverse when compared to the demographics of recent law school graduates. After a large increase in the percentage of Black and multiracial summer associates in 2022, these were the only racial/ethnic groups to see a decline in representation at the summer associate level in 2023 — driving the overall decline in summer associates of color. The share of LGBTQ summer associates continued to grow at a much higher rate when compared to lawyers overall — with now almost 12% identifying as LGBTQ. The tables and charts that follow provide an in-depth analysis of the state of diversity in U.S. law firms in 2023 and how these figures have changed over time

American Law School Faculty Study

As higher and legal education continue to evolve, gaining a comprehensive understanding of law school faculty is increasingly important. To this end, the American Law School Faculty Study provides a snapshot of law teaching and today and is the first of its kind to detail faculty career pathways and work experiences as well as recent hiring trends in legal education. Primarily drawing on two surveys, one at the school-level and one at the individual-level, this study details analysis of responses from 117 current or acting deans and 1,892 faculty members across 194 AALS member and fee-paid law schools. It was designed to investigate several research questions: Who are law school faculty today? What are the main career pathways to teaching law? What are the current hiring practices of law schools? What are the expectations of law faculty for earning tenure? What are the job responsibilities of law faculty and how much time do they allocate to each? How satisfied are law school faculty with their jobs? In presenting novel findings about the current legal education landscape, the report offers key insights on law school faculty demographic profiles, professional experiences, and institutional characteristics, such as selectivity and governance

Determinants of Success on the Bar Exam: One Law School\u27s Experience 2010-2023

From 2010-2013, the UC Law SF first-time bar pass rate floated with the average first-time pass rate of graduates of ABA-accredited law schools in California. But suddenly, in the space of three years (2014-2016), the law school’s bar pass rate dropped to a much greater degree than changes in student metrics or statewide variations in pass rates could explain, to a historical low on the July 2016 administration of the California Bar Exam of just 51%. In response, the law school thoroughly revamped its approach to teaching academic and bar success skills. Within three years, the UC Law SF bar pass rate increased by about 30%. This Article uses statistical analysis to assess which of the law school’s academic reforms adopted after 2016 contributed to the law school’s bar pass turnaround

Predicting Bar Success: The Mediating Effects of Law School GPA

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What High-Impact Practices Work for Minoritized Students? Institutional Inequities in College Learning Opportunities and Outcomes

This mixed-methods study examines what high-impact practices (HIPs) help improve the chances of college and career success among minoritized students. Building on transformative and ecological perspectives of HIPs, the study tracks U.S. 4-year college students’ learning opportunities towards bachelor’s degree completion followed by job employment or graduate/professional school enrollment. It explores a more comprehensive and diverse set of HIPs: academic and sociocultural engagement, study abroad, foreign language, co-op/internship, student teaching, advanced math and writing courses, research, and volunteer activities. Statistical analyses of the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) data reveal racial and socioeconomic inequities in HIP participation among different types of institutions, with relatively favorable opportunities and outcomes in private or research (doctorate-granting) universities. The qualitative analyses of college student interviews offer insights into the questions of why and how HIPs work (or not) for minoritized students. The study gives evidence-based policy guidelines for improving minoritized students’ college and career success by tackling institutional inequities in high-impact practices and learning opportunities

Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements

This source provides information on bar admission requirements, including legal education, character and fitness, and bar exam requirements, in all US jurisdictions

Legal Education Data Deck

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Predicting Bar Success: The Mediating Effects of Law School GPA

Most American law schools evaluate candidates for admission based on final undergraduate GPA (UGPA) and Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores, due in part to accreditation requirements and institutional bar passage goals. However, a host of studies have demonstrated racial and ethnic score disparities associated with the LSAT, and prior literature suggests that admissions metrics have limited utility for predicting bar passage—especially when accounting for academic performance in law school. This study uses data from nearly 20,000 lawyers who graduated from 39 law schools to build on previous literature. We propose statistical mediation to achieve a more accurate understanding of the relationship between, and predictive value, of law school admission factors, 1L LGPA, and first-time bar passage. We find that (1) statistical mediation is preferable to moderation, revealing that (2) 1L LGPA mediates, or accounts for, 81 percent and 73 percent of the predictive effects of final UGPA and LSAT, respectively, on first-time bar passage. Therefore, using LSAT score and UGPA to predict bar passage underemphasizes the role that law schools play in preparing their students for the bar exam and a legal career

DataLab

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) DataLab allows users to create custom analyses using data from its longitudinal studies. Information regarding students who matriculate to and graduate from J.D. programs is available from the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B), National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, Graduate (NPSAS: GR), and National Postsecondary Student Aid Study-Administrative Collection (NPSAS-AC) studies. The B&B study provides information regarding students who graduated college in a given year and later matriculated to law school. The NPSAS studies provide student aid information regarding students who enrolled in or completed a J.D. program. Users who are new to the NCES DataLab may utilize its Learning Center for instruction and tutorials

Bar Passage Data by Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: 2023-2024

This source includes data on bar passage rates (first-time and ultimate) by race, ethnicity, and gender. The data comes from the American Bar Association\u27s 2023 and 2024 Bar Passage Questionnaires