The percentage of minority students either held or increased compared to 2023
Law student diversity did not drop following the US Supreme Court's 2023 decision to prohibit affirmative action in college admissions, according to the American Bar Association.
Reuters reported based on the ABA’s data that Black students comprised 7.71 percent of the current first-year juris doctor class numbering 39,684 – not far off from the 7.84 percent recorded in 2023 which was the last full admissions cycle before the implementation of the affirmative action ban. Hispanic students made up 14.17 percent of last year’s class – this year, they comprised 14.2 percent. The percentage of Asian first-year students came in at 9.76 percent – a rise of 2 percentage points compared to last year.
Overall, people of color made up almost 48 percent of law students this year, up from last year’s ~47 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of White first-year students dropped to 56.74 percent this year from 57.8 percent in 2023.
According to Reuters, law schools said that they adjusted application essays to better understand candidates and their backgrounds without breaching the ban. Moreover, the Law School Admission Council amped up efforts to reach out to a wide range of potential lawyers.
Overall, the percentage of current applicants ticked up by 25 percent; the percentage of Black applicants increased by almost 38 percent while that of Hispanic applicants increased by nearly 29 percent, as per the council.
AccessLex Center for Legal Education’s executive director, Aaron Taylor, described these diversity trends as encouraging; nonetheless, more analysis was needed to determine the total impact of the affirmative action ban – including whether fewer students of color enrolled at the leading law schools. Earlier this year, Harvard Law School reported a drop in the percentage of POC students in its incoming class.
Association of American Law Schools’ executive director, Kellye Testy, said that she expected conservative legal groups to file suits against the law schools that sustained or increased student diversity.
“I think people will want to argue that schools did something illegal, even though I don't think that's the case,” Testy said in a statement published by Reuters.
ABA-accredited law schools reported almost 5 percent more first-year students than last year due a 6 percent boost in applicants. However, the number of juris doctor students dipped by 1.23 percent after a particularly large 2021 first-year class graduated.
This year, the ABA altered its diversity reporting methodology by integrating data on non-US residents into individual race categories instead of establishing a separate category – a modification that impacts direct year-on-year comparisons, Reuters noted. According to an ABA spokesperson, the effect of the methodology change on this year’s race and ethnicity statistics could not be determined since specific non-resident information was not obtained.
Non-US resident students made up 3.71 percent of the first-year class in 2023.
