Law school diversity persists after affirmative action ban, new ABA report finds
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious affirmative action policies did little to impact the makeup of 2024’s first year law students. (Image from Shutterstock)
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against race-conscious affirmative action policies did little to impact the makeup of 2024’s first year law students, according to the 2024 Standard 509 Information Report data overview from the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
The annual report’s information, released Dec. 16, is provided by accredited law schools.
Black students accounted for 7.7% of the JD students in the incoming class, compared with 7.8% last year, while Hispanic students made up 14.2%, compared with 14.17% in 2023, according to the ABA reports.
Overall, total enrollment of 1Ls in fall 2024 hit 39,689 students at ABA-accredited law schools this academic year, up 4.76% from a year earlier, but total enrollment in JD programs dropped to 115,410 in 2024, down 1.23% from a year earlier. However, 23,583 students were enrolled in non-JD programs at law schools, according to the data, a 2.39% increase over 2023.
This year is the first one that “a U.S. nonresident” is not classified as a separate race/ethnicity category. Instead, those students are added to the appropriate race/ethnicity and gender categories, as reported by the law schools.
More women than men continue to study law, with women comprising 56.1% of this year’s 1L class, compared with 42% men, 1% of another gender identity and 0.9% who preferred not to respond.
“Next year, we may see even a bit of a higher spike toward women, as Vice President [Kamala] Harris has a JD and often referenced her time as a DA when a wave of students were applying to law school this year,” school admissions consultant Mike Spivey of Spivey Consulting told the ABA Journal.
Additionally, for the first time, this year’s survey collected information on which admissions test score was used for each student admitted . Despite a growing number of options, an overwhelming number of students chose to take the Law School Admissions Test, according to the report.
There were 38,728 students who were admitted with LSAT score on their law school application in the class starting in fall 2024, while 701 were admitted via the Graduate Record Examination and 23 used the JD-Next prep course and entrance test, according to a press release. In addition, 237 were accepted without a standardized test score.
Until last month, the ABA rules permitted law schools to admit 10% of its class without an admissions test score. But in November, the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar expanded that option, approving a variance upping that to 100%.
Over the next few admissions cycles, “a growing percentage won’t have a score at all,” Spivey says. “It’s 50-50 that we will see a glide path of schools accepting more and more applications each year going forward with no test scores.”
The ABA council is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the national accrediting agency for JD programs. The section and its governing council operate for accreditation purposes as independent arms of the ABA.
“Providing accurate information about law schools to the public, especially prospective students, is one of the section’s most important responsibilities,” said Jennifer Rosato Perea, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education, in a release.
Data on bar passage statistics are expected to be released in February, according to the release, and employment outcomes for the class of 2024 measuring law graduate employment about 10 months after spring graduation are expected in April 2025.
