Combating Diversity Gap in Law: Start With Law Schools

Almost 40 percent of the U.S. population identifies as a person of color, but only about 15 percent of lawyers, or about 1.2 million, fit that category, according to a new report by the AccessLex Institute, a legal education and research group.

The reasons for that disparity start long before college graduates apply to law school, the report said.

AccessLex recommended that law schools take a series of concrete steps to make their program a better known and more viable education option for more people.

Few students with diverse backgrounds apply to law school in large part because they have ...