A blog exploring all aspects of law and legal education — the future of the legal profession, access to justice, diversity and inclusion, testing and assessment, law and technology, and more.
Displaying 10 of 20
Victoria Esparza saw her life upended by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a senior studying political science and Spanish at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Esparza hoped to enter law school the fall after graduation. But financial hardships related to the pandemic, and needing to care for her younger sister while their mother worked, forced her to delay her plans.
Kristen Juhan crunched the numbers and found her career wasn’t adding up. She’d majored in business economics in college and was working as a certified public accountant, but it wasn’t as fulfilling as she’d hoped it would be.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is posing challenges across the board for law schools, but student affairs professionals are dealing with particular challenges as they communicate with incoming first-year students. To gain some insight into what these students should know as we approach an uncertain fall semester, I recently hosted a webinar with three student affairs professionals: Stephanie Carlos, assistant dean for student affairs at University of San Francisco School of Law; Bayrex Martí, assistant dean for student affairs at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law; and Ethan Rosenzweig, associate dean for enrollment management and student services at Emory University School of Law.
We live in a changing society, and technological advancements such as artificial intelligence and automation are creating challenges, but also exciting opportunities, for law schools. How are these trends shaping law schools’ approaches to serving their students?
Today, July 26, is the 29th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act being signed into law.
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) has evolved over the years, but it has remained the gold standard in legal education since it was introduced over 70 years ago. Accepted by every law school in the country, over 100,000 people take it every year, and 99.6% of the people who entered law school last year used the LSAT in their applications.
Falsified test results. Nonexistent athletic careers invented via Photoshop. Massive amounts of money. These were the hallmarks of the admissions scandal that’s rocking the world of higher education.
Today I am thrilled to introduce Flor Gonzalez, a 3L student at Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law in California. Like Kendeil Dorvilier and Mamadou Jawo, Flor is already committed to doing work in the legal field that will advance equity, access, and diversity across our society.
This week I’m pleased to introduce Mamadou Jawo, whose journey to law school at the University of Wisconsin began in his childhood, in West Africa. There, one day after school, he went to see his father at the police station where his father worked, and what he saw there became a cornerstone in his dream of becoming a lawyer.
One of the biggest challenges I face in leading the Law School Admission Council is also one of the most rewarding parts of my job: advancing access and equity through law and legal education. While the challenge comes from the structural inequities in society that only grow deeper without keen vigilance and productive action, the reward comes from working with our member schools and others who join in LSAC’s mission to “bend the arc” toward justice.
