Blacks Lagging in Law School Admissions

Conrad Johnson, a professor of Columbia Law School, has published research showing that although black applicants to American law schools now have higher grade point averages and higher scores on the Law School Admission Test the number of blacks gaining places at the nation’s law schools has declined over the past five years. The data shows that from 2003 to 2008, 61 percent of all blacks who applied to law school did not gain admission to any school to which they applied. Only 34 percent of all white applicants did not get in to any law school to which they submitted an application. The data reveals that in 2008, 3,392 of the 46,500 students entering law school, or 7.3 percent, were black.

Professor Johnson has been on the Columbia Law School faculty since 1989. He is a graduate of Columbia University and Brooklyn Law School.

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