Law schools have been doing their very best to recruit diverse students and professors; in fact, in recent years, we’ve seen record numbers of law school deans and faculty members of color, and just last week, NYU Law announced its first Black dean (who will be the only Black dean in the T14). That said, if you’re a person of color searching for a law school where you’ll be truly valued for who you are as a person, rather than a law school where you’ll be nothing more than a face in marketing materials to promote diversity and inclusion efforts, then have we got a ranking for you.
The National Jurist recently updated its Best Law Schools for Diversity ranking, noting the top law schools for each major minority category in the nation: African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The following criteria were considered for inclusion on this year’s list:
We graded each school on three data points: 1) Percentage of students in each ethnic group (50%); 2) Percentage of minority law professors (25%); 3) Diversity services offered by the school (25%).
Student enrollment was determined by adding the number of students who identify as members of each ethnic group with a ratio or students who are two or more races and dividing by the number of students for whom race is known. Data is from the ABA.
Faculty figures are based on the total number of minority faculty members at each school. Data provided by the ABA.
Services are based on: office or administrator who assists minorities (36%); bar exam preparation support (18%); whether the school has a mentoring program for minorities and/or first generation law students (11%); whether the school has student groups that promote the needs of each ethnicity (11%); whether the school has endowed scholarships for minorities (11%); whether the school offers a summer law school preparation program for admitted students (7%); whether the school offers employment workshops designed to help minority students (7%). Data provided by the schools.
Without further ado, here are the top 5 law schools for African American students, Asian students, Hispanic students, and Native American students:
African American Students
- North Carolina Central University
- Florida A&M University
- Howard University
- Texas Southern University
- Southern University Law Center
Asian Students
- UC Irvine
- UC Hastings
- Santa Clara Law
- CUNY School of Law
- UC Davis School of Law
Hispanic Students
- CUNY School of Law
- University of New Mexico
- University of Miami
- Golden Gate University
- California Western School of Law
Native American Students
- University of New Mexico
- University of Arizona
- University of Oklahoma
- Oklahoma City University
- University of Illinois Chicago
Congratulations to each of the law schools listed and all of their students!
Click here to see the full rankings, courtesy of preLaw magazine.
Best Law Schools for Diversity [preLaw magazine]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
