As racial and ethnic population changes occur in the United States these same changes should be reflected in the legal community of lawyers and judges. Although Black and Hispanic populations have been increasing over the past 30 years in the United States, this same proportionate increase has not occurred in the American Bar Association (ABA)…

The literature on student academic success of law students is limited to mostly single institution studies, and as such, a nationwide, multi-institutional empirical study of the factors that predict student academic success is greatly needed by higher education scholars, law school admission officers, faculty, and administrators. This dissertation…

Since the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) was first administered, the sponsors of the test have carried out predictive validity studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the test and other predictors in determining first-year law school performance. This report presents a summary of correlation study results for the 1995 and 1996 study years. The…

This study was undertaken to evaluate the predictive validity of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) earned under accommodated testing conditions. Of special interest was the validity of scores obtained by test takers who were accommodated under nonstandard time conditions (i.e., accommodations that included extra testing time). Separate…

This study focuses on the relationship between the personality characteristics of entering law students and academic success in law school. The subjects (137) were entering law school students at Pepperdine University School of Law. Students were administered the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) as a measure of their temperament and…

This report proposes an approach to formalize the law school admission process by first requiring law schools to delineate the characteristics they want their incoming classes to possess (e.g., types of undergraduate major, percent of in-state versus out-of-state residents, and levels of cultural diversity). These are then used as constraints on…

This study was designed to address questions of differential prediction of law school grades for various racial/ethnic minority subgroups. Differential prediction was evaluated by comparing the predicted and actual law school first-year grade point averages (FYAs) for various racial/ethnic subgroups within individual law schools based on…

This report provides information about test takers with disabilities who participated in a variety of accommodated administrations of the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Results indicate the number of LSATs administered with accommodations increased 100% from 1990 to 1993. During that 4-year period, more than 2,700 LSATs were administered under…

This is a guide for minority group members who are considering entering law school and offers suggestions for success in the application process, in law school itself, and in choosing a career path. The first chapters guide the reader in self-assessment. Chapter 1 poses challenging questions about reasons for considering law school and chances for…