The Real Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: An Empirical Critique of Richard Sander's Study

45 Pages Posted: 27 May 2005 Last revised: 26 Oct 2012

See all articles by David L. Chambers

David L. Chambers

University of Michigan Law School

Timothy T. Clydesdale

College of New Jersey

William Kidder

UCLA Civil Rights Project

Richard Lempert

University of Michigan Law School

Date Written: May 2005

Abstract

In an article in Stanford Law Review, Richard Sander argues that the practice of American law schools of taking race into account in admissions to law school perversely leads to fewer black lawyers entering the bar each year than would be the case without affirmative action. Sander's claim is that, while ending affirmative action would reduce somewhat the number of black students admitted to any law school, there would in the end be more black lawyers because those black students who do attend law school would no longer attend schools where they are over their heads academically and would graduate and pass the bar at much higher rates than they do today. To reach his conclusions he relies on projections based on an analysis of several datasets including the Bar Passage Study of the Law School Admissions Council. The article that follows is a response to Sander, also to be published in the Stanford Law. Resting on a reanalysis of the same datasets on which Sander relies, it concludes that ending affirmative action for black applicants to law school, far from leading to a net increase in the numbers of black attorneys, would probably lead to a decline of new lawyers in the range of 30 to 40 percent each year.

A companion paper can be found at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=886382 (Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: A Critical Response to Richard Sander's "A Reply to Critics").

Suggested Citation

Chambers, David L. and Clydesdale, Timothy T. and Kidder, William and Lempert, Richard, The Real Impact of Eliminating Affirmative Action in American Law Schools: An Empirical Critique of Richard Sander's Study (May 2005). Michigan Law and Economics Working Paper No. 05-007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=730506

David L. Chambers (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States
802-295-5824 (Phone)

Timothy T. Clydesdale

College of New Jersey ( email )

P.O. Box 7718
Ewing, NJ 08628-0718
United States

William Kidder

UCLA Civil Rights Project ( email )

8370 Math Sciences, Box 951521
UC Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA 90095
United States

Richard Lempert

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

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