AccessLex
Since launching our grantmaking activities in 2014, we have awarded over $26.4 million in support of our research priorities: access, affordability, and the value of legal education.
Awarded Grants
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![Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, University of Denver [logo]](/sites/default/files/styles/image/public/2025-02/IAALS_DU_Logo_Vertical_Color.png.webp?itok=GcbUUGnO){kind=logo}
University of Denver and the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS)
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
January 2025
Amount:
$247,532
Status:
Awarded
Pathways to Legal Licensure: Individualized and Comparative Outcomes
The purpose of this research is to gain an empirically grounded understanding of the degree to which both exam-based and performance-based approaches to legal licensure are valid, reliable, fair, aligned with curriculum, and feasible — as well as the degree to which these pathways achieve their own stated goals. Findings of this study will support development of robust legal licensure ecosystems across the country.
The Law College Association of the University of Arizona (LCA) on behalf of the James E. Rogers College of Law
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
November 2024
Amount:
$300,000
Status:
Awarded
Expanding Bar Admission Pathways to Fill Access to Justice Gaps in Arizona
The Arizona Supreme Court has recently adopted the Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program as a supplemental bar licensure pathway that will address general state needs for more lawyers and respond to the pervasive challenges of access to justice, including legal deserts in rural Arizona. This approach, combining alternative licensure and advanced training, could become a model for other states and builds on Arizona’s long tradition of legal innovation, including access to justice reforms.
Hampton University
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
February 2024
Amount:
$260,621
Status:
Awarded
2023 Bar Success Research Grant Program
This study seeks to examine the effects of undergraduate institution type on Bar Exam passage rates. The insights that may be gained from this study can serve to assist HBCUs in designing their pre-law offerings and allocating their resources accordingly. Additionally, these findings may better inform and empower HBCUs and their collaborative partners (e.g., law schools, law firms, and other business/professional entities) seeking to positively impact diversity in the legal profession.
University of Miami
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
March 2023
Amount:
$300,000
Status:
Awarded
Grant Title: The Relationship Between Curriculum Selections and Bar Exam Sub-scores
This project analyzes the impact of taking courses in bar-tested areas and performance in those areas on the bar exam, helping law schools to better understand factors contributing to bar success. Florida is an ideal state for this work as the Florida bar reports sub-scores in topics allowing us to compare taking specific courses (e.g., wills) and performance on that subset of bar questions (e.g., wills scores). Additional items will also be studied (GPA, LSAT, transfer status, etc.).
Willamette University
Program:
Bar Success Intervention Grant Program
Date:
January 2023
Amount:
$233,287
Status:
Completed
Grant Title: Assessing the Impact of Cohort Structure on First-Time Bar Pass Rates
This project hypothesizes that implementing a cohort structure for recent law school graduates who use Helix Bar Review while studying for state bar exams will result in improved bar passage rates for these first-time test takers. Project results will inform legal education literature as well as other ongoing studies and activities to improve passage rates and may, depending on cohort size, provide insight into the disparity currently seen in the passage rates of underrepresented populations.
View grant outcomes.
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
Program:
Bar Success Intervention Grant Program
Date:
June 2022
Amount:
$299,940
Status:
Completed
One & Done addresses three barriers to passing the bar exam on the first try that face "at-risk" graduates. First, these graduates need more personal support with time management than they typically get from commercial preparation programs, as well as additional study time devoted to spaced repetition study and practice-as-study. Second, many need financial support. Third, many need support to stay emotionally, psychologically, and socially healthy through the grueling bar preparation process.
View grant outcomes.
American University
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
January 2021
Amount:
$117,960
Status:
Completed
The project will estimate the causal effect of participating in legal-career-related extracurricular activities while in law school on the chances of passing the Bar exam on the first attempt together with how racial, ethnic, or gender differences in extracurricular participation contribute to corresponding gaps in Bar success rates. View grant outcomes.
UC Hastings College of the Law
Program:
Bar Success Research Grant Program
Date:
December 2020
Amount:
$150,000
Status:
Completed
This grant will support the study of teaching reforms and academic and bar success interventions implemented at UC Hastings College of the Law.
View grant outcomes.
UC Berkeley School of Law
Program:
Unsolicited Grants Program
Date:
December 2020
Amount:
$125,000
Status:
Completed
This grant will support the development of the Pre-Law Online Curriculum, a web-based, mobile-friendly pre-law advising center that is free and available to all. This system will provide instructional modules, community discussions, and online resources to students preparing for law school.
View grant outcomes.