Awarded Grants

The goal of the CLEO Legally Inspired Cohort (CLIC) 2.0 program is to enhance access to legal education for students from diverse backgrounds. This grant will be a continuation and expansion of the 2016 CLIC program, funded in large part by AccessLex that enabled 15 students of color, whose LSAT scores ranged from 128 - 144, to successfully matriculate the first year of law school.

This grant allows the State Bar of California to build on studies performed in 2017 to address the state's bar exam passage rate and other matters related to the exam. In 2017, the State Bar of California conducted a series of tests to evaluate various components of the California Bar Exam, including the pass line and the alignment of the subject matters on the exam in relation to the expected knowledge and skills of entry-level attorneys.

To read more, please visit AccessLex Institute Awards Grant to State Bar of California for Job Analysis Study

Dr. Robert Nelson has been awarded a grant to analyze longitudinal data collected from the After the JD Study of Lawyer Careers to determine the role of legal education in careers. This grant will support the work of young scholars who are providing research support throughout the project.

This grant supports the Foundation to Legal Education Advancing Diversity (LEAD) program. The program will provide rising college juniors with analytical and logical reasoning skills to ensure their success on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and in law school.

This grant supports the Legal Education Advancing Diversity (LEAD) program which offers students and graduates from underrepresented background the opportunity to participate in year-long program. The program provides these students with LSAT preparation, strategies for creating a competitive law school application, support throughout the application process, and a mentorship program.

The Before the JD project will study (1) the opinions held by students at, and recent graduates from, four-year colleges and universities in the United States about legal education and the legal profession; (2) their sources of information about legal education; and (3) the factors that influence their postgraduate choices.

The University of Hawai’i William S. Richardson School of Law received a grant to support the Ulu Lehua Scholars Program.  The Ulu Lehua Scholars Program supports a cohort of incoming J.D. students from diverse backgrounds who have overcome adversity and who show a commitment to work with underserved communities. Student participants receive financial, academic, and moral support throughout their law school careers. Grant funding will be used to expand recruitment efforts to rural communities in Hawaii and the Pacific, bolster academic support for participants through student tutors, provide financial and academic assistance in preparation for the bar exam, and conduct a comprehensive program assessment.

The American Bar Foundation received a grant for the Emerging and Visiting Scholars Fellowship Program in Legal and Higher Education project. Doctoral fellows and visiting scholars will have access to an interdisciplinary scholarly community and benefit from mentoring provided by the ABF’s research faculty. This professional network of scholars will produce innovative, objective, empirical, and interdisciplinary research in legal and higher education.

A $125,000 grant was awarded to the American Bar Association (ABA) Fund for Justice and Education for the Evaluation of Key ABA Pipeline Programs project. The project intends to measure the effectiveness of three ABA Fund for Justice and Education pipeline programs: the Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund; the Judicial Clerkship Program; and, the Judicial Internship Opportunity Program.