Since launching our grantmaking activities in 2014, we have awarded over $21 million in support of our research priorities: access, affordability, and the value of legal education.
Awarded Grants
Grant Program
Grant Status
University of Iowa
Research grant awarded to Nicholas Bowman, Professor at University of Iowa’s College of Education, to examine factors that predict changes in enrollment and graduation of students from marginalized racial groups at U.S. law schools.
University of Pennsylvania
Dissertation grant awarded to Chad Losee, Ed.D. candidate in Higher Education Management at University of Pennsylvania, to better understand factors related to the aspirations to pursue a top-ranked graduate degree (e.g., MBA).
Touro College
The study seeks to explore whether remediation of reading disfluency at the law school level will have a positive impact on reading comprehension ability – particularly in “at risk” students. For purposes of this study, the definition of “at risk” students are students with weak LSAT scores. This project builds on their 2017 empirical study examining a possible link between oral reading disfluency and reading comprehension ability in first-year law students.
Elon University School of Law
The project will assess interventions aimed at improving student success and first-time bar passage through a two-phase project funded by AccessLex. The data collected and reported to AccessLex through this grant project will help determine the impact and success of interventions in overcoming barriers to student success and first-time bar exam passage.
Dillard University
The LEAD Program has identified key components to student success based upon the experiences of the 2018 and 2019 LEAD cohorts. By 2022, LEAD will have data on almost 100 predominately African American students to analyze and share with the pipeline community and the legal academy. By engaging in robust data collection, analysis, and assessment, LEAD can help to develop scalable, data driven best practices for pipeline programs around the United States.
American Bar Foundation
This grant builds on the existing Emerging Scholars Fellowship Program in Legal and Higher Education program originally funded by AccessLex Institute in 2016. The expanded initiative will be comprised of three parts: A Doctoral Fellowship Program (supporting two, two-year fellows), an innovative Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (supporting two, two-year fellows), and annual Alumni Workshops.
The Law College Association of the University of Arizona
This grant will measure the outcomes of students in the BA Law program and compare those outcomes to students in other fields at the University of Arizona through surveys and archival data to document students’ success in their programs, career aspirations, preparedness for continuing higher education, and sources of information and advice. Results will be used to better understand what, if anything, is valuable and distinctive about the BA Law experience as a preparation for the JD, as well as provide Latina students an even more engaging experience by offering additional support and preparation through a specialized mentor and training seminar.
Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI)
The Law School and Bar Exam Study Skills Fellowship consists of five law school professionals (Fellows) who write 3-5 self-paced instructional tutorials each (15-25 tutorials) covering the area of the Bar Exam Study Skills. The goal of the fellowship is to author lessons that help develop students’ critical-thinking skills.
Read more about the Law School and Bar Exam Study Skills Fellowship.
View grant outcomes.
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS)
The Sponsorship, Research and Challenge Directed Grant is a multi-component project, including a $25,000 sponsorship for the Law School Deans’ workshop/forum at the AALS Annual Meeting, $225,000 for the Study of the American Law School Dean, and a $25,000 Challenge Grant. The project will survey the process by which individuals are recruited and selected for deanship at American law schools, as well as identify the most challenging issues facing law deans today.
Read more about the Research and Challenge Directed Grant.