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
FILTER BY
FILTER BY
Grant Program
Grant Status
CLEAR ALL FILTERS
UC Hastings College of the Law
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
February 2019
Amount:
$34,980
Status:
Completed
This project would test the validity of the Nevada bar exam and, by extension, state bar exams generally. The objective is to determine whether and to what extent state bar exams are predictive of practice capacities.
To read more, please visit A better bar exam? Law profs weigh in on whether test accurately measures skills required for law practice.
View grant outcomes.
Council on Legal Education Opportunity
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2018
Amount:
$150,000
Status:
Awarded
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.
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois on behalf of The John Marshall Law School
Program:
Unsolicited Grants Program
Date:
September 2018
Amount:
$120,353
Status:
Awarded
This grant supports a study of the impact of High performance cognitive training – Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Training (SMART) has on improving cognitive performance, and thus academic performance and bar passage.
To read more, please visit Texas Tech adopts SMART brain training for its 1Ls
The State Bar of California
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
August 2018
Amount:
$515,000
Status:
Awarded
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
University of Massachusetts
Program:
Unsolicited Grants Program
Date:
June 2018
Amount:
$124,662
Status:
Awarded
This grant supports a study of students’ social networks that will examine whether certain connections are associated with law school success. The project will focus on whether students from diverse backgrounds lack access to key social connections and to what extent network inequality accounts for disparities in legal education outcomes.
Emory University
Program:
Unsolicited Grants Program
Date:
March 2018
Amount:
$86,603
Status:
Awarded
A $86,603 grant was awarded to Emory University to measure the institutional efficiencies in producing student outputs for legal education. The project will use American Bar Association data and the Analytix tool, to develop a method of ranking schools based on a sophisticated conception of outputs and value-added.
American Bar Foundation
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
January 2018
Amount:
$25,000
Status:
Awarded
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.
Dillard University
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
October 2017
Amount:
$55,000
Status:
Awarded
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.
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Program:
Unsolicited Grants Program
Date:
July 2017
Amount:
$125,000
Status:
Awarded
Indiana University received a grant to support the analysis of LSSSE data to determine in which ways social belonging influences law students’ engagement and success. In addition, this grant will support the development, implementation, and evaluation of a productive mindset intervention for final-semester law students and recent law school graduates who are sitting, for the July 2018 California bar exam.