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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Western New England University School of Law
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
December 2022
Amount:
$140,117
Status:
Awarded
Grant title: Bar Exam Stipend and Training Program (“The BEST Program”)
The Bar Exam Stipend and Training Program (BEST) is an intensive 10-week preparation program that will equip students with a customized study plan, an accountability coach, practice tests, wellness check-ins, and a weekly stipend leading up to the bar exam.
The State Bar of California
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2022
Amount:
$225,500
Status:
Completed
Grant Title: Investigating the Benefits of Live Remote Proctor of Bar Exam
The State Bar seeks to evaluate the benefits of live remote proctoring (LRP) for the First-Year Law Students’ Examination (FYLSX). Previous remote FYLSX’s have been proctored relying on software recording and AI-based monitoring. This project will evaluate if LRP, 1) reduces false positive violations; 2) lessens login and other technology issues examinees encounter; 3) improves overall test experience for examinees.
View grant outcomes.
The NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
September 2022
Amount:
$40,000
Status:
Awarded
The project proposes AccessLex fund 10 law schools' participation in The NALP Foundation and NALP’s U.S. Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction Study, for a three-year period: 6 HBCU law schools and 4 other new law schools with significant populations of under-represented groups. The additional data from these schools’ alumni will enhance the study’s inclusivity, providing important new insights for the profession, and the new participating schools with actionable data and benchmarking.
State Bar of California
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
September 2022
Amount:
$250,950
Status:
Awarded
The State Bar seeks to understand the impact of exam modality, open book, and testing time on the test-taking population, focusing on whether any of these exam features have an adverse or positive impact on subpopulations. Specifically tested will be: 1) the amount of time allocated for the performance test; 2) possible variances of an open-book option; and 3) to assess combinations of exam material and test-taking in online vs hard copy formats.
Behavioral Insights Institute
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2021
Amount:
$80,000
Status:
Completed
Demographic matching between law students from underrepresented groups and law school faculty increases these students’ access to research opportunities and quality employment and impacts their sense of belonging. The sense of belonging influences students’ academic performance, course selections, J.D. degree completion, and bar exam success.
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The Pennsylvania State University
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2021
Amount:
$500,000
Status:
Completed
Led by Dickinson Law, and in collaboration with other law schools that are leading this Antiracist Reformation, the ADI will offer a three-week online, hybrid, or resident program that invites fellows to participate in programs designed to facilitate Antiracist institution-building.
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Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2021
Amount:
$331,438
Status:
Completed
Enhance and evaluate the Productive Mindset Intervention for the California, Colorado, and Utah bar exams in July 2022 and 2023. Examine the predictors of bar performance in a dataset comprising over 15,000 test-takers across 7 administrations of the bar exams in California, Colorado, and Utah.
View grant outcomes.
CALI - The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
September 2021
Amount:
$114,550
Status:
Completed
The purpose of this grant is to extend the reach of Academic Success Professionals and help law students become better learners in the unique law school environment. This is especially useful for first-generation and underrepresented law students.
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois on behalf of The John Marshall Law School
Program:
Directed Grants Program
Date:
November 2020
Amount:
$124,982
Status:
Completed
This project will study the efficacy of an intervention to enhance law student writing skills and create a scalable, replicable model to improve student writing for use in other law schools.
View grant outcomes.