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
Grant Program
Grant Status

University of San Diego
The University of San Diego School of Law’s (USD) Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL), in partnership with the School of Business Department of Economics, plans to research inequality with respect to access to legal services. USD will investigate whether the lack of diversity in the attorney workforce directly impacts access to legal services by low-income, disadvantaged consumers, and whether the existing cut score of California’s Bar Exam is contributing to the justice gap in California.
View grant outcomes.

University of Pennsylvania
This grant will comprehensively evaluate whether the adoption of rgw Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) has positively influenced enrollment and Bar passage rates of underrepresented and minority students in law schools located in participating states. It will also measure the extent to which (a) tuition and fees costs and costs of living, (b) interstate employment mobility, and (c) overall employment prospects of graduates from participating schools and states varied given the adoption of UBE.

American Bar Foundation
The project will employ anthropological linguistic methods to examine how inequality is sustained in law schools in order to help them create more supportive environments for students and faculty of color. Faculty interviews, observations, and autobiographical textual analyses will be used to identify the verbal and non-verbal interactional habits that contribute to institutional practice that may sustain implicit biases.
View grant outcomes.

Concordia University Chicago
The grant will examine approximately 30 first-generation law students enrolled at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law using both surveys and in-depth interviews to identify critical: pre-law school experiences, psychoemotional/educational needs of enrolled first-generation law students, and personal qualities associated with first-generation students’ law school success.

The Law College Association of the University of Arizona - James E. Rogers College of Law
This grant will pilot a seven and a half-week online course teaching standard contracts and foundational skills in case-reading and analysis to 250 aspiring JD students. The course is intended to expose students to the materials and methods of legal education and better prepare them for success in JD programs. A more valid and reliable predictor of student performance in law school will be developed using factors beyond standardized test scores and undergraduate grades.

University of Tennessee
A $50,000 research grant was awarded to Louis Rocconi, Assistant Professor at University of Tennessee’s College of Education, Health & Human Sciences, to examine the relationship between law school rank and student engagement.
To read more, please visit AccessLex Institute Announces Grant Winners

University at Buffalo
A $49,925 research grant was awarded to Jaekyung Lee, Professor at University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education, to study academic and sociocultural readiness for postgraduate education among immigrant and international students to promote equal access and success in graduate/professional schools.
To read more, please visit AccessLex Institute Announces Grant Winners

Boston College
A $49,978 research grant was awarded to Andrés Castro Samayoa, Assistant Professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development, to explore how Latinx students and university officials at differently-ranked law schools articulate the value of legal education.
To read more, please visit AccessLex Institute Announces Grant Winners

Indiana University Maurer School of Law
A $24,600 research grant was awarded to Elizabeth Bodamer, Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Indiana University, to study the law school experience of minority students.
To read more, please visit AccessLex Institute Announces Grant Winners