AccessLex Legal Education Data Deck

AccessLex prepares the Legal Education Data Deck for the use of the legal education community, policymakers, and others interested in the latest law student trends organized around our three driving principles: access, affordability, and value. The Data Deck is a living document that is updated periodically. Highlights from the forthcoming edition include:

• Nearly half of law students enroll with debt remaining from their undergraduate education

• Among law students in 2019-2020, 22 percent were first-generation college students and 37 percent were former Pell Grant recipients.

• The proportion of J.D. recipients who borrowed for law school increased by five percentage points between 2016 and 2020.

• Compared to other 2020 graduate degree recipients, law graduates borrowed, on average, less for their undergraduate but more for their graduate education. The amount law students borrowed for graduate school exceeded all other graduate and professional degree recipients except those in medicine and other health professions, such as dentistry.

• The median salary for employed class of 2022 J.D. graduates increased to $85,000 over $80,000 for the previous 2021 graduating class. However, when adjusted for inflation, median salaries declined from $89,600 to $87,600 between 2021 and 2022

• In 2022, 72 percent of all first-time exam takers from ABAapproved law schools passed the bar