Study Support Michigan Law School's Diversity Policies

Black Issues in Higher Education, August 5, 1999

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Law School at the University of Michigan, which is under fire from a federal lawsuit challenging its race-sensitive admission policies, released a study last month showing that there are few significant racial differences in the success rates of its graduates.

"We have long known that our admissions program works extremely well," says Law School Dean Jeffrey Lehman. "But until this survey, the evidence was anecdotal, reflected in the experiences of individual graduates. Now we have powerful evidence that we are accomplishing our goal of preparing excellent attorneys who succeed in their careers and give back generously to the larger society."

The study -- Doing Well and Doing Good: The Careers of Minority and White Graduates of the University of Michigan Law School 1970-1996 -- was conducted by Michigan law professors David Chambers and Richard Lempert and social science researcher Terry Adams. They surveyed all of the approximately 700 African Americans, 300 Latinos, and 60 Native Americans who graduated from the law school during a 27-year period and compared their achievements with those of a sample of over 900 White graduates from the same period.

The report says that more than 97 percent of minority graduates passed the bar of at least one state. The average incomes of those graduates in the 1970s and 1980s are well over $100,000 annually. And as a group, the graduates are satisfied with their careers and devote substantial time to community service -- the entire group in private practice averaging more than 50 hours a year, with minorities averaging more than 100 hours a year.

Both the university and the law school are fighting federal lawsuits over its use of race in admissions. The lawsuits are on hold while a federal appeals court decides whether outside groups can intervene (see Black Issues, Jan. 21, 1999, and March 5, 1998).