AccessLex Institute® Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary of Grant Programs and Over $24.5 Million Awarded

WEST CHESTER, Pa., June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- AccessLex Institute®, the largest nonprofit organization in legal education, is proud to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of its grant programs. Over the past decade, AccessLex has awarded over $24.5 million across 362 research initiatives and intervention efforts based on empirical approaches to enhancing legal education and the law profession.

"The AccessLex grant programs are an integral component of our ongoing quest to increase access, affordability, and value for aspiring lawyers," stated Christopher P. Chapman, President and CEO of AccessLex Institute. "I can't believe it's been a decade since we made our first grants to law schools where I personally, out of necessity, handled all aspects of the grant process – from application to grant agreement execution. I am thankful to our AccessLex team, our Board of Directors, and the many people from our member law schools who helped us mature into the professional grant operation that works so well today."

Through the Diversity Pathway Intervention Grant Program, the Bar Success Intervention Grant Program, and the Bar Success Research Grant Program, as well as the invitation-only Directed Grants Program, AccessLex is firmly committed to contributing personnel, expertise, and financial resources to advance practical research in the field of legal education. 

Diversity Pathway Intervention Grants support ongoing programs eager to expand the opportunities and inroads they can afford aspiring lawyers whose backgrounds are underrepresented in the legal profession.

The Bar Success Intervention Grant Program funds programs designed to help students most at-risk of not passing the bar achieve increased bar exam passage rates, while the Bar Success Research Grant Program funds rigorous, empirical studies of the bar exam, such as bar exam performance predictors, test design, effective preparation strategies, and similar methodologies. Both programs are aimed at increasing collective understanding of the bar exam to inform well-designed, scalable, and replicable bar exam success programming.

The Directed Grants Program enables AccessLex to support innovative and impactful projects, including the efforts of state Supreme Courts as they consider reforms to their bar admission processes.

AccessLex Institute's grant programs were each born of a need to foster a culture of rigorous empirical inquiry into legal education and bar admission. The mission is to encourage investigation of important topics that have salience to the experiences of aspiring lawyers.

"We have supported researchers exploring important theoretical questions, practitioners running programs aimed at fostering inclusive student success, and bar regulators reviewing the means by which they determine competence to practice law," said Aaron N. Taylor, Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excellence®. "Findings yielded by these efforts have contributed vital knowledge and brought about needed reforms. We are proud of the role we have played in helping cultivate a vibrant research culture that is positively impacting aspiring lawyers and the profession they hope to enter." 

Learn more about AccessLex Institute's grant programs here.

About AccessLex Institute:

AccessLex Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to helping talented, purpose-driven students find their path from aspiring lawyer to fulfilled professional. In partnership with its nearly 200 member law schools, improving access and positively influencing legal education have been at the heart of the Company's mission since 1983. Learn more about how AccessLex is empowering the next generation of lawyers at AccessLex.org.

Media Contact:
Julie Solomon
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SOURCE AccessLex Institute