Study Finds ‘Lopsided’ Concentration of Socioeconomic Elites at Law Schools

ABA Journal
Posted Oct 5, 2011 6:00 AM CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The vast majority of American law students come from relatively elite backgrounds, especially at top law schools, according to a study by a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.
More than three quarters of the students at the nation’s top 20 law schools come from the top one-fourth of the socioeconomic population, and well over half of the students at these schools come from the top 10 percent, according to the study by UCLA law professor Richard Sander. Just 2 percent come from the bottom quarter.
“Across the spectrum of law schools, there is a lopsided concentration of law students towards the high end of the socioeconomic spectrum, which becomes more lopsided with the eliteness of the law school," Sander wrote in his study, published the Denver University Law Review (PDF).

Full Story: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/study_finds_lopsided_concentration_of_socioeconomic_elites_at_law_schools/

Why elites do belong on the Supreme Court

The Washington Post
By Christopher Edley Jr.Sunday, May 16, 2010

Judges should be able to understand and empathize with just about anyone, because the law is about everyone. With that in mind, is what's good for Harvard and Yale good for America?
If Elena Kagan is confirmed, we will have an entire Supreme Court educated at Harvard and Yale law schools, demonstrating again the grip that academic elites have on the levers of power. Some worry this homogeneity is too anti-democratic, even for our most anti-democratic of institutions. I don't hear a claim that even knuckleheads deserve a spot on the court, but surely some brilliant possibilities attended, say, Berkeley? Or Tulane?

Full Editorial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/14/AR2010051403641.html?hpid=opinionsbox1