How Minorities Can Succeed in Law School

The ending of affirmative action by the Supreme Court sent shock waves throughout legal education. For over 40 years, a system had been in place that provided diversity to the law school student population and minority lawyers to underserved communities. Now, law schools would have to seek other ways to satisfy these needs.

This author believes that improving education for minorities in law school would go a long way to maintaining the presence of minorities in both the law school and underserved communities. About ten years ago, I wrote a paper on how law schools could help minorities succeed by adopting new teaching methods. I wrote this book to help minority students learn how to apply the lessons of my initial article on their own.

The early chapters of this book will introduce you to the basics of learning the law, the second part will give you the tools you need to become a self-authoring learner, and the final part will tell you things you need to know about law school.

Chapter One shows you how to adjust your attitude to become a better learner. Chapter Two teaches you how to read legal texts. Chapter Three is probably the most important chapter in the book because it explains how to study effectively. Chapter Four will explain "meta-cognition." Chapter Five discusses self-regulated (or self-directed learning). Chapter Six tells you the details of what to expect in law school, such as information about doctrinal classes, exams, legal writing, legal research, summer jobs, etc. Chapter Seven gives you essential context for attending law school. Finally, Chapter Eight talks about the important topic of law school wellness