Baala Shakya, Contributing Photographer

In the first Yale Law School class admitted post-affirmative action, the share of students of color decreased by 7 percentage points, or about a 12 percent decrease. 

The Law School saw a drop in students of color from 57 percent in the class of 2026 to 50 percent in the class of 2027, the lowest since 2022 and coming after an eight-year trend of increasing racial diversity. 

The Law School did not share the specific breakdown of ethnicity or race for the class of 2027. According to 509 information report released by the American Bar Association, Yale Law School counts Black, Hispanic students of any race, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and multiracial students in their people of color calculation.

“You have to certainly expect there’s going to be a significant reduction of Black students in our selective higher education institutions, and especially our elite ones, like Yale Law School. And that is a tragedy,” said Kevin Brown LAW ’82, a professor at Indiana University Bloomington’s Maurer School of Law.

The specific breakdown of this year’s class will be made available through the 2024 Standard 509 information report. The Law School submits demographic information to the American Bar Association in the fall every year, the Law School spokesperson said. 

Brown said that the percentage of students of color does not provide the full picture. When the American Bar Association releases the specific racial and ethnic makeup of the class, Brown suspects that we will see an even steeper drop in Black and Latine enrollment. 

“When they lump [students of color] all together, they’re not really giving you the statistics to let you see what the real impact of the end of affirmative action is,” said Brown. 

In the Yale College class of 2028, the share of Black and Latine students remained stable while the share of Asian American students decreased by six percentage points. 

The Law School’s class of 2027 comes from 86 undergraduate institutions across 38 states and 12 countries, and 24 percent of new students are first-generation, low-income. Additionally, over the last seven years, the number of Law School students who are the first in their families to attend graduate or professional school has increased by around 50 percent to nearly a third of the class of 2027. 

The class of 2027 also has 19 veterans or active duty service members, continuing a trend of increased veteran enrollment under Heather Gerken’s tenure as Yale Law School dean. In the new class, 14 percent of students received full-tuition scholarships through the Law School’s Hurst Horizon Scholars program.

“Yale Law School’s newest class of talented and accomplished students come to New Haven with wide-ranging experiences, interests, and perspectives that will greatly enhance our intellectual community,” wrote Miriam Ingber LAW ’04, Yale Law School associate dean for admissions and financial aid. 

Legal commentator David Lat LAW ’99 praised the class of 2027’s increased socioeconomic diversity, describing it as “robust.” He noted that the Supreme Court opinion has no restrictions on considering socioeconomic status and how it reflects an applicant’s overcoming adversity and obstacles. 

Brown believes that while socioeconomic status is an important mark of diversity, it is not a substitute for affirmative action. While students from low socioeconomic backgrounds face obstacles to academic success, Black students face significant additional obstacles, Brown said.  

Brown spent his first year of law school at Indiana University before transferring to Yale Law School, and noted that his experience at Yale was extremely different. 

Referencing his own journey to becoming a law professor, he further highlighted the importance of Black and Latine voices in the classroom, noting their impact as graduates and as professors, shaping curricula at law schools. Cutting off the “pipeline” of Black and Latine students could have the larger effect of further narrowing curricula at law schools. 

“Without affirmative action, I think there was the typical sense that our law professors just didn’t care what the Black students had to say,” said Brown. Now, he worries for the future. 

Lat stated that he doesn’t believe the decrease in people of color enrollment will significantly impact discourse and discussion. He cited Justice Clarence Thomas’ LAW ’74 concurrence in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a case that ended affirmative action, in which Thomas wrote that “members of the same race do not all share the exact same experiences and viewpoints.”

Yale Law School was founded in 1824. 

Correction, Oct. 4: This story has been updated to reflect that the Law School submits data to the ABA every year, not every other year.