Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

While the Yale Law School previously reported a 12 percent decrease in the enrollment of students of color after the fall of affirmative action, the latest American Bar Association report reveals the racial demographics remained relatively stable compared to last year’s class.

The 509 information report released by the ABA counts Black, Hispanic students of any race, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and multiracial students in people of color calculation. However, the ABA does not include multiracial students in individual racial categories, which might account for the discrepancy between the Law School’s and ABA’s reports.

The ABA also modified its reporting this year, now including students who are not U.S. residents in individual race categories instead of reporting them in a separate category. An ABA spokesperson noted that this change in how race categories are defined makes it difficult to know the impact of affirmative action on Law Schools. 

In the JD class of 2027, the most recently admitted class, 13 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino, 17 percent as Asian American, 12 percent as Black or African American and 49 percent as white. In last year’s incoming class, 16 percent identified as Hispanic or Latino, 17 percent as Asian American, 11 percent as Black or African American, and 42 percent as white. 

“This individual year at Yale is extraordinarily encouraging. There’s no question, the drop that I would have anticipated has not occurred at Yale,” said Kevin Brown LAW ’82, currently the Mitchell Willoughby Distinguished Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law. 

All law schools, including Yale Law School, submit information to the American Bar Association, which creates a Standard 509 Information Report for every school annually with information on curricular offerings, financial aid and demographic data, per the Yale Law School Website

When asked for comment on the ABA report and data, a spokesperson for YLS directed the News to an earlier comment by Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid Miriam Ingber LAW ’04. 

“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,” Ingber wrote to the News in October.

As an overarching trend, the ABA reports that diversity remained steady across law schools after affirmative action fell in SFFA v. Harvard. Black students accounted for 7.7 percent of the JD students in the new incoming class, compared with 7.8 percent last year, while Hispanic students made up 14.2 percent, compared with 14.17 percent in 2023. 

However, Brown noted that these numbers reported by the ABA reflect all schools rather than individual institutions. 

“In general, if you’re talking about Quad One law schools, there was a decrease in Black students that was made up by the increase in black students in Quad Four,” Brown said. “What we saw was a redistribution of Black students, not a significant change overall.”

Brown refers to Quad One law schools as the top 50 out of 196 ABA-accredited institutions. He emphasized that maintaining diversity at these institutions is vital as they shape the direction of future legal scholarship.

Columbia and Cornell saw a decrease in enrollment of Hispanic and Latine students. At Harvard Law School, the New York Times reported a drop of more than a half in Black students’ enrollment. Per the ABA report, 43 Black students were admitted in 2023 compared to 19 Black students in 2024.

Across both years, the ABA reports highlight a low number of Native American and Indigenous Students at YLS.

“[The number of Native American and Indigenous students] has always been a small number, so slight changes in the total number of Native students can be devastating to our population,” said Hannah Terrapin LAW ’26, co-president of the Native American Law Students’ Association. 

When Terrapin first arrived at the Law School, she attended a brunch with the Native American Law Student Association. Terrapin, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation, said that attending this welcome meal with around five to seven other newly admitted Native students was an “amazing experience.”

This year, Terrapin said there were only two new students at the table, an experience she described as “heartbreaking.”

Terrapin emphasized that, following the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action, the admissions office at the Law School has put in additional recruitment efforts to make YLS more accessible to Indigenous populations. She noted that the YLS admissions office proactively contacted NALSA and other affinity groups following the overturn of affirmative action.

NALSA collaborated with the admissions office on what outreach strategies would work best, leading to new post-affirmative action programs that directly target Native students and communities.

Looking ahead to the incoming class, Terrapin said, “I’m optimistic that this cycle will help to bounce back our Native population.”

Brown added that the impact of the SFFA decision will unfold over time and is yet unclear. 

The American Bar Association was founded in 1878.

CHRIS TILLEN
Chris covers the Law School for the News. He is a sophomore in Morse College.