Adam Chilton (Dean, Chicago), Giulia G. Cusenza (Free University of Bolzano-Bozen), Lorenzo G. Luisetto (Cleveland State) & Kyle Rozema (Northwestern), Alternative Educational Pathways into the Legal Profession:

Obtaining a law degree from an ABA-approved law school has long been the primary path into the American legal profession. However, some states have alternative educational pathways, including earning a law degree from a non-ABA-approved law school or completing supervised legal study. Using data from 1984 and 2019, we investigate the track record of these alternative pathways into the legal profession. We find that alternative pathways have been available at some point in all but 11 states, raising questions about the extent to which the ABA’s gatekeeping role exerts anti-competitive control over entry into the profession. However, we also find that individuals with alternative legal training pass the bar exam at drastically lower rates than graduates of ABA-approved law schools. This disparity persists across every state, demonstrating states’ inability to regulate alternative pathways effectively. Moreover, we find that lawyers with alternative legal training have meaningfully worse career outcomes and pose a greater risk to the public than other lawyers, which may help explain why alternative pathways have not taken off as a more prominent mode of legal training.

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