ANALYSIS: Law School Debt Weighs Heaviest on Black Law Grads

Black lawyers face numerous challenges in the legal profession, from being underrepresented to facing systemic barriers. New survey data from Bloomberg Law reveal another obstacle that Black lawyers face: paying down substantial student debt.

Law students and graduates who identified as Black reported having the most law-school-related debt, according to Bloomberg Law’s most recent Law School Preparedness Survey.

And after the US Supreme Court’s June decision to toss President Joe Biden’s initial student-loan forgiveness plan, paying down the debt isn’t likely to get easier any time soon.

In light of the ruling, and in anticipation of the potential legal battles Biden’s new plan faces, I decided to take a closer look at law school debt according to a borrower’s race, ethnicity, gender, and life experiences. I’ll address these differences in a multi-part series, starting with race.

Setting the Scene

Bloomberg Law surveyed over 1,700 individuals in the legal industry, including current law students, practicing attorneys, law school faculty and law librarians, as well as those in alternative legal careers such as legal operations.

Both current and former law students were asked to report how much debt they accumulated, or are accumulating, from law school.

About three-fourths of respondents reported they either are incurring or incurred at least some debt from law school. The percentage of respondents who reported having no law-school-related debt (24%) was surprising, however, given the overall cost of the investment. (The survey didn’t ask how the respondents financed their legal education.)

A deeper dive into the data, breaking it down by race, provides helpful details about who will likely incur the most debt.

Debt Burdens Are High...

Student debt disproportionately resides with Black borrowers—and Bloomberg Law data show that this remains true for legal education.

Over half (56%) of the respondents who identified as Black reported that they owed or will owe $100,000 or more in law-school-related debt upon graduating. This was more than any other racial group.

Additionally, more than 40% of the respondents who selected the “Other” option, many of whom identified as Middle Eastern or North African, or Non-white Hispanic, reported debt in the six figures.

Comparatively, only 26% of respondents who identified themselves as white reported having law school debt in the six figures.

On the flip side, 27% of respondents who identified as Asian and 26% of white respondents reported that they graduated or will graduate without any law-school-related debt. Only 12% of multiracial respondents and 7% of Black respondents reported having a debt-free legal education.

...While Earning Potential Remains Low

Given the lack of diversity in the legal profession, the disproportionate burden of legal education-related debt that is shouldered by Black law grads is unsettling.

Seven percent of survey respondents identified as Black, and over two-thirds of them (79%) took on law school debt of $50,000 or more to enter the profession. To put this in perspective, over two-thirds of respondents identified as white (77%), and less than half (47%) of them reported debt levels of $50,000 or more.

Not only are Black law students disproportionately taking on more debt than their fellow students, but it might also be harder for them to pay off the debt.

Only 4.5% of lawyers are Black, and Black lawyers only make up a little over 2% of law firm partners. And American Bar Association data show that attorneys who are members of historically underrepresented racial or ethnic groups are least likely to be among the top earners at law firms.

Some law firms are making strides in DEI initiatives, but the student loan data make it clear that inequity starts well before practice and more must be done to make law school more affordable, and ultimately more accessible.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can find additional content geared toward firm associates, including practical guidance, workflow tools, surveys, and more on our In Focus: Lawyer Well-Being page, In Focus: Lawyer Development page, Surveys, Reports & Data Analysis page, and Legal Operations page.

For more information about the 2023 Bloomberg Law DEI Framework, including the listing of member firms and overall aggregate report, as well as information on the 2024 DEI Framework timeline, click here.

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