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1L Clinics At Yale Hate Women, Maybe?

Sexism at Yale, or just really poor planning?

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YALE LAW SCHOOL — THE WALL — CLINICAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN

First, thanks to everyone for all of your responses! Thanks also to the clinical professors and student representatives who took interest in the results. I emailed with more than 70 of you today, so clearly this is an issue that a lot of us care about. Below are the results along with answers to some of the questions I received. Obviously, these results are very basic and provide only rough estimates of the underlying issue. I’ll definitely follow up with the powers that be.

Results:

* At least 24 1L women were denied or waitlisted by multiple clinics and have yet to receive a spot in any clinic. This represents at least 24% of women in the 1L class. 4 men are in the same boat. This means that at least 14% of 1L’s bid for multiple clinics and did not receive a spot in any clinic.

* At least 16 1L’s (evenly divided across genders) applied to only one clinic and were not admitted.

* I heard from 7 upperclassmen, all of whom were not admitted to a clinic during at least one of their 2L semesters and some of whom were not admitted to a clinic during their 1L spring as well.

FAQ’s:

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Q: Why didn’t you also collect data on X, Y or Z?

A: My primary goal was to get a rough sense of the size of the problem as quickly as possible. My hunch is that the registrar already has the more comprehensive data we need. Now we have evidence that someone needs to look at the full dataset more closely. If it turns out that the registrar does not have this data, we can always send out a more formal survey later. Also, I have an exam tomorrow…

Q: What about the fact that many 1L’s did not apply to clinics in the first place?

A: The figures above are estimates of the percentage of students who were not admitted to clinics out of the total 1L class. I had no way to determine the total number of students who applied based on wall responses alone, so I can’t speak to the clinical admission rate. Hopefully, this is the sort of answer that can be found in the registrar’s data.

Q: Did all of the students get waitlisted or rejected by the same few clinics?

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A: No. Students mentioned being waitlisted or rejected by almost all (or all) of the clinics, including the larger, randomized clinics, like Mortgage Foreclosure and Landlord-Tenant. This leads me to believe that there are simply more interested students than there are clinical spots (setting aside the perhaps unlimited Nonprofit Clinic).

Q: What does the data say about whether women were less likely than men to be admitted into clinics?

A: Nothing. The statistics above are not meant to serve as evidence that women were disproportionately waitlisted or rejected by clinics. If that is the case, that is definitely an issue worth addressing.

Q: If women were not disproportionately rejected, then why should we care about the results?

A: I think we should care for at least two reasons. First, experiential education is hugely important to many of us. Many students emailed to say that the chance to participate in 1L clinics were a major reason they chose YLS. Some said they had been looking forward to clinics more than anything else at YLS next semester. Others said they felt misled by the YLS pitch that YLS students could always find a clinical spot if they wanted one, unlike the situation at other law schools.

Second, if YLS wants to support its female students, it should provide the kind of opportunities that its female students are interested in. If that happens to be clinics, then more clinical opportunities should be provided.

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