The only constant in life is change. A cliché, perhaps? But maybe because it’s true. And no one knows that more than we do.
Access Group started as the solution to a problem. In the difficult economic times of the early 80s, law students needed additional resources to fully finance the cost of their legal education, so a new private loan was created to provide supplemental funding and make law school more accessible and affordable.
Over the next 25 years, Access Group used its growing size to directly support its commitment to access and affordability through actions such as pioneering “no-fee” loans—directly saving its borrowers tens of millions of dollars while positively influencing national market pricing, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of additional borrower savings market-wide.
But then things changed. In 2010, legislative action eliminated the federally guaranteed student loan program and mandated that all federal student loans be made by the Department of Education through its Federal Direct Lending Program.
And just like that, we had to figure out the future. We had to ask ourselves: “Who are we now?”
In the years that followed, the organization changed in size and structure, but not in heart. Thoughtfully, our leadership forged a direction to continue its mission of access and affordability, but in new and exciting ways. An office was opened in Washington D.C. to house divisions for research, data and evaluation, policy advocacy, diversity programs and outcome-driven grantmaking. And a commitment was made to providing resources and services that would directly improve the financial capability of law, graduate and professional students.
On March 1, it was time to fully announce ‘who we are now’ by unveiling our new name and brand: AccessLex Institute. The time had come to bring into focus the role our organization is playing in legal education and the impact we are making on law schools and their students.
The name AccessLex borrows the Latin word for “law” and conveys our decades-long service and ongoing commitment to law students while communicating the drive behind our mission to foster broad-based access to quality legal education for talented, purpose-driven students and to maximize the value and affordability of a law degree.
Through the work of the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excellence, based in Washington, D.C., we advocate for policies that make legal education work better for students and society alike, and we conduct and commission research on the most critical issues facing legal education today, namely: improving access for all students, with an emphasis on historically underrepresented minority students and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds; increasing affordability; and strengthening the value of a law degree.
And our new AccessLex Center for Education and Financial Capability offers on-campus and online financial education programming and resources to help students confidently manage their finances on their way to achieving personal and professional success.
Moving forward, you will see the changes to our brand in everything we do. Our guides, services and other resources – research tools that make legal education data actionable and easy to us; a free student loan repayment helpline; a student loan calculator; student and administrator-focused informational publications; a new, comprehensive financial capability curriculum to be released this summer; and much more – all have a new look and feel that speaks to our commitment to engaging with students, schools and advocates on the most critical issues facing legal education today. And we are continually updating our website to create a focused and user-friendly environment that reflects and responds to the evolving needs of the people and institutions we serve.
Improving access and positively influencing legal education have been at the heart of our company’s mission since 1983. They remain so today.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. A cliché, perhaps? But maybe because it’s true.
Learn more by visiting us at AccessLex.org.