• 15% of law professors were conservative.
• Approximately one out of every twenty law schools had more conservative professors than liberal professors.
• 35% of lawyers outside of academia were conservative.
• Law professors are more liberal than graduates of the top 14 law schools, lawyers working at the largest firms, former law clerks, and federal judges.
• Law professors are more liberal than the alumni at the majority of law schools.
• Some of the differences between the legal academy and the legal profession can be explained by which law school was attended, area of specialization, and geographic location, yet the legal academy remains more liberal than the legal profession even when controlling for these individual characteristics.

A quick perusal of the above table reveals that seven of the top ten conservative law schools (by average law professor CFscore) can be considered moderately conservative since their CFscore is between 0 and 1. Only 5 of these 7 law schools are actually right of center as two of them possess a CFscore of 0. The remaining 3 “most conservative” law schools have CFscores that suggest they are moderately liberal. In contrast, of the ten liberal law schools listed in the table above, all appear to be staunchly liberal as none of them have CFscores that range from 0 to -1.

The Legal Academy Compared to the Legal Profession

Bonica et al. obtained the identities of lawyers within the legal profession from the Martindale-Hubbell directory. As with the law professors obtained from the 2012 AALS Directory, names of lawyers obtained from the Martindale-Hubbell directory were then matched to entries in the DIME. Comparisons of the legal academy with the legal profession were made by comparing the CFscores of law professors to the alumni of the Top 14 law schools, attorneys in “Biglaw” (the largest 100 law firms by number of attorneys), federal law clerks, and federal judges. The CFscores of law professors and other academics in non-law disciplines were also compared.

These comparisons between the legal academy and the legal profession revealed the following:

• The average CFscore for law professors (-0.84) was significantly more liberal than the average CFscore for lawyers overall (-0.31).
• There are relatively fewer conservative law professors than there are conservative lawyers.
• Law professors, based on their CFscores, are more extreme than lawyers.
  • 61% of liberal lawyers are moderates, compared to 27% of liberal law professors.
  • 76% of conservative lawyers are moderates, compared to 54% of conservative law professors.
• Alumni of the Top 14 law schools (average CFscore = -0.55) and attorneys who work in Biglaw (average CFscore = -0.42) are more liberal than lawyers overall, but law professors remain more liberal.
• Federal district clerks (average CFscore = -0.63) and Supreme Court Clerks (average CFscore = -0.49) are more liberal than lawyers overall, but again law professors remain more liberal on average.
• District court judges (average CFscore = -0.07) and appeals court judges (average CFscore = 0.05) are more conservative than law professors and lawyers overall. There CFscores are close to the midpoint, suggesting they are typically moderate in the ideological outlook.
• Other academics (N from DIME = 322,434; average CFscore = -0.92) are slightly more liberal than law professors.
  • 16% of other academics are conservative.
  • 19% of other academics are moderately liberal.

Thus, overall the typical law professor, on average, appears to be more liberal than the typical lawyer who does not work within academia.

Potential Consequences of the Legal Academy’s Ideological Uniformity

As noted above, one criticism of the legal academy is that the ideological uniformity of its professorate does not adequately prepare law students to make persuasive arguments. Bonica et al. offer the widespread opposition of the legal academy to the nomination of Jeff Sessions to the position of Attorney General of the United States. In early January of 2017, almost 1,500 law professors signed a statement opposing the nomination. Yet, the statement was dismissed by conservatives and Republicans “because it was written by law professors.” Senator Lindsey Graham even remarked to Jeff Sessions during his hearings that:

“We’re about to get an answer to the age-old question: Can you get confirmed attorney general of the United States over the objection of 1,400 law professors? I don’t know what the betting line is in Vegas, but I like your chances.”

Sessions was confirmed as the attorney general by a vote of 52-47.

Bonica et al. were able to match 754 signatories of the Sessions letter to names in their sample. Only 4% of the 754 signatories were conservative. The average CFscore for professors who signed the Sessions letter was -1.20. The average CFscore for professors who did not sign the Sessions letter was -0.82. Thus, the law professors who signed the Sessions letter were more liberal on average than the law professors who did not sign the letter.

Conclusions

The findings of Bonica et al. suggest the legal academy is, for the most part, ideologically uniform and homogenous. The most conservative schools are at best moderately conservative while the most liberal schools are staunchly liberal. While lawyers, both within and outside the academy, are on average more liberal than the typical American, law professors are even more liberal than their counterparts in the legal profession. This uniformity may not adequately law students, particularly liberal law students, to make persuasive legal arguments or predict legal outcomes when more conservative judges deliver rulings.