MARK PULLIAM: Looking Back at Law School: A Lawyer Ruminates on Legal Education.

In recent years my law school alma mater has hosted an annual “celebration of diversity” event, which I recently attended out of curiosity. I thought that my law school class of long ago was quite diverse, with students from all over Texas, who had attended a variety of colleges and universities located throughout the country, representing a wide range of backgrounds—socio-economic, age, marital status, political orientation, and otherwise.

Alas, that is not what “diversity” means these days. “Diversity” connotes the politically-correct assortment of students (and faculty) from specific racial and ethnic groups that were “under-represented” in the era of primarily meritocratic admissions. Race-conscious affirmative action at the University of Texas School of Law—once considered controversial and sparingly used—has “fixed” that. . . .

Have these changes improved legal education at UT? Pondering that question prompted me to write this blog post.

Spoiler: No. “When I attended, UT was exclusively in the business of training people to become lawyers. The school’s mission has seemingly morphed into that of a social justice academy.”