| The legal profession is one of the least diverse in the country and reflects societies' limits on access to power by certain ethnic groups. The disparate numbers of Black and Latina/o students in law school stems from a history of excluding these groups from legal education, in addition to system obstacles, including socioeconomic status, lower LSAT scores, and barriers to education.;A long academic debate has asked why minority students are not successful in law school. The most prominent voice on this subject, Richard Sander, suggests that mismatch theory accounts for the lack of success on the part of Latina/o and Black students. Many scholars have rejected this notion, and cited that a hostile law school environment, along with stereotype threat and disparate treatment are the source.;The purpose of the study was to examine the law school environment as perceived by Black and Latino/a students who were academically dismissed from law school. This study focused on the perceptions of the former students, as opposed to the institutional perspective, which is unique to this field of inquiry.;This study was built upon Strange and Banning's (2001) comprehensive ecological model on educational environments. Eight participants who were academically dismissed from law school and identified as Black or Latina/o were interviewed. Through analysis four themes emerged, experiences of stereotype threat, fight or flight used as a coping mechanism, isolation in the law school environment and culture, and perceptions of systemic betrayal and disparate treatment.;Findings lead to implications for the stakeholders in legal education, including the need to examine unintended consequences resulting from the environment with no pedagogical purpose. Finally, recommendations for students, faculty, administrators and the American Bar Association are discussed, including the need for additional collection of data on minority student academic dismissal, and improvement of teaching methods to include evidence-based pedagogy. The resulting themes offer insights and opportunities for individual law students and law schools to increase the retention of minority law students. |
