Selected Findings of ABF Research Projects
• Official State Department estimates of the death toll in the Darfur region of Sudan (between 60,000 to
160,000) significantly understate the actual number of deaths, which is at least 200,000 and most likely
is closer to 400,000.
• Lawyers who graduated from elite schools are significantly less satisfied with their decision to become a
lawyer than are graduates of fourth tier schools, with almost 60% of top ten graduates expecting to leave
their positions within two years, and only 27% reporting that they are extremely satisfied with their decision to become a lawyer.
• The Supreme Court’s 2001 decision, rejecting “catalyst theory” for recovery of attorney’s fees in civil rights cases (Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources) has encouraged “strategic capitulation”, has made settlement more difficult, and has discouraged attorneys from representing civil rights plaintiffs.
• Classroom diversity affects class participation of minority students in law schools. Students of color are morelikely to participate in discussions when they are among a substantial cohort of students of color in a class taught by a professor of color.
• Media reports of victorious claimants securing million-dollar awards in employment discrimination litigationhave created a distorted picture of how often and how much plaintiffs win.
• Legal interventions, notably Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, played a major role, independent of other
factors, in elevating the economic status of African Americans.
• Investments targeted toward improving the skills of disadvantaged young children are much more successful than later interventions, such as reduced pupil-teacher ratios, public job training, tuition subsidies, and expenditures on police.
• The actual U.S. high school graduation rate has been declining over the past 40 years, having peaked around 1970, and is substantially lower than the official rate issued by the National Center for Education Statistics.
• Female attorneys earn significantly less than male attorneys only two years into their careers, even when controlling for practice contexts.
• While the male lawyer population in 2000 was 2.5 times the size it had been in 1970, the female lawyer
population was 29 times larger.
• Drug-dealing “foot soldiers” on average earn less than minimum wage and face high risk of arrest, injury,
and death.