The Jury Is in: Law Schools Foster Students' Fixed Mindsets

The legal education community remains concerned with the resiliency of law students and lawyers. In other fields, a growing body of research suggests that students’ mindsets are linked to their resilience, and it is assumed that the findings will hold in legal education. However, to date, there has been no empirical research to support these assumptions. This

article describes an empirical study of law students’ mindsets based on responses from 425 students at six law schools across the United States. Our results unveil a troubling trend in law students’ mindsets at different stages of the law school experience.

Susan Shapcott, Sarah Davis & Lane Hanson