Logan Cornett serves in two intersecting roles at IAALS. As Director of Research, she leads the empirical aspects of IAALS’ work. Cornett is a rigorous methodologist with almost two decades of experience working in various research and evaluation settings—including cognitive neuropsychology and post-secondary educational outcomes—with more than 12 of those years spent at IAALS studying issues related to access to justice, equity in our legal ecosystems, and developing person-centered legal structures and processes.
In her role directing IAALS’ Legal Education and Licensure work, she focuses on identifying, implementing, and evaluating strategies that promote equity and access in law schools, in pathways to licensure, and in the legal workplace. She collaborates and engages with stakeholders across the country to bring these ideas to full realization.
Cornett co-authored a seminal report—Building a Better Bar—detailing the findings of research designed to produce an empirically based definition of minimum competence to practice law. Currently, multiple states—including Oregon, Utah, Washington, and others—are adopting this research as they explore and implement new pathways to licensure that are valid, rigorous, and fair. Cornett actively supports states’ on-the-ground licensure improvement efforts through committee service and advisement, evaluation design, and data collection, analysis, and reporting.
She also works to create alignment between what students learn in law school and the criteria by which legal employers hire and assess new lawyers. IAALS’ Foundations for Practice project—which she has been a part of since its inception in 2014 and now leads—provides both data identifying the competencies new lawyers need and models for building curriculums and equitable hiring practices around them. Cornett works with law schools, legal educators, and legal employers across the country to tailor and implement these Foundations-based models.
Cornett strives to elevate people’s lived experiences, center equity and fairness, and adhere to the highest standards of integrity in all aspects of her work. Cornett has an MA in Research Methods and Statistics from the University of Denver and a BS in Psychology from Oregon State University. She has also completed graduate-level coursework at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.