Gonzaga University School of Law has enrolled 109 students into its first-year class that started instruction late last month. That's down almost 20 percent from its first-year enrollment last year.

The decline follows drops in enrollment the previous two years, falling from about 180 students enrolled in the fall of 2010.

Andrea Parrish, spokeswoman for the law school, says total enrollment at the law school currently stands at about 390 students.

The incoming class, known as the law school's class of 2016, is smaller due to a nationwide drop in applications to law schools, Gonzaga says in a press release.

While smaller, the class of 2016 is the most diverse in the law school's 101-year history, the school contends.

"We are very enthusiastic about this group of students," says Gonzaga Law Dean Jane Korn in the release.

Twenty-three percent of the class of 2016 is included in the American Bar Association's underrepresented minority classification.

Twenty different states and 61 undergraduate institutions are represented, including Samford University, Chapman University, Brigham Young University, Eastern Washington University, Washington State University, Tulane University, and a variety of University of California campuses.

Forty-seven percent of the students were Washington state residents before beginning classes at Gonzaga Law.

The median Law School Admission Test scores of the Class of 2016 is 154—the LSAT score scale is about 120 to about 180—with a median undergraduate grade-point average of 3.26. Students arrive at Gonzaga Law from a wide variety of backgrounds, including some fluent in Japanese and Chinese; a published political cartoonist; parents; members of the U.S. Marines, Air Force, and Army; recording artists; bartenders; poets; tennis professionals; and film festival coordinators.

Statistics are based on the first day of 2013 Orientation on Aug. 20. The official statistical report on the 2013 incoming class will be released in early October.