Nelson Castillo was an unlikely candidate for law school: The son of a Salvadoran housekeeper who immigrated illegally, he was a two-time high school dropout, a gas station attendant whose primary knowledge of the law came from the television drama “L.A. Law.”

      Even after he got his act together — obtained a GED, went to community college and graduated with honors from St. John’s University in New York — he “didn’t do so well” on the law school admissions test, and most wouldn’t have him.

      Now 35, Castillo is the president of the Hispanic National Bar Association — and, he says, Exhibit No. 1 for why law schools need to do a better job of considering students’ backgrounds in recruiting and admissions. He passed the bar exam on his first try, and now has a practice focusing on immigration and real estate law.

      “My story is not unique,” he told The Associated Press during an interview as the association’s midyear meeting began in Seattle. “LSATs and GPAs play a determinative role as to who gets in and who doesn’t. Frankly, that is a pattern that has to stop, because it is leaving out a lot of individuals from participating in the legal profession.”

      Castillo used the Seattle meeting to visit the University of Washington and Seattle University law schools to discuss his ideas. He has visited about 40 law schools around the country since becoming the bar association’s president last October.

      The most recent estimates from the Census Bureau show Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population: 40.5 million out of 285.7 million people in 2004. The bureau estimates that immigration and natural increases are adding 1.5 million Hispanics annually, a growth rate that will make them nearly 25 percent of the population by 2050.