May 14, 2009
Student Law Program Expands Beyond Cleveland, Columbus
A program that seeks to improve diversity in the legal profession will expand to four additional Ohio cities this summer, according to a joint announcement today by the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA). Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer and OSBA President Gary J. Leppla announced the expansion of the Law & Leadership Institute at the annual OSBA Convention.
Columbus and Cleveland students entering the ninth grade participated in last year’s inaugural Law & Leadership Summer Institute, which is part of the Supreme Court’s Legal Education Opportunity program. The institute offered students with an interest in the law from underserved communities the chance to study law at The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
Now students in Akron, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo will explore similar opportunities in the legal profession.
During the intensive, five-week program last summer, students heard from attorneys, law professors, law students and judges via lectures, took field trips to the Statehouse, the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court, and shadowed public and private sector attorneys during the work day. The curriculum included a heavy dose of instruction on legal principles as well as how to improve study habits and oral and written presentation skills.
After learning Monday through Thursday about all aspects of the criminal justice system including specific crimes in Ohio, the steps in a trial and hot-button issues such as search and seizure, racial profiling and police use of force, students were tested on their knowledge on Fridays. The program was modeled after a highly successful New York program called Legal Outreach.
“The Law & Leadership Institute recognizes that there are talented young people in Ohio who, given academic opportunities and support, would make excellent members of the legal profession,” said Chief Justice Moyer. “The Institute provides that opening and prepares interested high school students from the city schools to face the rigors of higher education and offers them an opportunity to ‘dream the dream’ of becoming an attorney.”
Additional partners for the 2009 summer institute include the Ohio Center for Law Related Education, the Ohio State Bar Foundation, Ohio’s metropolitan bar associations, city school districts and Ohio’s seven other law schools: the University of Akron School of Law, Capital University Law School, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, the University of Cincinnati College of Law, the University of Dayton School of Law, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law and the University of Toledo College of Law.
The institute’s primary purpose is to prepare class members to compete at high academic levels via intense legal and educational programming. The hope is that students use the program as a tool to foster vision, develop leadership skills, realize confidence and cultivate a passion to pursue higher education and a legal career.
“The barrier for disadvantaged students to considering law as a career is not the inability to learn the law, but rather, the lack of exposure to the law in time to develop the analytical and other academic skills; make the rational choices to study harder, and to hone these practices sufficiently, in time to actually be prepared to apply to law school,” said OSBA President Leppla. “This is why the pipeline program, which focuses early in the educational process, is so important to any discussion of diversity in the profession.”
The program, class materials, transportation and lunches are provided for free. Students earn incentives up to $200 for completing the program.
The Kettering Foundation has loaned its general counsel, Maxine Thomas, for two years to serve as executive director of the program.
Contact: Chris Davey or Bret Crow at 614.387.9250.