The Law and Leadership Institute, LLC (“LLI”) is a statewide initiative in collaboration with the legal community that inspires and prepares students from underserved communities f...view moreThe Law and Leadership Institute, LLC (“LLI”) is a statewide initiative in collaboration with the legal community that inspires and prepares students from underserved communities for post-secondary and professional success through a comprehensive four-year academic program in law, leadership, analytical thinking, problem solving, writing skills and professionalism. LLI successfully obtained status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization in 2010. It is governed by a board of directors of seventeen members consisting of representatives of the Ohio legal community that includes one designee of the Ohio State Bar Association, one designee of the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education, one designee of the Supreme Court of Ohio and one designee of the Consortium of Metropolitan Bar Associations.
LLI began on a pilot basis during the summer of 2008 as a program of the Supreme Court of Ohio after discussions at the annual Bench-Bar Retreat led the Court and all nine law school Deans to launch Ohio’s version of a highly successful legal pipeline program from New York called Legal Outreach. LLI began at Cleveland State University’s Marshall College of Law and The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law with 40 rising ninth-grade students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Columbus City Schools. The Supreme Court of Ohio funded the pilot phase in 2008-2009 with in-kind assistance from the law schools, metropolitan bar associations, and the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, which loaned its General Counsel – Maxine Thomas, to serve as executive director.
Unprecedented support from the Ohio State Bar Foundation resulted in LLI’s expansion to four additional cities, at the direction of Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, so that eight of the nine Ohio law schools in the state’s six largest cities could host LLI programming as originally contemplated by the conveners. The ninth Ohio law school is located in the rural town of Ada, Ohio and provides off-site program support.
Today, LLI provides effective law and leadership programming to over 400 high school students, on eight law school campuses across the state of Ohio.view less