The Law & Leadership Institute Information

The Law and Leadership Institute, LLC (“LLI”) is a statewide initiative in collaboration with the legal community that inspires and prepares 125 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. LLI began the summer of 2008 as a pilot program of the SCO 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. Support from the Ohio State Bar Foundation resulted in LLI’s expansion to four additional cities in 2009, 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. The ninth Ohio law school is located in the rural town of Ada, Ohio and provides off-site program support.