The What We Do

The Law & Leadership Institute (LLI) is a non-profit in Ohio that works with high school students from underserved communities to educate them about and prepare them for careers in the legal profession.

LLI began in 2008 as a summer initiative of the Supreme Court of Ohio with just 40 students in the cities of Cleveland and Columbus. One year later, the program expanded to include the law schools in the cities of Akron, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. Today, LLI provides legally-based academic instruction and leadership training to approximately 175 high school students across the state of Ohio due to the support of all nine Ohio law schools and generous grants from the Ohio State Bar Foundation, as well as continued support from the Supreme Court of Ohio, the Ohio federal courts, the metropolitan bar associations and corporate and individual stewards of the communities who recognize the value of the work LLI performs.

• The program is free to all participants. Additionally, students are provided bus passes and lunch.

• We provide year-round, four-year academic and professional programming to participants.

• Participants learn about the law and build their reading, writing, public speaking, critical thinking, networking, professional, and leadership skills.

• LLI programming prepares students to be academically competitive and exposes them to the breadth of careers accessible with a Juris Doctor.

• LLI sessions are held in law schools and most instructors are current law students.

LLI contracts with researchers at the Ohio University Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs (a university that does not have an affiliated law school) to conduct a formal evaluation of LLI programming and methods. In 2016, LLI received the results of the first year of a two-year evaluation.