The Council on Legal Education Opportunity is now an independent, nonprofit, 501(c) (3) corporation.
The restructuring moves CLEO from under the umbrella of the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education, which served as its fiscal agent for many years, to the newly formed Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc.
“CLEO has served the last 47 years as the preeminent organization for preparing minority and disadvantaged students to become successful legal practitioners,” said CLEO, Inc. CEO Cassandra Sneed Ogden. “As an independent organization, CLEO, Inc. will be positioned to further expand its efforts to ensure that the face of the legal profession mirrors the growing diversity of this great country.”
Founded in 1968 when the number of lawyers of color was less than one percent, CLEO has produced more than 8,000 alumni who have excelled in every area of the legal profession and include judges, corporate attorneys, law school deans and professors, practitioners, politicians and more.
Although best known for its Six-Week Summer Institute pre-law school “boot camp,” CLEO provides services to high school, pre-law and law school students which include mentoring, placement assistance, academic counseling and support, scholarships and bar preparation orientation.
Many other national organizations have also played a major role in CLEO’s 47-year history, including the Association of American Law Schools, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Law School Admission Council, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the National Native American Bar Association, and the Society of American Law Teachers.
“CLEO is grateful for the tremendous and invaluable contributions of these organizations and its many alumni, corporate, law firm and individual supporters,” said CLEO, Inc. Chair Angela Birch Cox. “We are especially grateful to the ABA for its longstanding support.”
She said she looked forward to continued collaboration “with all of these stakeholders who share our commitment to increasing diversity in the legal profession and to serving our future legal professionals.”
“We’re very proud of CLEO’s accomplishments through the years. The ABA looks forward to working with CLEO as a newly independent non-profit corporation as both the ABA and CLEO continue their important work to encourage and enhance diversity in the legal profession,” said Jack Rives, Executive Director of the American Bar Association.
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