Ohio bar encouraging more minority attorneys

5/14/2009

CLEVELAND The Ohio State Bar Association will expand a program that encourages minority teens to consider law careers.

The Law & Leadership Institute began last year with 45 teens in Cleveland and Columbus and will expand this year to ninth-graders in Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron and Toledo. The program includes classes on legal issues taught by law students, presentations by prominent attorneys and field trips.

The bar association says the institute is meant as a "pipeline into the legal profession" for minority youngsters including blacks, who represent 12.6 percent of Ohio's population but only 3.7 percent of its lawyers.

The program expansion, which begins in June, was announced Thursday at the bar association convention in Cleveland.