Munger, Tolles & Olson Has Partnered with Legal Education Access Pipeline (LEAP) to Improve Access to the Legal Pipeline by Supporting Students in Gaining Admission to Law School
Munger, Tolles & Olson is pleased to announce a new partnership with Legal Education Access Pipeline (LEAP), a law school pipeline program founded in 2020 to support future law students from adverse and/or traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in gaining admission to law school. Though this promising new partnership, MTO and LEAP have brought the current MTO Fellows Program into the LEAP family to launch an MTO Chapter of the LEAP Fellows Program. This exciting new chapter will support at least 20 additional Southern California prospective law school students as the LEAP/MTO Fellows for the 2024 program year.
LEAP and its founder Cindy Lopez, a recent retiree from the California Attorney General’s Office, are the perfect partners, having been partially inspired by the current MTO Fellows Program to create LEAP.
Like the MTO Fellows Program, LEAP programming focuses on attorney mentoring, LSAT prep, the law school application process and panel discussions on how to succeed in law school and beyond. MTO attorneys will participate in the newly formed LEAP/MTO Fellows partnership by serving as attorney mentors, participating in workshops and selecting candidates for the program. MTO will periodically host workshops in our Los Angeles office.
LEAP boasts a near 100% success rate in LEAP Fellows who have applied and been accepted into law school.
Since 2015, the MTO Fellows Program has helped more than 250 students from a variety of backgrounds address the barriers they face in applying to law school, and by preparing them to succeed in law school and beyond.
“We could not be more excited for this extraordinary chance to partner with LEAP and combine our efforts to continue broadening access to the pipeline and expanding opportunities for new voices to join the legal community. This program strengthens our profession, in terms of both equity and justice. It’s what our firm stands for and what we and LEAP have striven for,” said Munger, Tolles & Olson partner Wesley T.L. Burrell.
“Our MTO Fellows alumni thrive as the heads of diverse student organizations, members of the law review, Big Law associates, public interest fellowship recipients and law clerks,” Mr. Burrell added.
Following the launch of the MTO Chapter this Fall, the firm will continue to collaborate with LEAP to grow the program to also support a Northern California cohort of LEAP/MTO Fellows, expected in 2025. This partnership will allow the firm to continue supporting the legal pipeline while collaborating with an organization that is solely dedicated to furthering this important work.
If you are a prospective candidate who has been awaiting information on the program formally known as MTO Fellows, please apply directly through LEAP’s website.
About Munger, Tolles & Olson
Munger, Tolles & Olson has a long track record of building innovative diversity programs with impressive results. We helped to create and were among the first firms to implement the Mansfield Rule. We have received Mansfield Certification Plus Status for five consecutive years and continue to experience growth in the diversity of our firm’s lead committees.
Please contact [email protected] with questions or for further information.