CLEO PROGRAMS

The Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc. (CLEO) has selected their 2020 Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Civil Rights Scholars. Five outstanding first-year law students who are passionate about protecting the civil rights of all Americans have been awarded a $500 scholarship. The scholarship is named to honor Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., attorney, noted civil rights leader/activist, an advisor to presidents, businessman, and a board member to several Fortune 500 companies.

Twenty-one persons will receive the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc.’s EDGE Pre-Law Scholarship Award to help students attend the 2020 Pre-Law Summer Institute. The awards were made possible by generous grants from the Walmart Legal Department; the law firms McCarter & English and Phelps Dunbar, LLP; a philanthropic organization, the Charles E. Griffin, Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi; and CLEO Board member Malcolm Morris.

For the first time in its 52-year history, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc. (CLEO) will host its major programs online to reach its diverse audiences during 2020 in response to the novel coronavirus.
“Like numerous nonprofit and for-profit organizations globally, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc. has been seriously impacted by recent events related to the coronavirus pandemic,” said Cassandra Sneed Ogden, CLEO’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our summer programs going virtual is in response to this unparalleled phenomenon.”

The Council on Legal Education Opportunity, Inc. (CLEO), the longest-serving national organization committed to diversity in the legal profession, recently launched the Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. Civil Rights Scholarship to assist first-year law students who are passionate about protecting the civil rights of all Americans.