The Legal Education Opportunities Program (LEO) at University of Wisconsin Law School is a thriving program for the recruitment, retention, and success of a diverse group of law students.

Program Overview

LEO’s stated purpose is to recruit and retain students with a diversity of identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives and work to ensure their success. The program provides an informal academic and social support network for its students while they are in law school, and beyond. As Dean Tokaji emphasizes, the LEO program is essential to the success of the Law School as a whole.

"We as a community are stronger when we promote diversity in all dimensions and fulfill our longstanding commitment to equity and inclusion. Equal justice for all isn’t just a slogan. It’s at the very core of our educational mission."

Today the LEO Program is part of the character of the Law School. Its success depends on student organizations including:

• Black Law Students Association (BLSA)
• La Alianza
• Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Law Students Association (APIDALSA)
• Indigenous Law Student Association (ILSA)
• Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)

Student representatives from these and other groups regularly consult with the DEI Committee which governs the LEO program.

Annual LEO Banquet

Perhaps the most visible student activity is planning the LEO Banquet, traditionally held each spring. More than 300 people attend the banquet each year, including many alumni, lawyers, judges, and politicians. It is also an event to which prospective students are invited.

History

LEO owes its start to law students, who led the campaign more than 50 years ago to recruit students from traditionally underrepresented groups to UW Law School.

Much of the credit for the program’s early success belongs to one student in particular, Jim Miles ’69. As secretary-treasurer and later president of the Student Bar Association (SBA), Miles gathered information on minority recruitment programs from other leading law schools, and then drafted a Wisconsin plan. He would later spearhead efforts to raise scholarship funds and conduct recruiting trips to colleges around the country.

Miles’s work, together with law students and faculty committed to the LEO cause, won widespread praise. By 1968, the American Bar Association had named the SBA at UW Law School the best in the country, largely due to its execution of the LEO vision.

Alumni

The LEO Program continues to thrive, with more than 1,500 lawyers counting themselves as alumni. They serve their communities in every capacity, from law schools and government work to nonprofits and public interest law to private firms.

LEO Alumni Spotlight