The UCLA Law Fellows Program, which prepares high-potential undergraduate students and college graduates from diverse backgrounds for careers in law, has been awarded a $125,000 two-year grant from Access Group to provide additional financial and academic support to participants of the program, and to increase the program’s impact and reach.
The Law Fellows Program provides early academic outreach to undergraduate, recently graduated and graduate students at UCLA and other universities and has received the highest honor bestowed to education pipeline programs from the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association.
Access Group, through its Center for Research and Policy Analysis, annually awards grants to programs that conduct effective interventions and approaches to enhance access to legal education for students from diverse backgrounds, specifically historically underrepresented minority students and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We are very excited to receive this generous grant from Access Group,” said Leo Trujillo-Cox, founding executive director of UCLA School of Law’s Academic Outreach Resource Center. “This additional support will enable us to provide UCLA Law Fellows with greater opportunities for their success.”
Now in its 19th year, the UCLA Law Fellows Program is nationally recognized as one of the most comprehensive and innovative pipeline-building initiatives in legal education. Launched in 1997 by the UCLA School of Law Academic Outreach Resource Center, the program includes a series of Saturday Academies that expose fellows to cases and a variety of materials used in law school. Close to 1,600 students have participated in the initial phase of the program, and, to date, nearly 600 fellows have either completed law school or are currently enrolled at law schools across the country.
Additionally, informative seminars and panel discussions designed to demystify the law school experience are led by staff, alumni and other members of the legal community. Fellows are provided with programming, counseling, career guidance, one-on-one mentoring and a test preparation scholarship.
Founded in 1983, Access Group is a nonprofit organization comprised of nearly 200 nonprofit and state-affiliated American Bar Association-approved law schools. Through research, policy advocacy, and direct member and student educational services, Access Group works to further access, affordability and the value of a legal education specifically, and graduate and professional education more broadly.
