ICLEO fellows say they feel more prepared for first day of law school

Three weeks into the six-week long Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity program, ICLEO fellow Jasmine Lovelace felt like she was already immersed in law school, especially with her 100-plus-page reading assignments. Now that the program has ended, Lovelace feels more confident about starting the real thing.

“Even on paper it sounds like a great program, but a lot to live up to,” Lovelace said. “But in person it’s really how it is on paper, even more so.”

The soon-to-be Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law student was one of 23 applicants from across the state selected to participate in the 2019 ICLEO summer preparatory institute, hosted at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington. The immersive residential preparatory experience offers ICLEO fellows an opportunity to engage with first-year law school curriculum and skills courses designed to closely simulate the law school experience.

Established in 1997, ICLEO seeks to diversify the legal profession by helping minorities, low-income or educationally disadvantaged college graduates prepare for a career in the law. The program’s aim was appealing to Lovelace, who said she knew she needed extra support heading into law school as a non-traditional student.

“My intention was to get more personalized advice,” she said. “No one in my family has gone to law school. They can support me, but they aren’t able to help me with the day-to-day details. Being around others doing the same thing as you is not as daunting.

Fellow ICLEO student Charles Westerhaus, who will start law school at IU Maurer this month, agreed, noting the preparatory experience offered him a good guess of what to expect in the real-world.

“Without ICLEO, the first day or week might have been very shocking,” Westerhaus said. “It helps reduce some of that stress by making the classroom a little more familiar on the first day of school.”

A major takeaway from the experience, Westerhaus said, is that regardless of if a student has a lengthy family history of lawyers or is a fresh college graduate with no legal connections, the playing field will be level for everyone.

“There’s some comfort in knowing that on the first day of law school, we’re all equal,” he said. “We’re all ignorant of the law on the first day we walk in there. All of these professors we have – like Justice Steven David or Chief Justice Loretta Rush – they at some point were first-time law students, and they didn’t know anything either.

“You have to begin somewhere in life,” he added. “…They were in the same shoes you were.”

IU Maurer professor Kevin Brown, who has taught in the ICLEO program at least six times, said his hope is that the students will be ahead of the curve on their first day of law school. Brown said he utilizes the Socratic method in his regular tort law classes, which can be intimidating for first year students.

“As you can imagine, the first few times there’s a lot of anxiety attached to the classroom. My hope is that they are at least a little over that,” Brown said.

The ICLEO students should know how to read and brief cases, Brown added. They also gained experience in outlining course material and taking the practice exam.

“Top to bottom they were a very strong class,” Brown said of the 2019 ICLEO fellows. “The strongest class I thought was 2016, but I do think this group is at least that strong, or maybe a little stronger.”

The professor said he was impressed with the students’ exam results given it was their first introduction to the law, and noted their eagerness mimicked that of current law school students.

When asked whether his experience in the program met his anticipations, Westerhaus said it exceeded them. He knew the students would be immersed in coursework and studying, but didn’t expect the depth to which those studies reached.

As a child, Westerhaus grew up admiring the legal profession from what he saw through family members who chose a career in the law. He said his dream is to become a judge and, hopefully, serve the community where his family resides.

Lovelace’s goal is to become a criminal defense attorney and get individuals off of death row.

“I feel like that’s why I’m here,” she said. “Even if it’s just one person.”

Lovelace, too, felt like her expectations were exceeded ten-fold. The professors and relationships with other students were her biggest takeaway, she said.

“I feel like I can still use them as reference, or if I need advice and mentorship,” Lovelace said. “We can all still stay in contact even though we are at different schools. It’s the best part of multiple programs I’ve participated in rolled into one comprehensive program in six weeks.”

“This is just an outstanding program,” Brown said. “It’s a program that I talk to my friends at law schools all across the country about, and very few other states have a program as progressive as this one.”