Topeka, Kan. – Washburn University School of Law Dean Carla Pratt is one of four legal professionals to win the national 2019 Leading Edge Prize for Educational Innovation. The Leading Edge Prize recognizes and rewards professional teams for the best solutions to challenges facing law students and legal education. Pratt is a member of one of two winning teams in the second annual competition.
Pratt and Camille deJorna of the Law School Admission Council won the $10,000 award for their project “The Underrepresented Experience: How Low Income and Minority Students Successfully Navigate the First Year of Law School.” The goal of the project is to examine how the support of a small cohort of students from similar backgrounds impacts law school success, particularly for students who have had less preparation for law school than is typically expected. The project will focus on students from the Council on Legal Education’s CLEO Legally Inspired Cohort (CLIC) program, a group admission model for students from diverse backgrounds that provides scholarships and academic support.
The Leading Edge Competition was developed in 2018 by Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory as part of their Leading Edge Conference, an invitation-only gathering of U.S. legal education thought leaders from law schools, agencies and companies across the country. The goal of the conference and competition is to drive innovation in the legal industry with creative solutions to industry challenges. Pratt and deJorna attended the 2019 Leading Edge Conference, where they began to envision their winning project.
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