CLEO – the Council on Legal Education Opportunity – held its 50th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 2018.  RBGG co-founding partner Sanford Jay Rosen was a recipient the CLEO EDGE Founders Award. 

Sandy was the first Associate Director of CLEO.  He has also left his mark in a wide array of cases protecting civil rights, equality and diversity, including successfully representing the Kent State victims, winning Supreme Court decisions invalidating loyalty oaths, obtaining Alger Hiss’ government pension, addressing deplorable prison conditions, setting aside death sentences, releasing Lakota Chief Leonard Emmanuel Crow Dog a leader of AIM from prison, getting the then largest age discrimination in employment settlement, and protecting countless people from all kinds of invidious discrimination.

From the CLEO Website:  “Founded in 1968 when the number of lawyers of color was less than one percent, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) has worked to increase the number of lawyers from diverse backgrounds for the last half century. Although best known for its Pre-Law Summer Institute “boot camp,” CLEO provides services to high school, pre-law, and law school students which include mentoring, placement assistance, academic counseling and support, scholarships, and bar prep orientation. CLEO has produced more than 10,000 alumni who have excelled in every area of the legal profession to include judges, corporate attorneys, law school deans and professors, practitioners, politicians, and more.”