CLAE’s Leadership Institute is a transformative, yearlong program through which emerging legal aid leaders develop a comprehensive set of skills essential to the exercise of leadership in a social justice context, whether in an advocacy or administrative/managerial capacity. Leaders in training (we call them fellows) learn these skills and concepts at four multi-day onsite retreats and through web-based distance learning activities between retreats. They work in pairs with hand-picked mentors from outside their programs who enrich their learning environment and provide ongoing support and encouragement. Through work on Leadership Initiatives - major projects designed to solve significant problems in their client communities or address important needs within their programs - the Fellows have the opportunity to practice the skills they’ve learned in a real world laboratory with support from their peers, their programs, their mentors and CLAE faculty. 

Through a set of reflective exercises, the development of personal leadership development plans, and 360 feedback from workmates and personal acquaintances, fellows learn about themselves and explore their leadership strengths and weaknesses as perceived by others. The product of the Institute is a more mature leader, with increased self-confidence, a broad range of new analytical and practical skills, a fuller understanding of leadership in all its dimensions, and major practical experience conceiving and carrying out a complex initiative.