UC Law hooding spotlight: Leon A. Hampton

Leon A. Hampton, an 'avid reader who wants to make an impact,' grounded his law school experience with a range of opportunities that prepared him for his future as an attorney

Leon A. Hampton (3L) came to the University of Cincinnati's College of Law with a goal: to make an impact for underrepresented populations in the legal field.

As the son of a single, working mother and breast cancer survivor, and the grandson of one New York City police sergeant and one sharecropper, Hampton’s passion for hard work comes naturally. His love for law and business started at a young age and has always known law school was in his future. His mother likes to joke that even as a child Hampton had a knack for advocating for himself.

Before returning to the Queen City from New Jersey, he spent 15-plus hour days preparing for the LSAT and working full-time in global security and investigations at American International Group. Timing was everything, so he worked and waited for the right opportunity.

Now just a few years later and approaching graduation from Cincinnati Law, Hampton has fully embraced his role as a Bearcat, and is grateful for his time at the university.

At a time when student loans are a major concern, Cincinnati Law gave me the chance to learn from nationally known professors and staff, and challenged me to become a free legal thinker who can successfully maneuver in the legal field, while reducing tuition costs.

Leon A. Hampton, 3L

Hampton considers the college a “hidden gem” which provides an incomparable law school experience at an affordable price. “At a time when student loans are a major concern,” Hampton explains, “Cincinnati Law gave me the chance to learn from nationally known professors and staff, and challenged me to become a free legal thinker who can successfully maneuver in the legal field, while reducing tuition costs.”

In addition to being a full-time law student, Hampton is heavily involved in the community and Cincinnati Law. At the school he serves as the mentorship chair for the Black Law Students Association, a representative for the Student Legal Education Committee, and a College of Law ambassador with a focus on minority students considering Cincinnati Law as a destination.

From summer associate to full-time employee: Dinsmore & Shohl LLP

Leon A. Hampton headshot

Leon A. Hampton, 3L

Following graduation from Cincinnati Law this spring, Hampton is joining law firm Dinsmore & Shohl LLP in the business acquisitions and securities practice group in the corporate department. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Dinsmore is a full-service, nationally ranked firm. He will be working with businesses forming new entities, acquisitions, governance of non-regulated securities, and registering with the SEC.

During his first-year, Hampton was looking for ways to develop his interviewing skills. Mina Jefferson, chief of staff, associate dean, and director of the Center for Professional Development, recommended he attend the BLAC-CBA Round Table Mock Interview program hosted by Dinsmore. He did and soon after Hampton was offered a position as a summer associate, and thus began his professional relationship with the firm. He’s continued to clerk for Dinsmore part-time during the school year and full-time during his summers.

Mentoring and more

While working as a summer associate at Dinsmore, the law firm selected Hampton for the 1L Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Scholar program. The LCLD program aims to create a more diverse network in the legal field by fostering mentorship programs across the country. Through this experience, Hampton met hundreds of other 1L minority law students and developed long-lasting relationships and networks.

After witnessing the power of the LCLD mentorship program firsthand, Hampton wanted to highlight the program at Cincinnati Law. As it wasn’t well known at the college, he helped coordinate a speaker series to introduce the program for first-year law students to receive mentors and “bridge the gap between mentor and mentee.” Thirty 1L students came to learn about LCLD in fall of 2017. The event was so popular and well-attended that they actually ran out of available mentors in the Cincinnati area, which Hampton considers, “a good problem to have.”

Legal recruitment reimagined

Continuing to develop his legal acumen, Hampton invited to participate in the “NALPathon,” conference, a “design thinking workshop developed by the National Association for Law Placement.” The conference’s purpose was to encourage creative solutions to real-life legal recruitment problems.

NALPathon team.

Hampton and his NALPathon team.

Student teams from across the country gathered for a weekend in Washington, D.C. to learn about design thinking and then pitched their own ideas. Each student was assigned to a team mixed with legal recruitment professionals from American Law 100 firms, subject matter experts, and university placement professionals.

Out of the eight teams in attendance, Hampton and his team won the competition.

Their solution pitch was a web-based application called Panorama which evens the playing field by eliminating the GPA and class ranking components of job applications and instead incorporates additional experience-based hiring opportunities. “Panorama creates a system,” he explains, “to incorporate a candidate’s emotional intelligence, writing ability, grit, and teamwork capacity into the recruitment process to help law firms get more well-rounded candidates.”

Hampton delivered the 4-minute pitch, take a look here.

Serving the community

Hampton’s self-motto is “lifting as I climb” and has enabled him to be effective in the classroom and in the real world prior to his career as a full-time attorney. Hampton doesn’t take his education and legal skills for granted; rather, he understands that he can be a voice for underrepresented populations in the legal field.

In his “free” time, Hampton gives back to the community by serving as the president of Black Alumni Association and sits on the board of the National Alumni Association at Xavier University in Cincinnati, his alma mater.

As his time at Cincinnati Law is quickly coming to a close, Hampton reflects on the past three years. He notes that Dean Verna Williams, Dean Jefferson, and assistant dean for academic affairs, student affairs and diversity Staci Rucker have been critical factors to his successful experience as a student at the law school. He recalls meeting (then Professor) Dean Williams in her constitutional law class and how she “pushed us to think like attorneys. She didn’t allow mediocrity, and she expected excellence from students both personally and professionally.” That expectation has led him to strive to do his best at all times.

Hampton feels he’s leaving law school prepared for his future as an attorney and plans to stay involved in fostering mentorship opportunities for Cincinnati minority law students. He notes, “Cincinnati Law allowed me to grow as an intellectual and encouraged me to be a free thinker with the ability to back up my opinions with facts and law.”

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