The Baobab Institute
The teaching-hospital residency model, for nonprofit law

We grow lawyers
from seed to crown.

The Baobab Institute for Nonprofit Law trains culturally responsive counsel in preventive law the way medicine trains doctors — through supervised practice on real client work. In doing so, we bring proactive legal care to historically underserved communities and the grassroots organizations that hold them together.

The Baobab Institute hexagon logo — a sapling with roots inside a hexagonal frame
Founding stage

Founded 2025, launched 2026. We are building our first cohorts now — and inviting our founding partners, lawyers, and supporters to grow with us.

Care delivered, lawyers built, knowledge shared

Train · Serve · Generate knowledge

The combination is what makes Baobab an institution rather than a program. Each mission strengthens the others — service gives trainees real practice, and practice generates knowledge the sector can use.

I

Train

Culturally responsive counsel, trained on real work.

We grow culturally responsive lawyers — practitioners of preventive law — by having them practice, under close supervision, on real client work.

II

Serve

Preventive legal care for grassroots nonprofits.

We deliver preventive legal care to grassroots organizations that could never otherwise afford sustained counsel.

III

Generate knowledge

We share what works with the whole sector.

We study what we do and publish it, so the whole nonprofit-law sector can learn from the model.

The seed-to-crown pipeline

One continuous path into nonprofit practice

Each level is independently comprehensive — no prior level is required — but together they form a progression that rewards continued commitment, from first exposure to licensed leadership.

  1. Feeder

    Seeds · Sprouts · Saplings

    Youth & pre-law

    Early exposure, mentorship, and identity formation.

    Future
  2. I

    Seedlings

    Law Student Summer Internship

    A summer of first supervised exposure for law students (1L, 2L, or 3L) — observe, research, reflect.

  3. II

    Roots

    Clinical externship

    Supervised nonprofit legal work, available for academic credit through a student's law school.

  4. III

    Trunk

    12-month fellowship

    A year-long nonprofit general-counsel immersion serving one organization.

  5. IV

    Crown

    24–36-month residency

    Licensed, salaried attorneys managing caseloads, specializing, and mentoring.

For organizations

Preventive legal care, not emergency response

We begin with a Legal Health Assessment — a checkup for your organization — and stay in long-term partnership, so problems are prevented rather than survived.

For lawyers & students

A supervised path into nonprofit law

From a 1L summer to a multi-year residency, you practice real nonprofit general-counsel work under close supervision — the training the profession has needed for a century.

Plant something that outlives us.

Be among the first to join the Institute — as a partner, a lawyer, or a supporter.