When she was in the seventh grade, Professor Yolanda Ingram made a pact with a friend: she would become a lawyer and her friend would become a doctor. This was one of several moments of affirmation in her education and career that led Ingram to her current position as Kline Law’s inaugural Director of Bar Support.

“I was the first attorney in my family,” said Ingram, who is also an assistant teaching professor at Kline Law. “I didn’t know attorneys in my hometown. I had friends in high school whose parents were attorneys, but I wouldn’t say I really knew them. So, I had always said, ‘Yeah, I want to go to law school.’ But when I got to college, I almost didn’t.”

However, after completing a bachelor’s degree in English, Ingram took the LSAT and GRE. She did so well on the LSAT that she was offered multiple seats at several law schools. This again confirmed her decision to pursue a career in law. “I kind of feel like I was being nudged along by some unseen forces of the universe,” said Ingram. She graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 1995.

Ingram began her career in a mid-sized law firm and focused her practice on land use, zoning and eminent domain cases. She quickly found this wasn’t the right fit for her. “I love school. I love teaching. So, I wanted to do something different with my law degree, other than billable hours,” said Ingram, who accepted a position teaching legal writing at Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law.”

After this role, she spent several years in positions centered in teaching, writing, research and administration, both in and outside of higher education. Before coming to Kline Law in 2019, Ingram served as the Dean of Students and Director of Bar Prep and Academic Success at Pennsylvania State University – Dickinson School of Law. 

As the Director of Bar Support at Kline Law, Ingram works closely with each student from the time they start law school until after they graduate. “The goal is to help students know what to expect on the bar exam from the moment they enter law school,” said Ingram.

For Ingram, Bar support must be dynamic. In addition to offering a six-week bar prep course each summer, Ingram offers workshops, one-on-one meetings and a variety of events to ensure students are adequately prepared. “The goal is to provide future lawyers with the skills they need to not only pass the bar exam but to develop a lifelong growth mindset,” said Ingram. “If students learn how to self-assess and evaluate their own work product while developing time management and organizational skills that are essential to being a successful practicing attorney, then I have done my small part to help their future clients obtain the legal services they need.”