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The Power of Speech – Register Today!

by BLAdmin

Law schools play a pivotal role in shaping future leaders, and now, more than ever, the need for civility, ethics, and active engagement is paramount. Baylor Law is proud to invite you to a half-day symposium dedicated to enhancing professionalism and civility within law schools.

This event promises enriching discussions and insights to empower our future legal professionals to be positive difference-makers from day one.

Don’t miss this virtual opportunity to engage with thought leaders and experts in the field and gain invaluable knowledge that will shape the future of legal education.

– Leah

Welcoming Remarks

Thursday, September 28, 2023
1:30 – 3:00pm EDT/ 12:30 – 2:00pm CDT/ 11:30am – 1:00pm MDT/ 10:30am – 12:00pm PDT

Patricia Wilson
Interim Dean and William Boswell Chair of Law, Baylor Law

The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Thursday, September 28, 2023
1:35 – 3:00pm EDT/ 12:35 – 2:00pm CDT/ 11:35am – 1:00pm MDT/ 10:35am – 12:00pm PDT

Discussing the importance of freedom of speech and the consideration of techniques for encouraging law students and lawyers to approach the exercise of the right to free speech in a civil and professional manner to promote healthy and informed interactions.

Introduced by:
Leah Teague, Professor and Director of Leadership Program, Baylor Law

Moderated by:
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkley School of Law, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law 

  • Deborah Enix-Ross, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Immediate Past ABA President
  • Mark Alexander, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, President, AALS
  • April Barton, Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law, Chair, AALS Leadership Section
  • Sudha Setty, CUNY School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law
REGISTER FOR SESSION 1:
The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Creating a Culture of Civility

Thursday, September 28, 2023

3:15 – 4:45pm EDT/ 2:15 – 3:45pm CDT/ 1:15pm – 2:45pm MDT/ 12:15pm – 1:45pm PDT

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.

Introduced by:

Introduced by:
Lee Fisher, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law

Moderated by:
Kellye Testy, President and CEO, Law School Admissions Council (Panel Moderator)

  • Louis D. Bilionis, Cincinnati College of Law, Dean Emeritus and Droege Professor of Law
  • Timothy W. Floyd, Mercer University School of Law, Tommy Malone Distinguished Chair in Trial Advocacy and Director of Experiential Education
  • Tania Luma, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Assistant Dean, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Leah Teague, Baylor University School of Law, Professor of Law and Director of Leadership Development Program
REGISTER FOR SESSION 2:
Creating a Culture of Civility

Join Baylor Law in welcoming award-winning author and renowned constitutional scholar Professor Akhil Amar discusses the historical underpinnings of Texas becoming a state, how civil discourse about important issues played a role in Texas’ formation, and why our modern First Amendment right to free speech is critical to our future success. Professor Amar will offer his insight into the key role the Federalist Papers and historical events play in understanding the importance our Founding Fathers placed on civil discourse. By better understanding our history, we will be better able to meaningfully engage with each other in the present day.

REGISTER FOR SESSION 3:
2023 Starr Federals Papers Lecture Series at Baylor Law
The Founding Fathers and the Importance of Civil Discourse
With Prof. Akhil Reed Amar
Uncategorized

The Power of Speech

by BLAdmin

Law schools, now more than ever, need to prepare their students to be active, engaged, civil, ethical leaders and difference-makers from the moment they graduate.

Please join us for a half-day symposium to consider how to enhance professionalism and civility within law school environments. Immediately following the two virtual panel discussions, we invite you to stay online for the Ninth Annual Starr Federalists Papers Lecture Series with Prof. Akhil Amar as he offers his insight into the historical underpinnings of the right to free speech and the importance of civil discourse. 

– Leah

Welcoming Remarks

Thursday, September 28, 2023
1:30 – 3:00pm EDT/ 12:30 – 2:00pm CDT/ 11:30am – 1:00pm MDT/ 10:30am – 12:00pm PDT

Patricia Wilson
Interim Dean and William Boswell Chair of Law, Baylor Law

The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Thursday, September 28, 2023
1:30 – 3:00pm EDT/ 12:30 – 2:00pm CDT/ 11:30am – 1:00pm MDT/ 10:30am – 12:00pm PDT

Discussing the Importance of freedom of speech and the consideration of techniques for encouraging law students and lawyers to approach the exercise of the right to free speech in a civil and professional manner to promote healthy and informed interactions.

Introduced by:
Leah Teague, Professor and Director of Leadership Program, Baylor Law

Moderated by:
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkley School of Law, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law 

  • Deborah Enix-Ross, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Immediate Past ABA President
  • Mark Alexander, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, Arthur J. Kania Dean and Professor of Law, President, AALS
  • April Barton, Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law, Chair, AALS Leadership Section
  • Sudha Setty, CUNY School of Law, Dean and Professor of Law
REGISTER FOR SESSION 1:
The State of Civil Discourse in America
and the Legal Profession

Creating a Culture of Civility

Thursday, September 28, 2023

3:15 – 4:45pm EDT/ 2:15 – 3:45pm CDT/ 1:15pm – 2:45pm MDT/ 12:15pm – 1:45pm PDT

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.

Introduced by:

Introduced by:
Lee Fisher, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law

Moderated by:
Kellye Testy, President and CEO, Law School Admissions Council (Panel Moderator)

  • Louis D. Bilionis, Cincinnati College of Law, Dean Emeritus and Droege Professor of Law
  • Timothy W. Floyd, Mercer University School of Law, Tommy Malone Distinguished Chair in Trial Advocacy and Director of Experiential Education
  • Tania Luma, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Assistant Dean, Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
  • Leah Teague, Baylor University School of Law, Professor of Law and Director of Leadership Development Program

Discuss offerings, programs, and activities to support a culture of civility throughout the law schools, including specific discussions about professional identity formation, DEIB training for law students, student organization leadership training, public relations, and crisis management plans.

REGISTER FOR SESSION 2:
Creating a Culture of Civility

Join Baylor Law in welcoming award-winning author and renowned constitutional scholar Professor Akhil Amar discusses the historical underpinnings of Texas becoming a state, how civil discourse about important issues played a role in Texas’ formation, and why our modern First Amendment right to free speech is critical to our future success. Professor Amar will offer his insight into the key role the Federalist Papers and historical events play in understanding the importance our Founding Fathers placed on civil discourse. By better understanding our history, we will be better able to meaningfully engage with each other in the present day.

REGISTER FOR SESSION 3:
2023 Starr Federals Papers Lecture Series at Baylor Law
The Founding Fathers and the Importance of Civil Discourse
With Prof. Akhil Reed Amar
Uncategorized

Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business by Carrie Kerpen

by BLAdmin

Guest Post by Baylor Law Student, Paige Heitkamp

As a group, we lawyers do not like to fail! But as Michael Jordan once said, “The key to success is failure.” In our leadership development class, we use a quote from Michael Jordan to make that point. The six-time NBA champion and five-time MVP said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. “We use that quote during the “Leadership of  Self” segment of our leadership development class as we instruct our students that their success, as well as their personal well-being, will depend on learning how not to fear failure but to view it as an ordinary and necessary part of growth. We encourage them to fail gracefully.

Imagine my delight when one of our students this summer, Paige Heitkamp, wrote a book review that includes a new perspective on how to fail. Among the helpful tips offered to women by Carrie Kerpen in her book Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business is the advice to fail fantastically! We hope you enjoy Paige’s discussion of the book and its other helpful tips.

– Leah

Carrie Kerpen’s book, Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business, was great. The book focuses on topics meant to help women better themselves professionally and personally. To write this book, Carrie interviewed fifty of the “boldest women in business” to learn their stories and how they became to be one of these women. The book is divided into three parts: Work It Professionally, Work It Passionately, and Work It Practically.

Work It Professionally focuses on tips for women to advance their careers and make the best out of their skills, improve on these skills, and learn new skills. These tips are focused on women in the workplace. They offer unique perspectives from women who have earned their place in the business world. These women all share how much different it can be for women to advance their careers than men. Many leadership and business “help” books, whether incidentally or not, focus on broad tips primarily designed for men. Women have to work harder to advance their careers and make themselves known, so, as a woman, being given tips from women can be incredibly helpful and much more beneficial. This section focuses on getting hired, how to grow your career, networking, and asking for raises. Each of these subtopics has stories from several of the women Carrie interviewed, giving different perspectives from each of these women as to how they succeeded in that subtopic. Having tips from multiple women is incredibly beneficial because everyone is different, and one woman’s methods may not work for another. Getting perspectives from many different women is incredibly beneficial so you can find the strategy you best connect with.

Work It Passionately focuses on tips and strategies for women regarding making the “right decisions” in life, whether it be about your career, personal life, or even your family life. It not only focuses on how to weigh the pros and cons of these decisions and come to the right outcome, but it also focuses on how to get to the position you need to be in even to have the ability to make these decisions. This section focuses on helping you decide when to trust your gut, when to rely on your rational thinking skills, and how to use a combination of both to succeed. Like the previous section, each subtopic has stories from multiple women offering their unique perspectives on the various issues. It is essential, again, to read all of these different perspectives, but each woman is different in her own unique way, and skills that work for one may not work for another. One important subtopic in this section was how to “fail fantastically.” This is an important message because failure is daunting, and many women are afraid to try something out of fear of failure. This book teaches you that failure is normal and should be expected. No one gets it right on the first try, and if you’re going to fail, fail fantastically.

The final section, Work It Practically, was the most important section. This section deals with the “hard stuff” that women are not only afraid to talk about but also the things that women tend to deal with more in the workplace than men. This section focuses on inspiration and strategies for women to navigate specific obstacles and challenges unique to women in the workplace. This section focuses on relatively taboo topics such as family planning, work/life balance, how to dress, how women are “expected” to behave in the workplace, and how to deal with sexism and discrimination not only from male coworkers and bosses but also from female coworkers and bosses. As with the previous two sections, each subtopic has inspiring and motivational stories from several women on Carrie’s “Boldest Women in Business” list. Each woman in this section told their story and gave numerous tips and tricks on overcoming these uniquely female challenges in the workplace and at home. The subtopic, “Make Lemonade,” teaches women how to make the best of dealing with these difficult issues. This subtopic teaches women not to be afraid to tell people close to them what is happening in their life and that it is okay to lean on others.

Overall, this book was incredibly inspiring. All women, no matter where they are in their careers and lives, can benefit from the numerous perspectives offered in this book. This book is not the typical leadership or business “help” book. This book says there is no one key to success but that finding the best strategy for you is the most important “key” to success.

Uncategorized

AALS Section on Leadership Webinars

by BLAdmin

This year, the AALS Section on Leadership is hosting several Zoom webinars for Section members to get together for fellowship and learning from one another.

We hosted the second webinar this summer, where we invited Professor Neil Hamilton to share with us his most recent thoughts on teaching professional identity formation – his new analogy is brilliant! Leah also shared her new work explaining how leadership development builds upon professional identity formation and expands it to team- and community-building. Others on the call also shared what they are working on and how they are teaching professional identity formation and leadership. Check out the recording to catch up on this great conversation!

Below are the other sessions this summer and fall. You can register for each by clicking on the date and time:

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 – 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. EST – Joan Heminway, Interim Director, Institute for Professional Leadership, Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law and Martin Brinkley, Dean and Distinguished Professor, University of North Carolina School of Law

Monday, September 25, 2023 – 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST – Lee Fisher, Dean, Cleveland State University College of Law

Wednesday, October 18, 2023 – 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST – Kellye Testy, President and CEO, LSAC and Hillary Sale, Associate Dean for Strategy, Georgetown University

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Aspen Leading Edge Podcast

by BLAdmin

Leah was recently invited to be a guest on Patty Roberts‘ Aspen Leading Edge podcast. During the discussion, she talked about the intersection of the professional responsibility movement and teaching leadership to law students, and our book, Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership. Leah focused on the first segment of the book, the leadership of self, where she spends a great deal of time with her students in the leadership class. Through experiential exercises and discussions in class, the students are encouraged to develop their moral compass and who they will be as lawyers. Leah and Patty wrapped up the conversation with the importance of leadership classes in law schools. bit.ly/3YKX8Z4

Thank you for having Leah on the podcast, Dean Roberts!

– Stephen

Uncategorized

Extreme Ownership – Book Review

by BLAdmin

Guest Post by Baylor Law Student Mike Brunger

The following post is a book review written by Mike Brunger, a student in our Winter 2022-23 Leadership Class. I hope you enjoy this book review as much as I did. – Leah

Extreme Ownership, by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, is more than a book on leadership. It is a tool that can prove handy in anyone’s toolbox. This book is both captivating and easy to read. The authors present the reader with situations where ownership could be improved. But after employing Extreme Ownership principles in these situations, the results were incredible. 

The authors, Jocko and Leif, served as Navy SEAL officers in SEAL Team Three. This Team, more commonly known as Task Unit Bruiser, is the most decorated special operations unit that has served in the Iraq War. Under Jocko and Leif’s leadership, Seal Team Three experienced some of the most taxing combat in the history of SEAL Teams.

After leaving active duty, Willink and Babin launched a company called Echelon Front and embarked on a mission to share their stories from the battlefield. Traveling the world, they teach business professionals leadership tactics, specifically the importance of ownership. Each chapter of the book focuses on a specific element of leadership.

They start each chapter by telling a story from their time with SEAL Team Three. The story usually takes place in a high-stakes combat situation. Then, Jocko and Leif apply lessons from that story to a problem in the civilian world. The typical scenario likely involves a CEO needing realignment within their organization. This book is very military-heavy; however, you do not have to have a military background to understand and embrace the concepts taught in this book.

My wife, Vanessa, is a hotel company’s Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she started working from home. As travel abruptly halted, the hotel industry was left in financial ruin. At home, at the same time, I could hear her having very tough conversations with staff members. On more than one occasion, she could be heard sobbing after terminating a team member due to the lack of revenue. The pandemic was full of uncertainty and fear. Fortunately, my wife was never on the receiving end of one of those calls.

Vanessa was having a conversation with one of her sales leaders one day. Her employee was disgruntled, venting quite loudly. Vanessa listened as her employee explained how she needed help understanding why the corporate office was constantly requesting reports. Moreover, she stressed how her hotel was already short-staffed, and at times she was stuck behind the front desk checking guests in. Amassing all the requested information was time-consuming. Vanessa, acting as the liaison between her hotels and the corporate office, tried her best to explain the reasons why. The call soon ended.

I was sitting in our living room holding a copy of Extreme Ownership. My wife entered the room, ready to explode! She knew I likely heard the entire discussion. But, before she said a word, I handed her the book and said, “Look at chapter ten.”

Chapter ten discusses the importance of leading up and down the chain of command. More importantly, the chapter explains why. The chapter begins by taking the reader to the Euphrates River bank, where SEAL Team Three’s leaders prepare for a combat operation. Leif and Jocko had just received an email from the Team’s higher headquarters staff, led by their Seal Team’s commanding officer (CO). Leif was livid! In the email, their CO requested clarifying information regarding the operation the Team planned to execute within the next few hours. Leif could not understand how “they” do not know what the Team does, how hard they work, and how busy they are. Additionally, Leif did not know why they had to stop what they were doing to answer “idiotic” questions.

Jocko did his best to calm Leif down. The CO required answers before approving the operation. He tried to help Leif see their combat operations through the CO’s eyes. It was the CO’s job to approve every mission, and it was Jocko’s job to put the CO in his comfort zone so the operation could get approved. Leif began to understand.

The CO and his staff operated from an office in the United States. Therefore, they could not fully appreciate the hard work the Teams were conducting. The more Jocko pushed situational awareness up the chain, the more comfortable they became. Jocko explained the “why” by telling Leif, “We have to lead them.” The more the Team communicated up the chain of command, the less they were “badgered” by the CO.

Chapter ten got my wife’s attention and is just one of many great chapters that can be applied to all aspects of business and life. I recommend this book to anyone. My wife had a copy of the book sent to all her sales leaders. I look forward to hearing stories about how her organization has used this book.     

Uncategorized

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams

by BLAdmin

Guest Post by Baylor Law Student, Daniella McDonagh

The following post is a book review written by Daniella McDonagh, a student in our Winter 2022-23 Leadership Class. In Chapter 21 of Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership, we encourage students to view life as a lawyer as a lifelong pursuit of purposeful learning and growth as they serve, influence, and impact their clients and communities.  Daniella writes about lessons and advice she finds in My Own Words, a biographical collection of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s speeches, articles, and lectures. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

– Leah

Advocate, way-paver, justice seeker, and fighter are all qualities that commonly come to mind when thinking of a successful leader like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. But, what may not come to mind as commonly, is the quality of being an eternal student. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg illuminates that besides these common qualities of a leader, the quality of being an eternal student made Bader Ginsburg the “Notorious RBG” and the inspiring leader that she was and continues to be remembered for today.

Bader Ginsburg was a student of leaders who came before her, illuminating little-known historical figures and spotlighting those who helped pave the way for her own opportunities and accomplishments. She appreciated the paths marked by others – others whose names are unknown and overlooked, such as Belva Lockwood, who was the first woman to gain admission to the United States Supreme Court Bar, and Arabella Mansfield, the first woman to gain admission to practice law in the United States; and Florence Allen, the first woman to serve on an Article III federal court. Bader Ginsburg recognized that to be a future leader, and she must study the leaders – both the famously revered and the nameless unknowns – of the past.

Additionally, she studied social movements, like the civil rights movement, to mimic the strategy of educating judicial audiences in measured movements in ways digestible by and appeasing to the decision-makers on the matter. Bader Ginsburg also expanded her studies to other legal systems – she studied what other leaders did well and what could be improved if similar methods were applied to American systems and leaders.

Like any successful leader, Bader Ginsburg was a student of the audience – she studied her audience to best understand how to communicate productively and effect change in dissenting minds. She demonstrated this best when seeking change in contentious areas, such as women’s rights and civil rights, during the peak of controversy. Bader Ginsburg recognized that speaking to all audiences as though addressing one’s home crowd could be counterproductive. She proved that productive communication and effective change only occurs when leaders study their audiences and cater to the specific thought processes, concerns, and priorities of the audience.

Bader Ginsburg was also a student of words – she understood the powerful presence of the right words at the right time and the power of silence. She especially demonstrated this wisdom and balance of speech and silence through her dissenting opinions. Throughout her career on the Supreme Court bench, there were terms where Bader Ginsburg did not author any dissents, but that was not for lack of anything to say. Instead, she recognized that when she did use her voice, her words would be given more weight and garner more attention than those justices whose voices traditionally dominate and overwhelm the discussion. Furthermore, when she did dissent, she emphasized the importance of disagreeing with civility. Bader Ginsburg demonstrated that leaders bring dissenters to the light; leaders do not fault dissenters for being wrong. To put this into practice, she would transform from the student to the teacher and teach the other justices everything she learned and understood on this topic through her experience as an open-minded, absorbent student.

What was noticeably absent from Bader Ginsburg’s My Own Words, was her own words about herself. Bader Ginsburg exemplified a true student leader in that she focused on the achievements of other people, other movements, and other legal systems, but neglected to acknowledge her own remarkable achievements as a leader. I recommend My Own Words for those seeking to improve their leadership skills because Bader Ginsburg does not tell you how to be a leader, nor does she tell you how she herself is a leader; instead, she actively embodied what a leader is with every word she wrote and every word she spoke. This book does not lay out a five-point plan that people are unlikely to follow, nor does it suggest theoretical advice that is impractical to implement. Rather, this book provides a glimpse into the thoughts and opinions of an exceptional leader and demonstrates the remarkable result of dedicating your life to something so simple and achievable – being a student.

Academia, Uncategorized

The future of Professional Responsibility courses should include leadership development!

by BLAdmin

During the 2023 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego in January, I attended the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility as they celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the PR Section with a program, “Looking Forward, Lawyering In The Next 50 Years.”

My motivation to attend was our continuing desire to explore interesting ways to incorporate leadership development throughout law school curricula. We have long recognized the potential for incorporating leadership development into PR courses. It is thrilling to discover that their discussions wholly align with our desire to awaken in our students a recognition of their obligation to serve society (in addition to serving their clients well) and then to better prepare them for those crucial roles. You can listen to the recording of the Section’s conversation at the PR Section’s 50th Anniversary Program.

Professional Responsibility courses are required in all law schools across the nation. These important courses are often under-utilized. We can and should do more in those essential courses! That was a message I heard loud and clear at the Section gathering.

Incorporating more leadership development into PR courses is a natural fit! Just consider the following expressions of a lawyer’s duty in society as stated in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, Preamble: A Lawyer’s Responsibilities:

“[1] lawyer is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”

 [6] As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice, and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law and work to strengthen legal education. In addition, a lawyer should further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system.

[7] … A lawyer should strive to attain the highest level of skill, to improve the law and the legal profession, and to exemplify the legal profession’s ideals of public service.

[13] Lawyers play a vital role in the preservation of society. The fulfillment of this role requires an understanding by lawyers of their relationship to our legal system. The Rules of Professional Conduct, when properly applied, serve to define that relationship.

Lawyers are leaders. It is part of our professional identity. And lawyers’ professional responsibilities include serving well and with honor and using our legal knowledge and training for the greater good!

I look forward to continuing these conversations!

– Leah

Uncategorized

Using Leadership to Teach Professional Identity Formation, Well-Being, and Diversity and Belonging.

by BLAdmin

Newly adopted ABA Standard 303(b) reinforces the duty of law schools to help their students explore “the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices,” which are considered “foundational to successful legal practice” and fundamental to lawyers’ professional identity. Our Baylor Law Leadership Development Program was created in 2013 to provide structure to teaching law students about the lawyers’ role in society and better preparing them to serve their clients and society. These goals align with Standard 303(b) as well as the professional identity formation work occurring around the country. (See the work of the Holloran Center under the co-director of Professors Neil Hamilton and Jerry Organ).

Our Leadership Development Program addresses two other recent amendments: ABA Standard 303(c) (bias and cross-cultural competency & racism education), and 508(b) (student well-being resources). All three subjects (professional identity, bias and cultural competency, and wellness) are essential topics that need to be addressed as we prepare law students for the important work of lawyers in society. Finding all three topics in the textbook, Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership, is no surprise and not an accident. With no law school textbook available when we started teaching leadership in 2013, we labored to determine what should be taught in a leadership course and program. Those three topics were recognized as fundamental to a well-rounded legal education.

We wrote the textbook and created the Teacher’s Manual and Resources to help others create a leadership course or present a program in whatever manner makes sense within their system and culture. With this easy-to-use textbook (and teaching materials), we hope more faculty and staff will join the growing movement to better prepare students to become more effective professionals and inspire them to be difference-makers. 

Both the textbook and our own course structure are divided into four aspects of developing leadership. Following an introduction to the concept of leadership, we ask students to look internally first before turning the leadership focus outward. The course is formatted as follows:

  • Part I – Overview of Leadership
    Initial sessions introduce students to what we mean by “leadership” – a process whereby an individual has an influence on another (or a group) to achieve a common goal. Leadership is the opportunity to help and serve no matter what title or position one holds in an organization. Students should also recognize that lawyers in our society hold positions of leadership as they advise clients and organizations, and as they serve in their communities. Leadership is part of our professional identity. For materials relevant to the Standard 303(b) changes, see Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership Preface, Chapter 2 (Why Lawyers Should Study Leadership).
  • Part II – Leadership of Self: Growing into Leadership
    Students are guided through a process of self-discovery and assessment to gain a better sense of who they are and what type of lawyer and leader they want to be. Topics covered include characteristics of leadership (traits, skills, and competencies, including those traditionally developed in law school); growth mindset; grit and resilience; feedback and learning through failure; well-being; integrity and character; preparedness and setting goals. For materials relevant to Standard 508(b) changes, see Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership, Chapter 11 (The Importance of Well-Being: Thriving in the Legal Profession).
  • Part III – Leadership with Others: Effective Group Dynamics
    To be effective lawyers and leaders, students need to develop their ability to work and interact effectively with others. Topics in this part include emotional intelligence; relationships and influence; strategic communication; diversity and inclusion; unconscious bias and cultural competency; effective management; and working within legal organizations. For materials relevant to Standard 303(c) changes, see Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership, Chapter 17 (Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Intelligence).
  • Part IV – Leadership within Community: Service and Impact
    Lawyers are well suited, and expected, to use their legal training and other talents and gifts to serve society. We want to encourage students to seek opportunities to serve in ways that are meaningful to them and that can have a significant impact on others. Students are challenged to consider what legacy they want to leave.  Chapters in this part can be used to emphasize leadership for positive change and encourage law students to use their legal skills to effectuate a desired goal.

This textbook is designed to make leadership and professional formation easy to implement and teach. Each chapter can be used as a module for stand-alone programs or incorporated into other courses. An abundant library of teaching materials (notes, exercises, PowerPoint slides, etc.) is available to accompany class sessions and to complement presentations.

To access the professor resources for this title, you will need a validated professor account on Aspen Publlishing. If you do not yet have a validated professor account, you may register at AspenPublishing.com/my-account/register. Account validation may take 1-2 business days. Once validated, you may log into your account using your own personal login, go to the relevant product page and scroll down to access the Professor Resources.

Thank you for your efforts to prepare and inspire law students to boldly seek opportunities to make a difference in our profession, their communities, and the world. Please let us know how we can help you!

Uncategorized

Women in Law Firm Leadership Are Changing The Profession

by BLAdmin

The legal world is becoming more diverse, but it still has a long way to go. Here, Nick Gaffney interviews Trinae Hall, Kelsey McCann, and Kim Bonnar— all women in leadership roles within the legal industry— about their experiences as women leading in what remains a male-dominated space.

View this post, here:

Women in Law Firm Leadership Are Changing The Profession
https://www.lawpracticetoday.org/article/women-in-law-firm-leadership-are-changing-the-profession/