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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
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Global Leadership for Law Students: Fostering Culturally Competent Lawyers

by BLAdmin

We are thankful to our many colleagues across the nation who are using leadership courses to better prepare law students for the professional roles they will assume. As you will read in this blog post by Professor Kathleen Elliott Vinson, she is not only preparing her students to be inclusive global leaders but also teaching cross-culture competency in compliance with the new ABA Standard 303(c).

Thank you Prof. Vinson for what you are doing and for sharing with us!

– Leah

By: Professor Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Suffolk University Law School

Lawyers have a leadership role and responsibility in today’s global world that requires cross-cultural competence as a professional lawyering skill.  ABA Standard on Legal Education 303(c) requires that law schools educate law students on cross-cultural competence, but it does not define the form or content. Through a Global Leadership course, law students can develop cross-cultural competence to be effective and inclusive leaders to serve clients and stakeholders from different experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. Professor Tatiana Kolovou at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University notes that “developing the ability to work seamlessly across cultures is not about having all the right answers, it’s about asking all the right questions.”  Generally defined, cross-cultural competencies are the ability to understand, communicate, respect, and work effectively with individuals across different cultures.

A Global Leadership course can foster students’ cross-cultural competence by raising their awareness and developing their knowledge, skills, and motivation to lead with an inclusive, global mindset. By reviewing a variety of leadership theories, styles, and philosophies in a comparative context across different cultures, the course can use a global lens to develop students’ cultural competence, exploring topics such as the following:

  • defining global leadership
  • examining traits and skills of inclusive global leaders
  • developing cultural self-awareness and addressing implicit bias
  • understanding the impact of culture on leaders and those they lead (including their beliefs, customs, perspectives, values, traditions, norms, priorities, communication, interactions, judgments, and behaviors)
  • being aware of, respecting, and appreciating cultural similarities and differences
  • understanding the habits of cross-cultural lawyering
  • reflecting on possible challenges and benefits of global leadership
  • adapting leadership style, if needed, to interact flexibly, fluidly, and effectively across cultures

Through the use of diagnostics, self-assessments, discussions, journals, simulations, presentations, reflections, and other cross-cultural lawyering materials in a Global Leadership course, students can appreciate the evolution of the stages of cross-cultural competence:  unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and the final stage of unconscious competence.  Students will develop greater confidence in their global leadership skills, gain an understanding and appreciation for leadership styles in a comparative context, and develop cultural competence, a leadership skill needed and expected by legal employers globally.  Ultimately, a Global Leadership course fosters culturally competent lawyers “who can work—effectively—with clients, co-workers, judges, and people in general from a wide variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.”

Some additional helpful resources on cross-cultural lawyering and global leadership include:

  • Susan Bryant, The Five Habits: Building Cross-Culture Competence in Lawyers, 8 Clinical L. Rev. 33 (2001)
  • Jay Clark, The Five Principles of Global Leadership (2015)
  • Rosa Kim, Globalizing the Law Curriculum for Twenty-First-Century Lawyering, 67 J. Legal Educ. 905 (Summer 2018)
  • Mark E. Mendenhall et al., Global Leadership (3d ed. 2018)
  • Mary-Beth Moylan & Stephanie J. Thompson, Global Lawyering Skills (2018)
  • Leah Teague et al., Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership (2021)
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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
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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

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2023 AALS Annual Meeting: Leadership Events

by BLAdmin

We are getting excited about the upcoming programming at the 2023 AALS Annual Meeting! Below we have highlighted the Leadership Section’s programming and co-sponsored programming, along with some other panels that we thought you might find interesting. Hope to see you in San Diego!

Primary Leadership Section Programming:
How Teaching Leadership Can Make a Difference

Date/Time: January 7, 2023, 8:30 am – 10:10 am

Description: This year’s conference theme challenges us to think about how law schools and each of us as academics can make a difference and bring about positive change. Cultivating a leadership mindset in the next generation of lawyers is one of the most significant ways law schools can make a meaningful impact in the work around us. Leadership development is a critical part our professional responsibility and a lawyer’s greater duty to advance justice in our society. This panel will discuss the ways that leadership education in our law schools can bring about positive change in our organizations, government, and society.

Panelists:

April M. Barton
Organization: Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University

Erwin Chemerinsky
Organization: University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Farayi Chipungu
Organization: Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Garry W. Jenkins
Organization: University of Minnesota Law School

Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig
Organization: Boston University School of Law

Hillary A. Sale
Organization: Georgetown University Law Center

Co-Sponsored Program: Incorporating Access to Justice & Pro-Bono Across the Law School Curriculum, Section on Pro Bono and Access to Justice

Date/Time: January 5, 2023, 3:00 pm – 4:40 pm

Description: Access to justice and pro bono service can be an effective lens through which to explore any law school subject, and yet most law professors do not include them in their syllabi. This session features faculty whose courses provide students with insight into how lower-income people navigate the legal system and the ways in which that may differ from what we learn in casebooks. Attendees will leave with practical and replicable tools to integrate access to justice and pro bono service across the law school curriculum.

Other programs that involve leadership topics that you may want to attend:

        1. Clinics and Institutional Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Clinical Legal Education Section

        Date/Time: January 4, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:40 pm

        2. Critical Leadership, Accountability, and Justice Within Organizations, Civil Rights Section and Minority Groups Joint Program

        Date/Time: January 6, 2023, 10:00 am – 11:40 am

        Description: Lawyers and the organizations they lead have a duty to care for justice. This duty is important to accomplish justice, but also to justify the legitimacy of organizations and their lawyers. This duty requires that lawyers address and demonstrate progress toward social inequities, including problems of access, equity, discrimination, and under-representation of diverse constituencies. How do lawyers work for justice inside organizations? How can lawyers leverage their organizational roles and capabilities toward justice? How can lawyers hold their institutions accountable to act authentically to advance justice? What can leaders do to enhance and effectuate justice that is not performative?

        3. How Law Schools Can Make a Difference: DEI work in the Curriculum, in the Classroom, and in the Courtroom, AALS Symposium Program

        Date/Time: January 6, 2023, 1:00 pm – 4:40 pm

        Description: Changes in ABA standards have led to more inclusive and equitable law school curricula, which in turn have significantly impacted law school faculty and administrations, the practice of law, and the judiciary. This symposium will address the changes taking place, offer practical guidance for navigating these changes, and discuss how these changes affect the judiciary and the practice of law. 

        4. The Judiciary—Making the Least Democratic Branch of Government More Respected, Less Political, Litigation Section

        Date/Time: January 6, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:40 pm

        Description: The Judicial Branch is the least democratic branch of government. This program will focus on balancing populism, politics, and qualifications in selecting judges (appointment, election, merit screening, and confirmation hearings); periodic performance review (terms, term limits, life tenure, retention elections, impeachment); recusal and peremptory strikes; other legitimacy concerns (court-packing). How do politics, qualifications, and merit screening affect the preference for judicial appointment or judicial elections? Are term limits an effective brake on the politicization of the judiciary, or is life tenure preferable? Can stricter recusal requirements be implemented, and would failure to recuse be severe enough to justify impeachment?”

        5. What a Difference a Difference Makes: Empowering Students through Self Determination Theory, AALS Discussion Group

        Date/Time: January 7, 2023, 1:00 pm – 2:40 pm

        Description: Law students arrive at law school excited to make a difference. Through a combination of (mostly unintended) factors, law schools manage to extinguish that excitement. We will discuss how to rekindle that excitement and create a long-burning passion for making a difference. We will consider the potential of self-determination theory, which teaches us that adults learn best when they are aware of their connections to others, their own autonomy, and a sense of competence. We will discuss how much we are doing to foster these principles in all areas of our law school education and what more we could do.

         

        These sessions were the ones that stuck out to us in our quick review of the program. Are you speaking in a session? Which sessions are you particularly excited about? Please include these sessions in the comments below!

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        Law Firm ‘Burnout Advisors’

        by BLAdmin

        This article in the ABA Journal discusses law firms that are employing burnout advisors to help guide them when their attorneys are feeling overwhelmed. We applaud efforts to make sure that attorneys are not overwhelmed and are satisfied with their jobs. But what struck me as interesting is that this seems to be an exercise in emotional intelligence, relationship-building, and feedback loops through checking in with colleagues. While the firms in this article have outsourced that task, law firm leaders can also develop their own skills in these areas to gauge how their colleagues are doing and adjust on the fly rather than wait for a check-in. This is not to say that an outside advisor would not also be helpful, but a law firm leader who is in touch with his or her team will have a higher-performing team with less downtime or team members feeling unheard until the advisor comes back. It’s an interesting read that could lead to good conversations in class about the topic.

        View this post, here:

        https://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/firms-are-employing-burnout-advisers-to-keep-their-attorneys-from-getting-overwhelmed?

        -SLR

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        Investing in Homegrown Leaders: Here’s How to Develop Effective Lawyer Leadership Skills

        by BLAdmin

        Leadership is a teachable skill, writes Yuliya LaRoe, and it’s important that lawyers learn it. In this article, LaRoe urges law practices to invest in team members by developing their leadership skills. To that end, she outlines a five-pillar leadership program, with skills and concepts to learn in each category.

        -SLR

        View this post, here:

        https://www.attorneyatwork.com/lawyer-leadership/

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        Ideas When Creating or Revamping a Leadership Course

        by BLAdmin

        By Stephen Rispoli

        In a recent Harvard Business Review article, “A Course Designed to Get Students Hired,” Professor Johannes Kern discusses how he revamped his supply chain course to be more student-focused with an emphasis on giving students the skills they need to get hired after graduation.   Professor Kerns states his belief that, “To better prepare students for their futures, educators must rethink the competencies we are teaching, the way we conduct our teaching, and the content we use in the classroom.”  He believes that creative problem-solving, developing judgment, and dealing with uncertainty are particularly important competencies to be taught.    ” His course involves “group work, student presentations, and direct feedback from industry experts.”

        We had a similar revelation when we began teaching our leadership course, Leadership Engagement and Development, at Baylor Law in 2013. We created the course, like Professor Kern, with heavy emphasis on lectures, using the textbook and case studies to examine the material. We also used a method that felt familiar – the Socratic Method. What we quickly realized was that this approach did not work for teaching leadership. The students’ feedback and our own personal assessment told us that it was not the best way to engage them with the material. So, we revamped the course to include less time with us talking and more time with exercises designed to get the students to grapple and wrestle with the material, individual and group presentations, and lots of invited lawyer-leaders to speak to the class about their experiences. (We give these invited speakers the topic we’d like them to cover and they work their experiences into that subject. We will cover how we do this in more detail in a later post.) The response has been incredible! We have had lots of students tell us that it was their favorite class in law school and reminded them why they wanted to become lawyers.

        So, if you are looking for ideas when creating or revamping a leadership course, we would be happy to consult with you.

        We also recommend checking out Professor Kern’s article:

        https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/a-course-designed-to-get-students-hired?cid=email%7Cmarketo%7C2021-07-01-july-inspiring-minds-digest%7C1270874%7Cinspiring-minds%7Ceducator%7Cinspiring-minds-article%7Cjul2021&acctID=15223663&mkt_tok=ODU1LUFUWi0yOTQAAAF-ALTYJAi2CY5byOUcRmiKIO4Mmn30hl101lZvvt11FabTGrXstoABru1J8NIXFSUxnSf0973UhPW_4G7tOGkAg86gZ_2HYxYSzWDJlYM

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        Student Perspective on Leadership Development: Philip D. Ricker

        by BLAdmin

        Philip D. Ricker graduated from Baylor Law School in April 2019. He is currently working for the family law firm O’Neil Wysocki, P.C. in Dallas, Texas. While at Baylor Law School, he was on Law Review and also involved in a Mock Trial team.

        Baylor’s leadership development training taught me not be afraid to speak up to a more-experienced attorney. I feel more confident when voicing my opinions on a legal issue or to walk down the hallway and tell a partner about a problem we need to address.

        Gladiators.jpg

        Ethics of an Attorney

        A consistent theme of our leadership class was how to assert our ethics as attorneys.We talked extensively about the ethics of an attorney and I did not realize how much those discussions mattered until I began practicing. I often joked that lawyers are like gladiators – we go where we are told and fight who we are told to fight. After spending about 6 months in a family law firm with a 3L bar card and going through practice court, I realize how much better of an understanding the class gives gave me about ethics and the law.

        Throughout the Leadership class, my classmates and I were given the opportunity to hear from numerous speakers who are leaders in areas outside of the law. I am always fascinated at the interesting twists and turns an individual’s careers take. For me, it was surprising to learn about the many different ways our speakers became leaders. We didn’t have any two speakers who follows an even remotely similar path. This is encouraging that even if you have an untraditional beginning, one can become a leader.

        Baylor Law Formative Leadership

        As Baylor Lawyers, I feel like we have an opportunity to emerge in leaders amongst our first and second-year peers from other schools. I was able to serve as the Notes & Comments editor of Law Review. This was another formative leadership experience at Baylor Law that helped prepare me in my future career. During that time, I had a team of three to four students who I would work with to get an upcoming article ready to publish. I found it difficult to ask someone to do something that I was not going to do. It felt uncomfortable asking someone to stay up late in the evening to edit an article when I wasn’t required to stay up and edit. Little did I know at the time, that the discomfort was preparing me for something bigger. Now that I am working at O’Neil Wysocki, P.C., I work with paralegals, legal secretaries, and other associate attorneys. Similarly, I have found myself asking someone to do something that I am not doing. For instance, I may ask a legal secretary to prepare a binder for an appellate brief or attach exhibits to a Motion for Summary Judgment. It feels UNCOMFORTABLE; however, my time at law school on law review helped me prepare for some of that discomfort. 

        I think all law students need to be exposed to a leadership role. Not every law student is placed into a position of leadership, and Baylor does a good job to equip each student to be comfortable taking a step into the realm of leadership.

        Don’t Forget To Register!