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:
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:
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.
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 individualâs 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 wasnât 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.
In case you missed it: âThe legal profession doesnât have a leadership problemâit has a character problemâ, by Charles Edwards. Mr. Edwards post in the ABA Journal is wonderful write-up on the importance of character in leadership. As Leah and I frequently discuss with law students, leadership alone is not enough â ethical leadership is the key to long-term success. By integrating best practices into leadership courses, we are preparing our students for their future roles.
If you havenât read it yet, Mr. Edwards post is worth the read: http://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/the-legal-profession-doesnt-have-a-leadership-problem-it-has-a-character-problem
-SLR
By Leah Teague & Stephen Rispoli
Part 1 of our LEAD Course Series can be found, here.
In this second post of our LEAD Course series, we share our thoughts on interesting methods to engage law students. This year marks the sixth year of teaching this course and we are constantly making adjustments to the syllabus and our teaching methodologies. In addition to carefully selecting topics, exercises, and speakers, below we discuss three ways we engage the students.
As noted in a previous post, we require students keep a journal throughout the class. We have come to believe this is one of the most beneficial elements of the class. Not only does it help them personalize and internalize the lessons, it allows us to evaluate their progress in real time throughout the course. We use Box as a file management system and create individual folders for each student. At the end of each class, students are assigned two or three journal entries which are then added to the class syllabus. Students answer these questions and prompts before the next class which allows us to read their answers and gauge understanding and progress.
Each student signs up to present a quote, video, or short story about leadership in the first three-to-five minutes of a class. This fun exercise allows students to use their creativity (and sometimes add some humor) to present about leadership. The students â both the presenters and the rest of the class â seem to enjoy the activity before jumping into the topic of the day. Interestingly, most students chose topics for their presentation that fit well with the topic for the day.
From the beginning we required them to select and read a book about leadership. This year, instead of a book report, they will write a blog post based on the book â a short review or why someone should read (or not read) the book. We think they will be more engaged with the book of their choice and it will allow us to showcase the best ones on this blog!
In our next post in this series we will share the main components of our syllabus. Posts that follow in this series will include a discussion of how we teach each class, PowerPoint presentations, exercises used in class, topics presented by our guest speakers, prompts for journals and feedback from our students.
We know that many of you present similar topics in your courses and want to hear from you. We encourage you to post how you present these topics in the comments to this post. Our hope is that this blog becomes a discussion forum for best practices in teaching leadership in law schools. By going through the syllabus step-by-step, we can have a detailed conversation and share ideas.
Without further ado, our syllabus is here.
To help with the collection and distribution of what other law school leadership programs are doing, we created a repository for syllabi, programs, exercises, articles, presentations, and other leadership development materials. You can view and download the materials, here.
Please add your materials and syllabus!
(You can also upload by emailing [email protected] and attaching the document you want uploaded.)
How do you consistently engage with your leadership students? Have your tried something that didn’t work at all as planned? As we continue this series, we invite your feedback and input in the comments!
By Leah Teague
One of our goals for this blog is to advance the conversation of teaching leadership in law schools. We offer this blog-post series about specific parts of our Leadership Engagement and Development Course to hopefully spark ideas and further conversation. We begin with the top three things weâve learned over the last five years teaching this course.
First, engaging the students calls for more experiential learning and effective use of guest speakers.
The first year, we used a more traditional pedagogy, assigned heavy readings and relied on a Socratic method to engage the students with the readings. We quickly discovered this material called for a different approach if we want students to internalize the topics and embrace it as a journey of self-discovery and growth.
We knew bringing in speakers would be beneficial. Our guest speakers are assigned to cover specific topics and asked to provide context to the concepts. They help the students see application of the concepts within a real-world professional setting. Students more easily envision themselves in those situations someday, and they connect with those lawyer leaders.
In the beginning, we scheduled guests near the end of the course. Over the next few years, we experimented with how many guest speakers and when. We found it best to have the two of us lead off the first week with an introduction to leadership and an overview of the class. After that, we try to bring a speaker for one of the two meetings each week. We purposefully invite speakers to cover specific topics. We recognized that is a lot of guest speakers so we set the syllabus early. We send the syllabus and assigned reading to each speaker so that he or she can see where we started, what weâve covered, and how his or her topic fits into the overall picture. From there, each speaker chooses how to cover the topic and work his or her personality and stories into the material. Students like this weekly balance and they enjoy hearing from practicing lawyers and leaders. It is also a great way to connect with alumni!
Early on we shifted to a more experiential approach. Even during the sessions when we simply lead a discussion on a topic, we want the students to âstruggleâ with the material at least to a certain degree to create ownership of the material. We also constantly relate it to real-world situations. For example, after a discussion on dealing with the media, we run a mock press conference where students either assume the role of a media correspondent or the general counsel for a company in crisis. The students apply what theyâve learned in a controlled environment.
Second, the best class sessions include meaningful discussion among the students.
As noted above, we started with a more traditional pedagogy but the students were not engaged in thoughtful interaction. As a result, many students struggled to internalize the material and they could not identify how the information would be useful in the future. In other words, we were ineffective in leading them on a personal journey of self-discovery and growth.
Now, we are mindful of the need to include plenty of opportunity for students to actively engage with the material during class and after. If we donât have time for, or if a topic doesnât lend itself to, an exercise, we involved the class in small and large group discussions. We have a better balance of techniques leading to much better results. We hope we are helping them establish a life-long practice of intellectual curiosity and creative problem solving.
Third, journaling is essential.
When we created the class, neither of us believed in the power of journaling. With that said, since we did not believe that an exam was appropriate for this class, we required a journal to ensure that our students were getting through the material and completing the assignments. That first year, we did not see their journal until the end of the class.
We have seen the light! We now firmly believe that journaling is critical to a studentâs development and growth. We tailor the journal prompts after each class to connect with the conversation in class and desired outcomes. Students must post journal entries to their personal Box file before the next class so that we can review. This enables us to determine if they are learning what was intended and allows us to make adjustments as appropriate. It provides the students a mechanism for wrestling with concepts and exploring the application to their lives. We hope our students create a habit of continual self-assessment and development.
-LT
Baylor Lawâs Leadership Development Program continually strives to prepare students to become exemplary leaders, both in the legal profession, and in their communities. We make a concerted effort to find ways to increase student engagement with our Leadership Development Program. One way weâve done so is through the development of the Baylor Law Leadership Fellows designation.
Leadership Fellows are Baylor Law students that have met the strenuous requirements of the Leadership Development Program. In order to earn the designation, a Baylor Law student must:
The number of students who have received designation as a Leadership Fellow has been limited, and we are currently seeking new ways to engage with our students earlier in their Law School careers to involve them more fully in the Leadership Development Program. We hope to report back to you soon about our efforts.
Our most recent designee is Taylor A. McConnell (JD â19). From our news story:
McConnell has been a dedicated volunteer at the Baylor Law Veterans Clinic, where he assisted at the legal advice clinics, drafted wills for Central Texas veterans, and has represented several clients in litigation. He served as the President of the Baylor Law Military & Veterans Legal Society and was Secretary for LEAD Counsel. He won the Spring 2019 Bob and Karen Wortham “Mad Dog” Competition and received both the Best Speaker and Best Advocate Awards in the Fall â18 Dawson and Sodd Moot Court Competition. In addition to volunteering for the Veterans Clinic, McConnell volunteered with Baylor Lawâs Trial Advocacy Clinic, helping juveniles at their initial detention hearings in district court. Working with Baylor Law Veterans Clinic Director Josh Borderud, McConnell assisted the 74th District Court in developing the first Veterans Treatment Court in McLennan County.
Does your law school have a designation or award for students who complete a specific leadership program or have demonstrated specific leadership characteristics during their law school career? If so⦠share your program with us in the comments.
By Stephen Rispoli
On April 4th and 5th, Leah and I were in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Lawâs Leadership Conference. Doug Blaze, Dean Emeritus at UTK, put on an excellent conference highlighting the good work that law schools are doing around the country in leadership programs and courses.
The program was well designed, the flow was good, and the speakers were inspiring. Beth Ford, Director of the Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, already wrote a piece for Dougâs blog, Leading as Lawyers, and it is a great recap of some of the highlights of the program. Hereâs a link: https://leadingaslawyers.blog/2019/04/18/reflections-on-the-leadership-roundtable/.
Like Beth, we came away with a lot of new things to implement at Baylor Law and some wonderful ideas to consider. Here were some of our key takeaways from the conference:
In short, Dougâs conference will be a hard one to follow. As we are planning our own 2020 leadership conference, what we learned at UTK will shape our program and what we hope each attendee takes home.
-SLR
By Leah Teague
On April 1, I had the pleasure of participating in a webinar hosted by Live with Kellye and Ken. The web series posts monthly hour-long discussions between invited panel guests over a wide array of topics affecting legal education and the legal community. This monthâs episode was titled Law and Leadership. I was honored to be included on a panel with Professor Deborah Rhode from Stanford, Dean Garry Jenkins from Minnesota, Dean D. Gordon Smith from Brigham Young, and Dean Matthew Diller from Fordham.
A video of the webinar is available, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uw5LB6H7Nw&feature=youtu.be
During the discussion, each panelist briefly talked about the leadership programs at their respective schools, as well as the value of implementing leadership training in law schools. The panelists agreed leadership development programming gives our student the opportunity to practice assessing different and difficult situations and determine their role and that of others as they seek the best approach to a positive outcome. Everything that we are all doing in these Leadership Development Programs assists students to more effectively represent their clients, add value to their future organizations and live more fulfilling lives. As Dean Jenkins expressed, at its core, âleadership is really about developing a set of skills over a period of time as opposed to the idea that once I do these five things, Iâm a leader.â
Dean Jenkins added, âI reject thinking of leadership as an on/off switch. I think there’s a misnomer that either you’re a leader or you’re not, either you have it or you don’t.â He suggested the best analogy is that of learning music. âWe could all study the cello. We could all get better. Some will improve faster than others.â His point is that âa combination of natural ability and inclination and effort⦠all play roles. We might not all end in the same place but we’d all improve.â Professor Rhode confirmed that âstudies show that most leadership skills are learned skills.â
Dean Smith noted that we need to help our students become good team players with an entrepreneurial mindset and an understanding that every person has value and is worthy of respect. Dean Dillard echoed this sentiment by explaining that his leadership class is âfocused on framing (leadership development) not so much as law and leadership, but law and being a good organizational and institutional citizen⦠and the professional is not the center of everything. The professional is a servant and works in the service of others.â
At the end of the day, Dean Smith said it best, âwe all want something really similar from our institutions and from legal education⦠we want to make the world a better placeâ¦we want to make it better for all people and leadership is the mechanism to get that sort of result.â Everything that we are all doing in these Leadership Development Programs is going to help our students add value to their future organizations, to their clients, and their communities. Implementing Leadership development programs is a win-win situation for all our schools!
By Leah Teague
Leadership development programs are part of the standard operating procedures for business schools but not so for law schools, at least historically. At a Group Discussion during the January 2017 AALS Annual Meeting, we met with about 50 faculty members from all over the country and we asked them to share thoughts about challenges and roadblocks to creating leadership development programs and courses. Here are some points from the conversation:
These are some of the challenges we face. If you have encountered others, please share. As we continue this blog, we will address these issues and offer suggestions for overcoming.
– LT
Stephen RispoliBaylor Law.
Pat Wilson
Liz FraleyBaylor Law.
