AALS Section on Leadership

Main program: Impact, Excellence, Resilience, and Professional Integrity: Educating Lawyers as Leaders

Thursday, January 8, 2026, 2:35 PM – 3:50 PM Hilton New Orleans Riverside, First Floor, Grand Salon Section 3

Questions recently have been raised about the integrity of lawyers, judges, and legal institutions. The legal profession is tasked with ensuring the integrity of its members and the stability of legal institutions, even in the face of growing partisanship, declining civility, and low levels of social trust. What does principled leadership look like in contexts of uncertainty, where legislative actions, executive orders, and judicial opinions continually raise new questions about free speech, the rule of law, and the nature of democratic legitimacy? This session explores from several perspectives how law schools can educate lawyer leaders in the current, dynamic environment.

Session Speakers:
William Bay, Thompson Coburn LLP:
James E. Graves, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit;
Austen L. Parrish, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Cory T. Wilson, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Moderator: Tania Luma, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

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Cosponsoring with the Section on Balance & Well-Being in Legal Education:

Doing Well-Being Without Losing Your Mind: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Law Student, Faculty, and Staff Well-Being. 

Wednesday, January 7, 2026,  1:00 pm to 2:15 pm. Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside, First Floor, Grand Salon Section 3.

As a wellness advocate and practitioner, I was grateful for the reach-out from the leadership of the Section on Balance and Well-Being requesting our support for this program.

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Section on Leadership Business Meeting

Thursday, January 8, 7:30 – 8:00 am Location: Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Third Floor, Durham Room

By: Professor Kathleen Elliott Vinson, Suffolk University Law School

In January of 2021, the University of Illinois College of Law launched its Leadership Project, a leadership development program for our students. In Leadership is about relationships, including listening, adapting, and learning from others. This September, I had the privilege to spend two weeks in Finland, teaching Global Leadership for Lawyers at Turku Law School, where I feel I learned just as much as my students. The class of fifteen students included students from Finland as well as numerous exchange students, representing six different countries: Finland, Germany, France, China, Czech Republic, and Taiwan (seven countries if you count the professor was from the United States). Students worked in groups of three; each group had students from different countries sharing their different perspectives, experiences, and cultures. Conversations, self-reflections, and collaborations about leading self, leading others, and leading change, challenged all of us in the class to think more deeply about what it means to lead in a global profession. We reconsidered our assumptions about global leadership as we explored similarities and differences through a comparative lens. For example, some students spoke of cultures rooted in hierarchy and competition, while others described cultures that prioritized collaboration and consensus. Some shared cultural values that emphasized time and task completion while others prioritized relationship building and well-being (having the course in Finland, we discussed why Finland is ranked the happiest country in the world). We also examined how culture can affect communication, conflict styles, and difficult conversations.

Through diagnostics, journals, case studies, group presentations, and a final reflection paper, students learned a great deal about themselves, their own culture, other cultures, and how it all affects leadership. By sharing their experiences across cultures, the course enhanced their leadership skills and their cultural competence. The experience illustrated how cultural competence is at the heart of leadership education, not an optional part of it. The experience highlighted the pedagogical value of situating leadership education within a transnational context instead of in the abstract, where students bring authentic engagement and varied perspectives to discussions of law and leadership. While I had taught internationally before, I had never had so many students from different countries in one class together, which really enriched the cross-cultural dialogue. Students reflected that after the course, they viewed leadership in a new way and felt more prepared and motivated to take on new challenges to lead in a complex, global world. They noted that the lessons and tools they learned in the course would help them in their studies, the legal profession, and their life in the future.

This course almost did not happen, which reminds me of another leadership lesson I learned from this experience regarding growth v. fixed mindset, grit, and resilience. In the course, students completed a closed door/open door exercise where they reflected on a prior setback or closed door they had experienced and then discussed how another door opened. It helped students reframe how they viewed failure and increased their appreciation for where they are now. Well, now I will share my closed door/open door experience regarding this course. I was thrilled to be placed on the Fulbright Specialist roster and had applied and planned with the University of Turku to teach this course as a Fulbright Specialist award. I had aligned the timing of my sabbatical with the dates for this course in Finland. The U.S. State Department, however, did not provide final approval of this Fulbright placement. I felt deep disappointment when this door closed. But, thanks to the support of both the University of Turku and my home institution, we moved forward independent of the Fulbright program and the experience proved to be transformative for both me and my students. It’s a good reminder that embracing a new path or different perspective can lead to great growth, for our students and ourselves.

We are pleased to introduce a new recurring feature in the AALS Section on Leadership Newsletter, highlighting recent publications that advance the study, teaching, and practice of legal leadership. This section is designed to spotlight scholarship that deepens our understanding of how lawyers are formed as leaders, how leadership is cultivated in legal education, and how leadership shapes the profession and its institutions. We hope this new feature will serve as both a resource and an inspiration for your teaching, research, and service.

We invite Section members to share information about their recent leadership-related publications for possible inclusion in future newsletters. If you or your colleagues have recently published scholarship that advances leadership development in legal education, the profession, or related fields, please send the citation and a brief description to the Newsletter Editor. We look forward to continuing to showcase the outstanding leadership scholarship being produced across our community.

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Jane Mitchell, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University Law School
“That Class Changed My Life”: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Teach Leadership, 65 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 593 (2025), available at https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/lawreview/vol65/iss3/1.

How can faculty move beyond teaching about leadership to truly form law students as leaders? In her recent article, “That Class Changed My Life”: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Teach Leadership, BYU Law Professor Jane Mitchell explores how adult learning theory can catalyze authentic leadership development in legal education. Drawing on Mezirow’s transformative learning theory and a design-based research methodology, the article identifies specific pedagogical strategies that prompt deep shifts in students’ leadership identity, values, and capacity to lead.

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Joan Heminway, Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee Frank Winston College of Law

Professional Identity in Context: The Transactional Business Lawyer as Counselor and Leader, 76 Mercer L. Rev. 1199 (2025), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5404081.

When many of us began our legal education, leadership formation was rarely addressed explicitly as part of professional identity. At the invitation of the Mercer Law Review, Professor Joan Heminway reflected on her own development as a lawyer-leader shaped by relational counseling practice. Her essay, Professional Identity in Context: The Transactional Business Lawyer as Counselor and Leader, examines the leadership dimensions of transactional lawyering, particularly the lawyer’s role as a trusted advisor, problem-solver, and ethical leader in business contexts.

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Bryan Adamson, David L. Brennan Chaired Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Academy for Inclusive Leadership Development: A New Pedagogy Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Belonging into Legal Education, 75 Wash. U. J.L. & Pol’y 1 (2024), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4955908.

The Academy for Inclusive Leadership Development at Case Western Reserve University School of Law was created to educate lawyers, business professionals, and students to become inclusive organizational leaders. In Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Academy for Inclusive Leadership Development: A New Pedagogy Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Belonging into Legal Education, Professor and Associate Dean Bryan L. Adamson explains how the Academy offers innovative leadership training grounded in equity, systemic change, and inclusive professional identity. The article demonstrates how leadership education can be a powerful tool for addressing structural inequality in the profession.

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Margie Alsbrook, Assistant Professor of Law, Mercer University School of Law

Flexibility & Resilience Are Essential Legal Skills, 2025 Wis. L. Rev. Forward 33 (2025), available at https://wlr.law.wisc.edu/flexibility-resilience-are-essential-legal-skills/.

Professor Margie Alsbrook argues that today’s lawyers must be educated not only as technicians, but as adaptive leaders capable of guiding change. In her recent article, Flexibility & Resilience Are Essential Legal Skills, she contends that adaptability, resilience, and interdisciplinary thinking are core leadership competencies for lawyers navigating technological disruption, environmental crises, and shifting client expectations. She emphasizes that preparing students for leadership in uncertainty strengthens both individual lawyers and the legal profession as a whole. The article is available on the Wisconsin Law Review website.

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Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Professor and Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution, Yeshiva University – Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Abigail R. Bogli, Quarles & Brady LLP; and Hannah L. Chin, Whitefish Bay School District

The New Glass Ceiling, 2024 Wis. L. Rev. 1687 (2024), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5053324.

Two recent articles featured here examine persistent barriers to women’s leadership in the legal profession, with important implications for leadership education and institutional reform. The first, The New Glass Ceiling, co-authored by Professor Andrea Kupfer Schneider, attorney Abigail R. Bogli, and attorney Hannah L. Chin, challenges the assumption that gender equality has been achieved, documenting women’s continued underrepresentation in senior law firm leadership and compensation.

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Paula Schaefer, Art Stolinitz Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee Frank Winston College of Law

The Motherhood Myth, Traditional Firms, and the Underrepresentation of Women, 20 F.I.U. L. Rev. 287 (2025), available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4895367.

The second article to examine law leadership gender barriers is The Motherhood Myth, Traditional Firms, and the Underrepresentation of Women. In this article, Professor Paula Schaefer dismantles narratives that attribute the underrepresentation of women in law firm partnerships and leadership roles to caregiving rather than institutional structure. In the process, the article offers recent data on women and men in U.S. law schools and law firms.

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Katie Kempner, AALS Associate Director of Research and Data Analytics; Kate Schaffzin, Director of the Institute for Professional Leadership and Douglas A. Blaze Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee Frank Winston College of Law

Women Attorneys in Higher Education Leadership, Am. Assoc. L. Schools (2025), available at https://www.aals.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Women-Attorneys-in-Higher-Education-Leadership-Report-FINAL.pdf

Continuing with the theme of gender and law leadership, the AALS recently released a comprehensive empirical study titled “Women Attorneys in Higher Education Leadership,” co-authored by Katie Kempner and Kate Schaffzin. The study analyzes national data on women lawyers serving in senior academic leadership roles, documenting both progress and persistent gaps in advancement. It offers valuable insights for those engaged in cultivating higher education leadership pipelines, including within legal education. Additional information and the full report are available on the AALS website at Women Attorneys in Higher Education Leadership.

Joan M. Heminway	Chair	Email
Tania Luma	Chair-Elect	Email
April M. Barton	Past Chair / Executive Committee	Email
Hillary A. Sale	Executive Committee	Email
Aric K. Short	Executive Committee	Email
Leah Jackson Teague	Executive Committee	Email
Kenneth Townsend	Executive Committee	Email

By: Greg Miarecki

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law
Adjunct Professor
Executive Assistant Dean for Career Planning and Professional Development

In January of 2021, the University of Illinois College of Law launched its Leadership Project, a leadership development program for our students. In designing the Leadership Project, we looked to many colleagues at other law schools for ideas and inspiration. And while we wanted to get it right, we wanted – as Nike would say – “just do it” and continue to refine it over time. At the outset, our program had several goals:

1. Ensure that all of our students have a baseline understanding of leadership principles.
2. Deliver leadership education and programming in a manner consistent with how law students learn in other courses.
3. Make leadership education relatable. 
4. Allow students to self-select into more advanced studies on leadership, once they have been exposed to initial training.
5. Reward students for participating in the program.
6. Use available resources efficiently.

Consistent with these goals, we centered the Leadership Project around three pillars – introduction, induction, and development:

Introduction:  Provide all first-year students with a short overview of leadership, providing basic frameworks and common language. Such instruction can be delivered in a few hours in a group setting.  It would focus primarily on the study of others, rather than focus on self-reflection.

Induction:  Students who remain eager for more would move to an “induction” phase, which provides a considerably deeper dive into leadership concepts. In this phase, the student or lawyer might begin some self-reflection and individual coaching.    

Development:  Once a student completes the induction phase, he or she would move to the developmental phase. This phase generally requires a smaller group, and typically involves a much higher level of self-reflection and individual attention. 

While these descriptions map to how our Leadership Project functions, they serve as a good starting point for any school wishing to build a leadership education program. Each of these three stages is flexible, and other schools’ programs might look quite different, even if they use the same basic framework. For example, a local law school focused on serving the public interest community may utilize a program that looks much different than a program at a large “T14” school. And each school can and should leverage the resources it has and the environment in which it sits, whether it be faculty, academic strength in particular areas, alumni bases, etc.

The Leadership Project at the University of Illinois follows this basic framework. Each of our first-year students takes a course called Fundamentals of Legal Practice. As part of this course, we offer three different sessions: Principles of Leadership, Leadership and the Importance of Inclusion, and Leadership in the Non-Profit Realm. During these sessions, we introduce students to the topic of leadership, primarily through the study of other leaders. We ask them to identify a good leader and discuss that leader’s strengths and weaknesses. We discuss the importance of including diverse perspectives, with a special focus on our first Illinois lawyer-leader President, Abraham Lincoln, and his creation of a “Team of Rivals.”  And we invite students to analyze a series of case studies featuring notable leaders, including Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and former Duke University head basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. 

Through these introductory sessions, we expose all of our first-year students to basic leadership principles. We teach each session in a group setting, making it more efficient than individualized coaching. And by focusing on examples of other leaders, we attempt to help students learn about leadership in a relatively familiar way – through case studies.

After completing our Fundamentals course, students can opt out of further leadership-focused programming. Those interested in learning more are invited to participate in a series of lectures or discussions focused on leadership. Our Leadership Project has hosted more than thirty speakers, including former Illinois Governors Jim Edgar and Pat Quinn, current Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago Alderman Timmy Knudsen, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White, and Michael Osanloo, the CEO of the wildly popular Chicago-based Portillo’s Hot Dogs. Each leader shares their individual perspectives on leadership with the students, and the students learn from those examples. In selecting our speakers, we leverage our Illinois connections and the expertise of our alumni base. 

Each semester, our Leadership Project also hosts a “book talk.”  Our students read a selected book and meet as a group to discuss the leadership lessons embedded within. For example, in the past year, we have read President Obama’s (our second Illinois lawyer/President) “A Promised Land,” John Carlin’s “Playing the Enemy” (the story of how Nelson Mandela used the sport of rugby to unite South Africa), and Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why.”  These book talks give students an opportunity to dig deeper into the principles of leadership and discuss them with their classmates.

The College of Law also offers a number of courses touching on aspects of leadership, including, for example, Trial Advocacy (focused on how to communicate and build an energizing vision for a jury), Small Firm Practice (focused on how to build and lead a small firm), and our numerous clinics. The College also offers a focused “Lawyers as Leaders” course, in which students engage in deeper discussion and analysis of leaders and also examine their own personality features that either assist or hinder in their leadership of others. By leveraging our already existing courses, we made the Project more cost-effective.

Students who complete a prescribed number of Leadership Project lectures and discussions, book talks, and courses are eligible to participate in a half-day virtual retreat, led by an executive coach. In this retreat, students engage in deep self-analysis in small groups. Once students complete this retreat, they become Leadership Scholars, receiving a plaque, transcript designation, and a celebration at the end of the academic year.

In the first four years of our program, nearly 50 students have earned a Leadership Scholar designation. And more than 300 students have attended at least one Leadership Project event. I’m especially pleased to see that our program attracted leaders you might expect (such as student organization leaders), and ones that we did not expect – students with softer voices and not as involved in student organizations, but who are nonetheless eager to lead and capable of doing so, armed with the tools we have provided them. Some have reported that they did not initially think of themselves as leaders, but that our coursework and programs convinced them that they could, in fact, lead others.

Leadership development programs are important. They positively impact the lives of our students. As one of our Leadership Scholars put it:

The classes prepared me for real-life challenges, the events connected me with leaders I look up to, and the book talks allowed me to think hard about the kind of leader I want to be. This program deals head-on with a deficit many law schools face by connecting students with opportunities that will change their careers and lives.

You can deliver these benefits without extensive infrastructure or excessive costs. Just do it! If you’re thinking about developing such a program, I’d be delighted to help you in any way I can. Your fellow Section members are available to help. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if I can assist!

Join the AALS Section on Leadership for an engaging and thought-provoking webinar exploring the vital role scholarship plays in the emerging national movement to embed leadership development firmly within legal education.

Distinguished panelists:

• Neil Hamilton, Holloran Professor of Law and Co-director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions, University of St. Thomas School of Law
• Kenneth Townsend, Executive Director, Wake Forest University Program for Leadership and Character

Moderated by Professor Leah Teague (Baylor Law School), our panelists will share insights into the impact of past and current scholarship, and share their thought on innovative practices and strategic priorities to further the integration of leadership into legal education curricula and to supports the development of lawyer-leaders who are prepared to meet today’s complex challenges with integrity, creativity, and vision.

Date: Thursday, May 29, 2025
Time: 1:00 – 2:00pm EST/12:00 – 1:00pm CT/11:00am – 12:00pm MT/10:00 – 11:00am PT
Location: Virtual (Zoom)

You can also watch the recording of the last webinar in the series: Law Students Learning to Lead through Non-Profit Board Service.

On March 27–28, 2025, Wake Forest University’s Program for Leadership and Character and Wake Forest School of Law—together with the AALS Section on Leadership—hosted the inaugural Leadership and Character in the Law Conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Designed as a collaborative, forward-looking convening, the conference brought together law professors and lawyer leaders from around the country to share common concerns as well as to develop ideas for developing lawyers of integrity.

VOL. 11, SPRING/SUMMER 2024

Our students are studying law at a moment when many of our most cherished values as Americans are at a crossroads – among them are truth, civility, the rule of law, and democracy. Our work on leadership education has never been more important. Now more than ever, we need lawyer-leaders to defend these values. That’s why I ask our students each year to think of themselves as more than future lawyers. I ask them to think of themselves as future custodians of civility, defenders of democracy, and guardians of justice.

As Chair of the AALS Leadership Section, I am honored to follow in the footsteps of so many pioneers in law school leadership education – Professor Deborah Rhode (2018), Professor Leah Teague (2019), Dean Doug Blaze (2020), Dean Don Polden (2021), Dean Garry Jenkins (2022), and Dean April Barton (2023). We are a relatively new AALS Section, chartered in November 2017, but we already have made a huge impact on legal education, thanks in large part to our founder, the late Deborah Rhode, and my Section Chair predecessors, each of whom has been teaching leadership for many years. Kellye Testy, our new Executive Director and CEO of AALS, is also a long-time leader in teaching leadership in law schools. Thanks to all of them and many of you, an increasing number of law schools have leadership programs and curriculum.

My special thanks to last year’s Chair, Dean April Barton, for the opportunity to work closely with her on the January 2024 AALS Leadership Section Session and my thanks to Chair-Elect, Professor Joan Heminway and the other members of the Executive Committee with whom I’m working to make our January 2025 AALS Leadership Section Session equally successful. I’m very grateful for the members of our AALS Leadership Section Executive Committee each of whom is featured in this newsletter.  

We hosted a thought-provoking session on April 25, Teaching Law Leadership with Non-Law Texts with Professor Joan Heminway and Beth Ford, Interim Director, Institute for Professional Leadership, University of Tennessee College of Law. As noted below, we will host leadership webinars on September 10, October 8, and November 13. Please join us for each of these sessions. Please also join us October 24-25 at the Leadership Symposium hosted by The University of Tennessee College of Law’s Institute for Professional Leadership. More information is below.

We have created a bank of law school leadership course syllabi and descriptions of law school leadership programs. Please add your leadership course syllabus and/or leadership program description here: Shared Course Syllabi and Program Descriptions.

My thanks to each of you for all you do to promote leadership education and training in our law schools.

My best,
Lee
[email protected]

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MEET THE 2024 – 2025 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

April M. Barton
Dean and Professor of Law
Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law

“Leadership development instills within our students a deep desire to serve others, pursue justice and act with integrity in any role they choose.”

Hear from April

Martin Brinkley
Dean and William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor
The University of North Carolina School of Law

“As de Tocqueville said in the 1830s, in America lawyers are the class that exercises restraint on the dangerous potential of a public carried away by populist passion. That role is of immense importance today.”

Hear from Martin

Chair-Elect
Joan MacLeod Heminway
Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee College of Law

“Leading as a lawyer takes true grit—passion + perseverance. If we model it, our students can learn it.”

Hear from Joan

Tania Luma
Assistant Dean, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
& Clinical Professor
Loyola University Chicago School of Law

“In the face of enormous divides, the practice of leadership is critical–it is the practice of mobilizing people to meet the challenges that will enable them to thrive in changing and challenging times.”

Hear from Tania

Hillary A. Sale
Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Leadership and Corporate Governance and Professor of Management
Georgetown University Law Center

“Teaching leadership is a great way for students to examine their purpose in being a lawyer and to take ownership of their careers and opportunities.”

Hear from Hillary

Aric Short
Professor of Law; Director of 1L Mentoring
Texas A&M University School of Law

“A pressing reason to teach leadership is to encourage students to first lead themselves. The practice of law expects new graduates to be self-directed, motivated, and curious.”

Hear from Aric

Leah Teague
Professor and Director of Leadership Development Program 
Baylor Law School

“From advising clients to advocating for a cause to negotiating a deal or the resolution of a conflict, every aspect of what a lawyer does when representing clients is a version of leadership.”

Hear from Leah

Kellye Y. Testy
Executive Director and CEO, AALS

“Before a leader can fix much else, they need to first focus on improving their own health — spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical. That first step helps a leader get out of their own way so that they can truly be of service to others.”

Hear from Kellye

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IN MEMORIAM

Susan Jones, Professor of Clinical Law
George Washington University School of Law

“At its core, leadership is about transformation. Leadership coaching, a personalized and confidential form of professional and personal development, is a creative partnership between a coach and a client to empower the client toward greater self-reflection, clarity of purpose, meaningful change, accountability, and effective engagement in the world.”

Earlier this year, we lost our colleague Professor Susan Jones. Susan was a friend and inspiration to many of us, an active member of the Executive Committee of our AALS Leadership Section Executive Committee, and a passionate advocate for leadership education in law schools. Susan was a Professor of Clinical Law and a member of the full-time faculty at The George Washington University Law School. She was also the Director and Supervising Attorney of the Small Business & Community Economic Development Clinic (SBCED Clinic). Susan was a trailblazer in transactional clinical legal education and the practice of small business law and social entrepreneurism.

Before she passed, we asked Susan to answer some questions about her views on leadership.

Learn about Susan

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UPCOMING EVENTS

The Intersection of Leadership, Professionalism, and Professional Identity – Webinar

Sep 10, 2024  • 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (ET)

SPEAKERS: 
April M. Barton, Dean and Professor of Law, Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law
Aric Short, Professor of Law and Director, Professionalism and Leadership Program, Texas A&M University School of Law

Learn More & Register

Leadership for Equity Amid Political Turbulence – Webinar

Oct 8, 2024 from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM (ET)

SPEAKERS:
Heather Gerken, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Tamara F. Lawson, Toni Rembe Dean and Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law
Kellye Y. Testy, Executive Director and CEO, AALS

Learn More & Register
 

Women and Leadership – Webinar

Nov 13, 2024 from 05:00 PM to 06:00 PM (ET)

SPEAKERS:
Hillary Sale, Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Leadership and Corporate Governance, Georgetown University Law Center; Professor of Management, McDonough School of Business
Alison Spada, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Dean, Georgetown University Law Center

Learn More & Register
 

Lighting the Way: Leadership Symposium – The University of Tennessee College of Law

October 24-25, 2024

The AALS Section on Leadership and the Tennessee Journal of Law and Policy are collaborating with The University of Tennessee College of Law on this symposium which celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Institute for Professional Leadership. The symposium will feature workshops, a call-for-papers panel, and expert panels on law leadership in the context of legal education. The program is scheduled to extend from Thursday afternoon through a Friday evening reception and will include a Thursday evening gala dinner. The symposium schedule will be made available on a symposium website hosted on The University of Tennessee College of Law’s website.
 

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 GUEST COLUMN

“The Value of Examining Leaders Within Communities”
Tania Luma discusses the importance of recognizing movement and community leadership in legal academia.

Read More
 

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 LAW SCHOOL LEADERSHIP COURSES AND PROGRAMS

We have created a bank of law school leadership course syllabi and descriptions of law school leadership programs.
Please add your leadership course syllabus and/or leadership program description here: Shared Course Syllabi and Program Descriptions

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LEADERSHIP SECTION ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hello, all. I hope that everyone is enjoying the summer season so far.  It has been a bit warm in Tennessee, but I am surviving!

Through this message, I am passing along a request from the Interim Director of our Institute for Professional Leadership at The University of Tennessee College of Law.  As our professional leadership program enters its second decade, we are reflecting and planning.  As a result, we also are wondering what everyone else is doing in their law schools relating to professional leadership education and training.

We hope that you will let us know by completing a brief survey.  You can find it here.  We will share the results of the survey with you once the response collection process has been completed.  Although there is no formal end date for the survey at this time, we will begin reviewing responses in the next few weeks.  Accordingly, an early response is highly valued.

Either Beth or I are happy to answer any questions about our leadership program or the survey.  Beth can be reached at [email protected], and I can be reached at [email protected].

Wishing you well.

Joan
Joan MacLeod Heminway
Rick Rose Distinguished Professor of Law
The University of Tennessee College of Law

by Patty Roberts

This is the second year I am using Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership for the Law & Leadership seminar at St. Mary’s University School of Law. When looking for a book, I wanted one that intentionally focused on the student’s skill-building, one that would offer a number of mechanisms for them to assess their own leadership style and skills, and ways that would enable them to improve those skills and develop the style they find most effective. Fundamentals of Lawyer Leadership is the perfect book for meeting these goals.

The book is divided into four parts – Leadership Fundamentals, and then Leadership of Self, with Others, and within Community. There are numerous leadership inventories recommended that students can be assigned, and journal prompts that require their reflection on their results. Leadership character, traits, and characteristics are covered extensively, but also the necessity of followership, giving and receiving feedback, and overall wellness. Each chapter prompts robust discussion among the students, and they draw on the lessons learned in later chapters or when we have a guest speaker who is a role model for the topics being covered that week. The book is accompanied by useful teaching materials.

Finally, I greatly appreciated the focus on integrity and character, grit and growth mindset, and impactful service within one’s community. The book has an excellent balance of self-reflection and exploration of the most effective ways to work with others. Students recognize themselves in some of the chapters and identify aspirational traits and characteristics on which they want to focus. The book’s carefully structured chapters ensure that students develop a leadership plan internally, and then identify ways for external influence for the greater good. It is an ideal book for exploring leadership with lawyers, and will also prove instrumental for those who choose to utilize it in support of professional identity formation.

Here is a link to the updated spreadsheet with a list of leadership classes and programs at each accredited law school:

https://baylor.box.com/s/ioexvnyeqfx8bbel9s14ivk1o6i87bl6

Please review and send Stephen Rispoli an email to let him know if any information needs to be updated.