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Leadership for Lawyers:
Teaching Students and Lawyers to be
Ethical and Innovative Leaders

A.  Purpose

The purpose of this skills-oriented class will be to encourage and develop Santa Clara Law Students for leadership positions in their roles as Lawyers and members of society. Lawyers, more frequently than any other profession, take on many leadership roles in society, from members of state and local governing bodies, to members of Congress, to representation on non-profit boards. Yet lawyers have little or no training in good leadership skills. The role of a lawyer as a creative, effective and ethical contributor to society is an important one. The late John Gardner, Stanford Professor, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Johnson and the founder of Common Cause, stated there are four goals of moral leadership.

  1. Releasing human potential

  2. Balancing the needs of the individual and the community

  3. Defending the fundamental values of the community

  4. Instilling in individuals a sense of initiative and responsibility

As pointed out by Santa Clara’s own Leadership Educator, Barry Posner, “It is our collective task to liberate the leader within each and every one of us… it is possible for everyone to lead” (The Leadership Challenge). One of the fundamental insights established by the leadership research is that leadership can be taught. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. They contribute to their organizations and society in valuable ways. It should be the job of legal education to give our students the tools to make positive change and to become effective leaders.

The class will build on the Mission Statement of SCU Law School by implementing the vision that one of the purposes of a legal education is to develop leaders. Most importantly, this course has its foundation in the tradition of academic leadership at SCU Law School, which is to direct our students to a higher purpose; to provide them with an ethical prospective of contributing to the legal system in which they will work and in the communities in which they live. The course will continue to develop our students as Leaders in the community and help in fulfilling the Mission of the Law School and its dedication to:

  • The training of lawyers with uncompromising standards of excellence in service to their clients and to society;

  • An emphasis on ethical considerations in the legal process;

  • A diverse community of men and women devoted to freedom of inquiry and freedom of expression;

  • Excellence in teaching and scholarly research;

  • A balance of the rigorous and the humane in student-teacher relationships;

  • A curriculum addressing the fundamental demands of law practice and the evolving needs of society; and

  • Endeavors outside the University that reflect high moral standards and professional excellence. (Mission Statement of Santa Clara Law School).

This class will focus on:

  1. Providing a basic understanding of the primary leadership theories that exist.

  2. Studying legal and ethical issues that arise in current public and private situations. (Private; Public - Government, Legislative, Executive and Judicial Leadership)

  3. Studying Lawyers, as role models, who have created positive change.

    1. Public Leadership - Lincoln, Gandhi, and modern day lawyers

    2. Civil Rights – examples: Thurgood Marshall

    3. Entrepreneurial Lawyers and Leadership

    4. Judicial Leadership

    5. Non-Profit Legal Leadership

      1. The use of law and institutions for positive change

      2. Board leadership

      3. Social entrepreneurship

  4. Developing student leadership skills and styles with exercises and skill assessment.

  5. Equipping students to be strong leaders.

B. Course Specifics

The class, Leadership for Lawyers, will be given as a credit/no credit 2 unit class. It will be similar to other skill based courses, such as Negotiations, where there are lectures, Guest Speakers, as well as exercises and skill building evaluations. It will also be required that the students draft a series of short papers or commentaries regarding their own skill development in areas which will include, communication, influencing others, decisions making, creative thinking and team building. There will be a final paper due on an approved topic.

C. Texts, Articles and Publications

The class material will be unique. We will use The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner, and Lincoln on Leadership by Donald Phillips. We will also use extensive academic and scholarly literature on the issue of leadership. The materials will cover topics in primarily in five areas:

  1. Leadership Theories and Models

  2. Development of Leadership Skills

  3. The Role of Lawyers as Leaders

  4. Profiles of Lawyers, as Leaders, who have created positive change.

  5. Ethics