Cullen Group Logo
L4L Header
T Marshall Image
L4L Logo
  

Syllabus

Professor Robert W. Cullen
Course 521 - Spring 2008
(408) 279-6500
rcullen@cullengroup.com 

LEADERSHIP FOR LAWYERS

I. Overview

The goal of this course is to improve both your understanding of leadership principles and your effectiveness as a leader.  The learning that occurs in the class will be highly dependent upon the contributions of each and every member.  We will approach learning in several different ways, including lecture, case studies, experiential activities, guest speakers, exercises, and writing.  Because so much of what you and your colleagues’ learn depends on you, it is important that you prepare and participate fully.

II. Course Materials

  • The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Edition, Kouzes and Posner

  • Lincoln on Leadership, Don Phillips

  • Various Additional Readings on Clara Net (claranet.scu.edu)

  • Leadership for Lawyers Class Site  (www.leadership4lawyers.com/class)

III. Course Requirements

  1. Attendance and Preparation: Your attendance and preparation are critical in the course.  It will be important to come to class prepared and to actively participate in discussions.    This will provide the most benefit to you and your classmates.

  2. Participation: This is a discussion course and it will be helpful if everyone participates.  Also, if you have creative ideas on how to explore the materials and subject matter in an interesting and entertaining way, please let me know.

  3. Requirements:

  1. In a group presentation, prepare for one class and be prepared to present information on that week’s readings:   Each class member will work with a group, sign up for one class and will be responsible for extensive preparation of the materials for that class.  They will assist the professor in presenting those materials.  The assigned group will be responsible for “preparing” the presentation of the day, and will be required to:

    1. Present the materials to the class.  The presentation should consist of the following elements:

      1. Outline the material. 

      2. Suggest discussion themes, ask questions and lead a discussion. Your peers must participate; figure out how to accomplish that goal. 

      3. The presentation should be informative, enlightening, motivating and presented in a way that considers the audience (your peers--- kind of a tough group). 

  2. Take extensive notes on one class for the class website:  Each student will take well organized notes for one class, work with one or two others for that class, summarize the notes and e-mail them to Jennifer (jhummel@cullengroup.com) to be posted on the L4L class website.  There will be 13 classes for note taking.  The objective is to maintain a complete record of the notes from each class.  Class notes MUST be written within four days after the class, and then e-mailed to Jennifer.  Notes should contain the following:

    1. topics discussed in class

    2. an outline or summary of the information presented

    3. lessons learned

  3. Personal Best Leadership Case:  Write a Personal Best Leadership Case, and take the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) developed by Kouzes and Posner.   

  4. In a group setting with 4-5 others, conduct a research project to examine an in-depth leadership topic.  This can be an individual or group project where 4-5 students will do some research regarding a leadership topic.   You may have a topic of great personal interest, or you may discover one brainstorming sessions with classmates. It can be a research paper.  It can be a collection of data and analysis; the data you collect may be quantitative or qualitative data, and may be collected through a variety of methods. Appropriate methods include, but are not limited to, surveys, interviews and observations. 

Over the semester you will identify your leadership topic, collect new data on that topic, analyze the data, and write-up the results of your project. The written report will prompt you to consolidate your learning and begin to put your data and ideas into a format that enables them to have impact in the legal world and/or in the world of leadership studies. Our final class sessions will be devoted to project presentations at which time you will have the opportunity to orally present highlights of your research project and your findings.

IV. Grading

This is a Credit/No Credit class.  However, you will need to participate in each of these areas in order to obtain credit for this class: class participation (1/3); class presentation and note taking (1/3); and your leadership paper (1/3).