LAWYERS AS LEADERS

Dean Emeritus Don Polden discusses his latest book, Leading in Law: Leadership Development for Law Students, co-authored by Barry Posner.

BY ANNIE WARR ’99, MBA ’03

Donald J. Polden, professor at Santa Clara Law, is a respected legal scholar and expert in antitrust, employment law, legal education, and lawyer leadership development. As dean of Santa Clara Law from 2003-13, he was instrumental in developing the curriculum for leadership education at Santa Clara Law and nationally, and this movement continues to grow in American legal education. His latest book, Leading in Law: Leadership Development for Law Students (Carolina Academic, Press 2022), co-authored by Barry Posner, makes the case for a comprehensive approach to leadership education and development in law school education. Designed for law schools and legal educators, the book prepares law students to exercise leadership in law firms and legal organizations and draws upon a leadership development model that is evidence-based, practical, and used extensively in other professional disciplines. Barry Posner is a recognized expert in leadership and the author of many acclaimed books including The Leadership Challenge, and he serves as the Accolti Endowed Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. Discern recently spoke with Polden about the book and lawyer leadership generally.

DISCERN: Why is leadership education so important for law students?

DONALD POLDEN: The bottom line is that law students will be going into leadership positions during their careers. Lawyers have historically held an outsized influence on leadership roles in the United States—for instance, most members of Congress and former Presidents were trained as lawyers. Until we started developing this curriculum, there was no formal leadership training in law schools. Business schools, public policy schools, and even medical schools had been offering leadership training, but law schools were way behind. Think about what leaders do: they articulate a vision for change and persuade others toward this vision. This is also what lawyers do. There is a key set of skills and attributes that lawyers must develop that are also required for leaders. It makes sense to use leadership development as a way to enhance lawyer development.

D: How did you and Barry Posner decide to write this book together?

P: We had been talking about lawyer leadership for quite a while. When I was a new dean in 2003, Barry and I became friends, and he gave me a copy of his book, The Leadership Challenge, co-authored by James M. Kouzes. I was eager to read it because I had been thinking about teaching a leadership class for lawyers. This idea arose when I asked my father, who was a career Army officer, whether he thought leadership development training was applicable to lawyers. His response was: “I have no idea why not.” Barry was of the same opinion. Fast forward, and I had been teaching my leadership class at Santa Clara for nearly 20 years. One day, I mentioned to Barry that I wanted to put some of those ideas about lawyers as leaders in writing, and he asked: “Would you want to do that together?” tion, and transactions—our book offers a systematic framework for developing leadership in law students and lawyers.

D: When you were writing the book, how important was it to gather insights from current or former students in the industry?

P: I have an excellent cadre of alumni that have taken my leadership class and are demonstrating their leadership skills in their law firms and organizations. For instance, one of the guest speakers for my class was an outstanding graduate who saw an opportunity to be a leader at her large law firm. Though the firm had been spending a lot of money and time onboarding new associates, the new associates still had many questions and uncertainties. As a second-year associate, my former student had relevant experience and good ideas about ways that she could help the new associates get acclimated. She asked the firm’s management if she could share her ideas with the new associates and they agreed. She produced a 70-page manual for new associates, including detailed onboarding information, advice, and requirements. The managing partner thought her manual was fabulous, shared it with the firm’s main management team, and it became a widely used document in many of the firm’s offices. Her initiative in creating the manual helped the firm to shorten the time between new associates being hired and onboarded to generating revenue, and it improved the new associates’ understanding of the firm’s expectations. Her story is a great example of how even young lawyers can demonstrate their leadership skills even if they are not in a leadership position.

D: How else do leadership and lawyering interact?

P: Actually, this is a central focus of the movement in leadership development among lawyers and law firms. Early on, I was influenced by the work of one of Stanford Law School’s most prolific scholars, Deborah Rhode, who was an early advocate for applying leadership development to lawyers. I invited her to speak at some early conferences and workshops on lawyer leadership education that we hosted at Santa Clara Law. Deborah was tremendously influential to many legal educators in thinking about why lawyers and law students need leadership education. Our early work at the Santa Clara Law leadership workshops (which emphasized sharing information about how law schools were developing leadership curricula) was instrumental in identifying and supporting the growing movement in legal education. Educators at other law schools—Tennessee, Baylor, and Ohio State for example—also shared course syllabi, teaching materials, leadership case studies, and methods on teaching leadership to law students. Then, some of these law school leadership educators decided it was time for the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) to add a section on leadership. About five years ago, we guided a petition for a new section for law teachers and administrators interested in advancing leadership education through the AALS process. Now, the AALS Section on Leadership has almost 400 members from about half of all U.S. law schools, and that number is growing. Many law schools are now offering courses and programs on leadership skills development. It is an immensely rewarding and highly collaborative effort by many in legal education.

D: Are you concerned that emphasizing leadership roles in the legal profession will add to stereotypes of lawyer leaders being mostly white men?

P: Actually, we think quite the opposite: leadership development is an excellent way for minority and women lawyers to prepare for law firm leadership roles. In my leadership class, the first assignment asks students to share their best leadership experience, which is a reminder that everyone can have these leadership experiences (based on their motivation and personal preparation) and that there is personal and professional growth possible through leadership skills development. Santa Clara Law is one of the most diverse law schools in the U.S., and so my law students are from very diverse backgrounds—many share the aspiration to strengthen their leadership abilities because they believe it will help them be better lawyers and citizens.

D: How much of a role do values, ethics, and morals play in law and leadership?

P: Quite a bit, actually. In the book, we devote considerable attention to the legal profession’s ethical norms as a foundation to exceptional leadership in legal work. Professional ethics, like leadership, are about honesty and trustworthiness. Research shows that people generally won’t follow somebody they distrust. Similarly, in law, ethical behavior is a professional norm—lawyers must thoughtfully commit to a career of ethical, responsible lawyering and professional comportment. This commitment to ethics is also an essential part of anyone’s role and responsibility as a leader.

D: How have law students reacted to the book?

D: This movement is still growing exponentially, right?

P: Yes, indeed! In addition to the national emphasis on leadership education in law school, there has also been an increase in books and materials on lawyer leadership. This includes our book, which Barry and I think is unique among the recent offerings because it provides a model for learning and developing leadership abilities through the “five practices of exemplary leadership” (a model that Barry and his co-author, James M. Kouzes, developed for their book of the same title). In their book, The Leadership Challenge, Posner and Kouzes shared the empirical research they conducted on various questions: Why would you willingly follow somebody? What traits about them influence your decision to follow? What attributes do you see in somebody from whom you would take the lead? Their research showed that leaders have key behaviors, skills, and attributes that make others more likely to follow them, including their ability to lead by example, to envision a solution to problems or a crisis, to engage through persuasion, and to influence others to take on problems together. By taking these key skills and applying them to the work that lawyers do—in their firms, government offices, litiga-

P: The students’ reactions to the book have been very positive. All the students in my leadership classes for the past two years have used this book to guide their introduction to lawyer leadership education and to advance their leadership skills. My leadership classes average about 50 students per section—those students have engaged eagerly in the book’s exercises and case studies, and they have written exceptional papers about lawyer leadership. I plan to make some of these student papers available on the Law School’s website for the Institute for Lawyer Leadership Education. We have also heard that some organizations will use the book as a guide for lawyer development in law school clinical programs, which makes perfect sense.

The many adopters of our book believe that leadership education is an excellent way to educate law students for their roles as legal professionals and to prepare them to become ethical, competent, problem-solving lawyers and citizens.

AVAILABLE NOW:

Leading in Law: Leadership Development for Law Students

By Donald J. Polden, Barry Z. Posner (Carolina Academic Press, 2022)