LAW 405 - Law Firm Leadership

Fall 1 Gary LeClair

The course will introduce students to the law firm leader’s role in six major leadership functions: (i) Culture and Strategy, (ii) Governance and Execution, (iii) Compensation and Financial Management, (iv) Talent/Leader Recruitment, Development, Promotion and Accountability/Reward, (v) Practice Management and Business Development, and (vi) Risk Management and Industry Challenges. Course materials will include the writings of prominent law industry commentators (e.g., William Henderson, Gillian Hadfield, David Maister, etc.) and general business thought leaders (e.g., Larry Bossidy, Robert Kelly, Sonja Lyubomirsky, etc.). Students will be given the opportunity to engage in leader self assessments (e.g., GRIT, introvert-ambivert-extrovert, positivity, etc.) and will be exposed to law firm leader skills (e.g., framing, challenge response competency, mistake imperative, etc.) The course will be pass-fail and graded primarily by a paper on a topic chosen from 12 leader dilemmas (2 from each of each of the 6 functions).