The P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program is one of the first programs in the country to provide structured leadership education to law students. Established in 2018 through the generous vision and support of Kelly Tompkins '81 and former Dean Lee Fisher, the Program prepares every law student, not just a select few, with the skills, mentorship, and experience to lead in their careers, their communities and the profession.
Our Mission
To provide every CSU Law student with opportunities to develop themselves into confident, capable leaders, equipped with the skills, mentorship, and experiences to lead in their careers, their communities, and the legal profession.
Director: Debbie Hoffman | d.hoffman63null@csuohio.nulledu
Debbie Hoffman is an executive leader, attorney, and professor with deep experience in financial services, legal innovation, and technology. Before joining CSU Law, she served as Managing Associate General Counsel at Western Union and as Chief Legal Officer of Digital Risk, LLC. As Director of the Tompkins Program, she brings a practitioner's perspective to leadership education - preparing every CSU Law student to lead with confidence in any practice setting.
About Our Founder
Kelly Tompkins is the founder and benefactor of the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program and a 1981 graduate of Cleveland State University College of Law. A member of the College of Law's inaugural Hall of Fame class, he previously served as Chair of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors, Chair of the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees, and is a recipient of both the George B. Davis Service Award and the CSU|LAW Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year Award.
Kelly currently serves as Senior Advisor to President Lee Fisher at Baldwin Wallace University and as Senior Advisor at Dix & Eaton. His distinguished career includes serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Cleveland-Cliffs and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of RPM International. During his tenure at both companies, he also served as Chief Legal Officer.
A past President of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Kelly remains actively engaged with CSU Law as a Leader-in-Residence, mentor, and advocate for developing the next generation of lawyer-leaders.
The Leadership and Law program seeks to educate students not only to be great lawyers but also to be great leaders.
Lawyers typically have little training in leadership. The law can be described as the rules and forces that operate on leaders, and so we teach the rules in which leaders operate, but most law schools don’t teach what it takes to be an effective leader. It is ironic that so many of our country’s great leaders, whether in the government, business, law or the non-profit sector, are law school graduates yet precious few had any course work dedicated to leadership. At CSU|LAW, we teach leadership skills that can be applied in any career path.
We prepare our students to make a difference in the world as citizens and leaders in a fast-changing environment.
Leaders of the future need to have the skills to lead, counsel, and manage in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. We provide training and practice in leadership strategies and skills that better prepare students to effectively manage the people and organizations they will lead.
How we develop leaders
The Tompkins Program gives every CSU Law Student, not just a select few, the tools, mentors, and experiences to become a leaders in the legal profession. Here's how:
Law 768 - Leadership and the Law: The Habits of Highly Effective Lawyer-Leaders (opens in new window) This signature 3-credit course uses the case study method to put upper-level students inside real leadership decisions made by real lawyer-leaders. Taught by Leaders-in- Residence Kelly Tompkins ’81 along with Sharon Sobol Jordan, President/CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland and Debbie Hoffman, Director of the Center, it is one of the most distinctive courses at any law school in the country. The course is limited to 15 students. Working in small groups, students interview a community leader and write an original leadership case study based on difficult decision that leader had to make, bringing leadership education to life in a way no textbook can. Topics include leadership styles, decision-making, problem-solving, civil discourse, conflict management, teamwork, and public speaking.
In a competitive marketplace you must be a unique candidate who brings more than knowledge of the law. Most employers are looking for leadership skills, and this is one of those courses where you develop them, demonstrate them, and build relatioships with faculty and community leaders who can attest to them. Preference is given to students pursuing the Leadership and Law Certificate, but the coruse is open to all upper-level students.
- CSU|LAW Leader-in-Residence Program (opens in new window) Our Leaders-in Residence are visiting lecturers - they are deeply committed partners who mentor, advise, and co-teach alongside our studetns througout the year. Distinguished Cleveland leaders bring decades of real-world experience in law, business, goverment, and civic life direclty into the classroom. Leaders-in-Reisdence maintain uniquely deep, long-term relationships with our students and the Center. Meet our Leaders-in-Residence.
- Leadership and Law Certificate CSU Law students can earn a Leadership and Law Certificate and somethign even more exciting is coming. The Tompkins Leadership Pathway, launching in Fall 2026, is a reimagined, milestone-based experience that rewards students for everything they do to grow as leaders - coursework, mentorship, speaking engagement, and community involvement. Stay tuned. This is going to be worth pursuing.
- The Richard W. Pogue Leadership Conversation Series Established through to a generous donation from Richard W. Pogue. Richard ("Dick") Pogue is a member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame and is a member of the Executive Committee of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors. He is Senior Advisor and former Managing Partner (1984-1992) of Jones Day, one of the largest law firms in the world. The series brings at least one prominent speaker on leadership each academic year with many of the conversations open to all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and the general community.
- Fisher Discourse Series At a moment when civil discourse feel increasingly rare, the Fisher Civil Discourse Series models what respectful, rigorous dialouge across difference looks like, and why it matters for lawyers, leaders and democracy. This series is open to the full CSU Law community and beyond.
- The CSU|LAW Hall of Fame (opens in new window)and Leaders on the Rise Award The CSU Hall of Fame celebrates members of our community who best exemplify Learn Law. Live Justice. The annual Leader on the Rise Award (an annual award given to a recent graduate within the past 15 years who has displayed extraordinary leadership. The Award is given at the annual Hall of Fame Celebration.)
- CSU|LAW Dean's Leadership Fellows Program (opens in new window). At the end of their 1L year, students may apply for the Deans Leadership Fellows program, a one-year program taken in their second year of law school. A limited number of second year law students are chosen through an application process. Selection into the Dean’s Leadership Fellows Program is competitive and based on outstanding academic achievement, leadership qualities and potential, a commitment to active participation in the Program, and a demonstrated commitment to and understanding of the values of the CSULAW Student Four Corner Pledge: Professional Integrity, Civil Discourse, Academic Effort, and Living Justice. Preference is given to students pursuing the Leadership and Law Certificate. Dean’s Leadership Fellows have the opportunity to interact with prominent community leaders to explore issues in leadership and the law and to receive leadership training through special programming planned at the law school.
- American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Leadership Section. Former Dean Lee Fisher is an inaugural member of this AALS Section, created in 2017. Debbie Hoffman, Director of the P. Kelly Tompkins Center for Leadership and Law, is a current member of the AALS Leadership Section.