Cleveland-Marshall College of Law has a longstanding track record of educating great lawyers and great lawyers are often called upon to serve as influential leaders in our society. However, lawyers typically have little training in leadership. Recognizing that skills training gap, Kelly Tompkins ’81 and C|M|LAW Dean Lee Fisher created the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program.
A fundamental component of the program is a new C|M|LAW course, “Leadership and the Law: The Habits of Highly Effective Lawyer-Leaders” taught by Dean Fisher. The course seeks to help students become effective leaders, counselors, problem-solvers, decision-makers, negotiators, networkers and managers in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world. The course offers particular emphasis on using law as a vehicle for social, organizational, and business change.
“Core leadership skills transcend occupational lines, and these skills can be learned through study and practice,” said Dean Fisher.
Fisher is uniquely qualified to teach in this field, having used his legal training to serve as a high-ranking public and civil official. He started his career as of counsel and later as partner with Hahn Loeser Parks, and went on to serve as Ohio Attorney General and Ohio Lieutenant Governor. Fisher has also served as Director of the Ohio Department of Development, a state senator and a state representative. In the non-profit sector, he has served as President and CEO of The Centers for Families and Children and President/CEO of CEOs for Cities, a nationwide innovation network for city success.
“One of the things Dean Fisher has taught me about leadership has to do with the ability to grow and learn,” said C|M|LAW student Matthew Wagner. “While I do not think it is a conscious teaching effort on his part, one thing that has been true in presentations is that Dean Fisher is always taking notes. I do not know how many people notice or whether he means for them to notice. But the message to those who do observe is clear – there is always an ability to learn from others.”
The students have learned from other highly regarded leaders during this class, including through talks by Jannell MacAulay, a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who served as the Director of Human Performance and Leadership, Ted Strickland, former Governor of Ohio, Mark Smolik ’87, General Counsel of DHL, and Leaders-in-Residence Kelly Tompkins ’81, Judge Ron Adrine ’73, Steve Percy, ’78, and Professor Emerita Susan Becker ’83.
“I really enjoyed hearing from Governor Strickland,” said C|M|LAW student Ashley Saferight. “He shared his experiences as Governor of Ohio and gave us some insights about his personal leadership style. Something that really stood out to me was that he had his desk removed and replaced with a round table in his office so that each person at the table would feel like an equal part of the conversation.”
In addition to the guest speakers, the class used a combination of readings, project work, problems, exercises, case studies, group presentations and media clips to learn the core competencies necessary to become a successful leader. The class wrote write final papers on the seven most important habits of highly effective lawyer/leaders.
The students made final group presentations on two topics: Group 1 developed a plan for executing strategies for the “Wellness and Student Experience” objective in the C|M|LAW Strategic Plan; Group 2 developed a plan to make the decision-making process on economic development matters in Cleveland more diverse and inclusive, after reading Dean Fisher’s “Open Table CLE” proposal for Inclusive Leadership in Cleveland and interviewing community leaders.
“I learned that the most important leadership characteristic is recognizing and cultivating talent in others,” said Saferight. “Leaders should be seeking to surround themselves with people who are more talented and smarter than they are. If your goal is to be the smartest person in the room, then I believe you are already failing as a leader.”