Santa Clara University

dean's message

Dear Friends:

In his award-winning treatment of political leadership, James MacGregor Burns describes leadership in three fundamental terms: transactional leadership, transformative leadership, and moral leadership.¹ Most leadership is manifested in transactions where legislative leaders, for example, provide services to their constituents in exchange for their votes. More rare, but more significant, is true transformative leadership where leaders recognizes the deeper, more complex needs of their followers and satisfy those needs while elevating the meaning of service in the public interest. Most intriguing is moral leadership, where leaders’ service transcends the transactional and reciprocal interests of their followers, and they take roles and positions that satisfy these interests while also producing real and meaningful social change. In other words, they lead others in meaningful ways because it is the “right” thing to do.

Do lawyers demonstrate all of these leadership attributes? How is their leadership manifested in the practice of law or in the performance of public service work? Do lawyers come to law school, and to the legal profession, imbued with these leadership traits or does legal education instill them or strengthen them? Why is it important to study the development of leadership skills in lawyers and in law students?

This issue of Santa Clara Law initiates a discussion about the roles of leadership training in law school and, perhaps more significantly, the leadership roles that lawyers play in the profession, the community, and in government and public service. We profile several of the many Santa Clara Law graduates who have assumed leadership roles in state and national legislative, executive, and judicial positions. These men and women use their legal education and leadership attributes to serve their legislative constituents, communities, and the legal profession. I think you’ll be inspired by the paths they have taken to achieve their prominent positions and the leadership roles they play in their communities.

To help foster more lawyers who lead, we developed a new course, Leadership for Lawyers, which draws upon the considerable resources in leadership education here at Santa Clara and in the community. Dean Barry Posner of the Leavey School of Business, an internationally known expert in leadership, worked with Lecturer Bob Cullen to shape the course so it both informs and inspires law students about leadership. Students are learning about the skills and values of great leaders in history and how and why lawyers and judges have taken leadership roles in their communities.

Many Santa Clara Law faculty members take on important leadership roles in legal education and the legal profession. For example, Professor Stephanie Wildman serves on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools, the learned society for American legal education. Professor Bob Peterson soon begins service as chair of the California State Bar Association’s Committee on Insurance Law. Professor and former dean Jerry Uelmen recently agreed to serve as executive director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, a legislatively inspired effort to address declining confidence in the state’s criminal justice system. Professor Cookie Ridolfi also serves on the Commission.

I look forward to continuing this discussion with Santa Clara Law’s students, faculty members, and alumni. There is no more important role for our law school than to educate our students to be ethical, engaged leaders in the profession and in the community.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Polden
Dean

Footnotes

¹ Leadership (Harper & Row, 1978) pp. 4-5.