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Law Schools Do Little to Prepare Future Leaders, Prof Says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

June 28, 2010, 10:30 am CDT

The assumption is that great leaders are born, not made—but the assumption is wrong, a Stanford University law professor says.

Leadership can and should be taught in law schools and by continuing education providers, according to law professor Deborah Rhode.

Writing in the American Lawyer, Rhode notes a recent study that found the best predictor of profitability at large law firms is the quality of partners’ leadership skills. Yet historically few firms have emphasized leadership training. As an example, she points to a statement by Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young managing partner Jeffrey Lutsky in an interview with the Legal Intelligencer.

“The historical model for law firms is to put [people] in a leadership position often not because of leadership skills but because of [rainmaking] … and hope that they don’t drive into a ditch,” he said.

Rhode highlights issues that should be addressed in leadership education, including:

• How “effective governance requires sensitivity to unstated agendas and internal rivalries, and a well-honed sense of when (and how) to surface conflicts and when to move beyond them.”

• How to give and get effective feedback. Most leaders don’t seek feedback, she says, tending to “seek out evidence that confirms their pre-existing, typically favorable vision of themselves.”

• How “cognitive bias, situational pressures and organizational dynamics can undermine effective leadership.” She refers to the 2006 pretexting scandal at Hewlett-Packard. The company’s CEO, board chair, general counsel and outside law firm all authorized private investigators investigating a leak to obtain personal information by pretending to be individuals seeking information about their phone bills. Rhode says HP leaders didn’t properly frame the problem, seeking to stop the leak rather than examine why there was a leak. There was also “diffusion and displacement of responsibility” as research on legality was left to others.

Rhode has been in the news recently for her new book on beauty bias. She also has an upcoming book on leadership.