Anthony C Thompson

Dangerous Leaders

How and Why Lawyers Must Be Taught to Lead

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Anthony C. Thompson is Professor of Clinical Law at New York University Law School, and the founding faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU. He is the author of Releasing Prisoners, Redeeming Communities (2008).

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. August 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 164mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 529g
• ISBN-13: 9780804799256
• ISBN-10: 0804799253
• Artikelnr.: 49392029

Autorenporträt

Anthony C. Thompson is Professor of Clinical Law at New York University Law School, and the founding faculty director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law at NYU. He is the author of Releasing Prisoners, Redeeming Communities (2008).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: A New Vision of Leadership for Lawyers
chapter abstract
An increasingly uncertain and globalized world demands that lawyers be
leaders, yet legal education has failed to prepare lawyers for that
responsibility. Consequently, lawyers have made decisions that corrupt
organizations and structures, ultimately making them "dangerous leaders."
The chapter introduces a new framework called intersectional leadership
that will allow leaders to navigate the current complex and unpredictable
society. This model has five key components: (1) develop and rely on a team
that brings dissimilar experiences to the leader; (2) learn from unlikely
sources; (3) collaborate for the greater good, not the leader's incentives;
(4) be suspicious of consensus; and (5) have moral courage.
1Piloting the Boat by Looking at the Wake: Leadership Challenges for the
Legal Profession
chapter abstract
The chapter explores how existing theories of leadership overlap and differ
from an intersectional leadership model. The intersectional model is
distinct in that it does not assume leadership as hierarchical; rather, it
recognizes that leaders should be collaborative and situated at nodes of
various networks. This chapter details how each of the five dimensions of
intersectional leadership enables the lawyer-leader to assume a broader
enterprise function and to expand beyond technical skills taught in law
school. It posits that in order for a lawyer to advise his or her client
effectively, he or she must rely on truly diverse, and at times competing,
perspectives not limited to his or her technical expertise. The chapter
concludes by examining how the 2008 financial crisis necessitates a more
creative and proactive model of leadership to deal with the demands of a
volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous global climate.
2Is There an Echo in Here? Diversity, Tension, and Accountability in the
Leadership Team
chapter abstract
This chapter uses two case studies to illustrate how failure to construct
diverse leadership teams creates blind spots in judgment that can lead to
corrupt practices. The first details how Governor Chris Christie created a
culture of insularity within his administration and enabled his officials
to retaliate against a town that refused to support Christie's bid for
reelection. The second case explains how Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Letten
turned a blind eye to his top trusted officials' misconduct and compromised
his investigation and ultimately the administration of justice. The chapter
identifies takeaways regarding the risks of insularity and outlines
concrete steps that law schools and educators can take to foster more
diverse and critical lawyer-leadership teams.
3"A Fish Rots from the Head Down": Leadership Failures Behind Closed Doors
chapter abstract
This chapter argues that lawyer-leaders must develop practices to ensure
integrity in conduct carried out behind closed doors, showing the risks
through two examples from the criminal justice system. In each example,
prosecutors, although mandated to serve as ministers of justice, permitted
their own biases to pollute the environment in which they led-and their
behavior cast a wide shadow. Others within an organization look to the
leader for guidance on behavior and values; if ugly behavior occurs at the
top, it will likely spread across the ranks. When the lawyer-leader sinks
to base behavior, this not only drags others down to that level but
actually threatens the integrity of the legal system at large. The chapter
details several cases in which evidence of racial motivations for striking
jurors was used to successfully challenge capital punishment, highlighting
the importance of continual integrity and transparency.
4Getting the Balance Right: Personal Ambition vs. the Greater Good
chapter abstract
This chapter calls for a framework to help lawyer-leaders make decisions
when personal interests and greater goals are in tension. It argues that
ethics are foundational to a good legal education, particularly given how
many lawyers seek elected office. The chapter outlines two instances where
public decisions collided with personal ambition. First, Justice French of
the Ohio Supreme Court was running for reelection when she ruled in favor
of imposing the death sentence without acknowledging her political
ambitions of maintaining a conservative court. Second, when then-governor
Bill Clinton was running for president and was criticized for being soft on
crime, he refused to grant clemency to a man on death row with a severe
mental disability. The chapter concludes that lawyer-leaders must not only
be transparent when the greater good conflicts with their personal
interests but also must subordinate personal goals in service of the public
good.
5If You See Something, Say Something: Leadership Responsibility and
Systemic Failures
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the role of lawyer-leaders who may not have an
explicit role to monitor breaches of public trust but witness ethically
ambiguous conduct. By way of example, the chapter details how Enron's
outside counsel failed to take their concerns to Enron's executives about
the shell companies that ultimately concealed Enron's fraud. The chapter
also details how the obvious judicial misconduct of Judge Ciavarella in
juvenile court went unreported for six years, despite many prosecutors,
public defenders, court officers, and police witnessing his tactics to send
kids to his private detention center. The chapter concludes by arguing that
lawyer-leaders must be morally attuned to the entire ecosystem within which
they operate and sustain difficult conversations to ensure the integrity of
the enterprise.
6"Keeping Your Head on a Swivel": Maintaining Multiple Vantage Points
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the challenges that emerge when conflicts are
essentially baked into the lawyer's role, and the dangers that result when
lawyer-leaders fail to balance their competing demands. Focusing on the
role of general counsel, this chapter examines how lawyers have
historically served two principal functions: guiding the business through
its strategic priorities and ensuring compliance with the law at all times.
As the general counsel role has evolved, the obligations have become
increasingly multifaceted and involve greater complexity and tension than
previously. The author uses the examples of two specific general counsels,
from Hewlett-Packard and Wells Fargo, whose choices to favor one role over
competing roles and to ignore the position's broad mandate damaged the
interests they were assigned to protect. The chapter concludes by arguing
that lawyers must hold multiple perspectives simultaneously or risk
threatening the integrity of the system that they safeguard.
7What Got You Here Won't Get You There: Pulling Together the Leadership
Lessons for Lawyers
chapter abstract
This chapter debunks the view that lawyers need only rely on their
technical expertise to lead. Instead, the chapter argues that
lawyer-leaders will need to operate as intersectional leaders embracing the
five key leadership attributes that are foundational to the intersectional
lawyer-leader. This chapter pulls together the leadership lessons gleaned
from the examples in the previous chapters to argue that more is required
of today's lawyer-leader than business as usual. The author argues that the
intersectional leader must be able to connect people and networks in the
service of a common good and shared goal. The chapter also explains that
effective lawyer-leaders will need to tap into and hone a set of key skills
and attributes that enable them to be emotionally intelligent, cognitively
competent, culturally competent, and broadly connected.
8Reducing the Danger Ahead: Teaching Lawyers Leadership
chapter abstract
This chapter argues that exposing law students to intersectional leadership
education is an important first step toward reducing the danger posed by
ill-prepared lawyer-leaders. The chapter contends that if law schools
seriously intend to prepare the next generation of leaders, they must
recognize and embrace the duty to start this process of learning by
exposing law students to leadership concepts and lessons through their
pedagogy and substantive discussions. Similarly, practicing lawyers who
currently function as leaders or have ambitions to such roles will also
need to train for this new form of leadership. The chapter urges law
schools to provide leadership learning opportunities for students in
dedicated courses as well as traditional courses. The chapter suggests that
intersectional leadership is a place to start.
Conclusion
chapter abstract
Considering the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the Brexit movement in
the United Kingdom, and the particular populist leaders they have ushered
in, this chapter challenges the notion that appeals to nativism,
xenophobia, and division are examples of genuine leadership. The author
insists that there are three fundamental components to effective
leadership. First, the leader must unite people who may have previously
disagreed with the leader. Second, a leader must inspire those whom he or
she leads, meaning the entire enterprise, its stakeholders, and its
clients. Finally, once the leader has united the organization, enterprise,
or country, he or she must move it toward a shared vision of a greater
good. Given the decentralized nature of governing and complexity of issues
the next generation of lawyer-leaders will face, law schools must teach
them intersectional leadership to prepare them for the world that is
unfolding.