Lawyers are expected to be leaders in a variety of contexts, but there are no guarantees that legal education or legal practice will equip a lawyer for leadership. The emergence and growth of leadership studies in the law have brought valuable attention to the need for intentional leadership preparation. Recent work related to the well-being of law students and lawyers has also shed much-needed light on the importance of seeing lawyers not simply as problem-solving automatons but as complex human beings who face various professional pressures, occupational hazards, and even trauma.
Yet, even earnest efforts to inculcate leadership skills can fall flat if they do not consider broader questions associated with the purpose of law and legal work, the agency of individual lawyers to effect change, and the communities that shape and support lawyers. If leadership training is not integrated into the culture of legal institutions and into the identity of law students and lawyers, leadership training risks being seen as a nonessential luxury of legal education, a marketing gimmick, or a regulatory box-ticking exercise rather than fundamental to good lawyering. Proper attention to these preconditions of leadership will redound not only to the advantage of individual lawyers who often struggle to find professional satisfaction but also to the legal profession, which is widely distrusted by the public.
For law schools and the legal profession to prepare lawyers for success as leaders, legal institutions must be attentive to leadership development and lawyer well-being, while recognizing the many ways in which the study and practice of law can frustrate the realization of key preconditions of leadership, including purpose, agency, and community.
