Leadership in the Legal Profession

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Introduction

Leadership in the Legal Profession is a ten-week, business school-style course for legal professionals who want to challenge intuitive approaches to leadership and management, as well as learn new mental models and dynamic leadership skills that can be quickly applied to their practices. Each two-hour class is held once a week and conducted virtually via the groundbreaking learning platform, Minerva Forum™.

Join us and earn a certificate of completion from Berkeley Law Executive Education!

Location & Start Date

Online

Live Sessions

Program Schedule

To be announced

Time Commitment: 10-weeks, 1 class per week, 2 hours per class

The program is conducted live via Forum, Minerva’s dynamic virtual learning platform. Participants can therefore join from the comfort of their home or office anywhere in the world.

Cohort Schedule

The spring 2024 schedule will be announced when the application opens.

What to Expect

The Leadership in the Legal Profession course is designed to address a significant deficit in legal training; namely that most attorneys are only trained on legal acumen and knowledge, while in today’s world, they need to be effective people and project managers.

Participants will join a small cohort of similarly situated legal professionals for weekly virtual classes. This format allows learners to participate from the comfort of their home or office and really get to know each other as the course progresses. It also provides for an effective learning experience, as participants can apply course takeaways to their work over an extended period of time, thereby reinforcing new skills and eliciting insights through self-reflection and group discussion. This is in contrast to other executive leadership courses, which attempt to condense all material over a few days and also typically cost substantially more.

Each cohort runs for two hours, one day per week, for 10 consecutive weeks. Please see the Program Details section of this page for more information about timing. Participants are also expected to prepare for each class by spending approximately 1-2 hours per week reading course materials. If you are interested in taking the course at a time that is optimized for a different time zone, please contact us.

Who Should Apply

Mid to senior level practicing attorneys (from law firms, in-house corporate teams, governmental agencies, and non-profits) who want to advance their leadership, people, and project management skills.

We accept qualified candidates on a rolling basis and space is limited, so we encourage you to apply early.

Course Benefits

Improve your interaction with internal clients, customers, and executives.
Challenge your intuitive approach to management and push yourself to consider strategies and approaches outside your current leadership comfort zone.
The 10-week schedule allows participants to learn in a safe, supportive virtual environment that encourages self-reflection and idea-sharing.
Dive deep into leadership theories during pre-class reading assignments and in-class discussions.
Become part of a growing international network of legal professionals who have completed the course.
Earn MCLE credit (where applicable).

To better understand how you can benefit from the course, learn what some past participants had to say about their experience in this interview.

Course Design

Unit 1

Leading in Complex Systems

Systems thinking is a discipline of understanding interrelationships, of seeing whole and parts of the whole, of recognizing patterns of change.

We begin the course by applying the framework of systems thinking to understand the complex web of interactions among individuals and groups, which provides a powerful lens for analyzing the dynamics of human systems. We build on this framework by identifying factors that motivate individual behavior, including habits and cognitive biases, and then consider how to leverage this knowledge to inspire others to achieve a common purpose.

Week Systems Thinking

Week Behavioral Science and Motivation

Week Purpose-Driven Leadership

Unit 2

Engaging with Interpersonal Intelligence

Self-awareness and listening empathically to others is the foundation of effective communication and team enablement.

We study techniques to build these capacities and then turn to an understanding of how emotional intelligence manifests in groups that collaborate well. Leaders must also learn to express themselves clearly and persuasively, which requires understanding both the verbal and nonverbal components of communication.

Week Leading with Emotional Intelligence

Week Effective Team Dynamics

Week Communicating with Impact

Unit 3

Navigating Uncertainty and Driving Innovation

Inspirational leaders navigate and resolve problems, support innovation, manage change, and address challenges.

We examine how to approach problems using a structured process of analysis, ideation, decision making, and implementation that draws on knowledge of motivation and communication discussed earlier in the course. Then we apply this approach to addressing strategic challenges that arise in an evolving environment. We conclude by considering how to synthesize the different components of effective leadership to adapt to new challenges and changing conditions.

Week Problem Analysis in Evolving Systems

Week Agile Innovation

Week Decision Leadership

Week Course Synthesis

Tuition & Discounts

General Tuition

$5,500

Berkeley Law Alumni Tuition

Applies to Berkeley Law JD and LLM alumni, as well as past participants of paid Berkeley Law Executive Education programs

$4,500 Save 18%

Group Discount

Available for organizations that enroll three or more individuals.

Nonprofit Discount

Available for attorneys working for non-profits and governmental agencies.

Financing

If you are interested in financing this course, Sallie Mae provides competitive education loan programs for credit qualified borrowers. For more information and to apply, visit the Sallie Mae website. If you decide to pursue such financing, please submit your application to Sallie Mae first and then contact us at [email protected]. We will provide additional instructions on completing your registration.

Certificates & MCLE

Certificate Type

Certificate of Completion

Participants who successfully complete the program will earn a certificate in leadership from Berkeley Law Executive Education.

MCLE

20 Hours

This program has been approved by the California State Bar to offer up to 20 credit hours of MCLE. Attorneys from other states will need to contact their local bar to verify their own certification requirements.

I signed up for the course when I was a new partner in a boutique firm (after serving as an Assistant United States Attorney for almost a decade) because I thought it would help me navigate my new world of management and private practice, as well as give me the opportunity to meet some other lawyers. The course far exceeded my expectations and I’d highly recommend it to other attorneys looking to become more effective and confident leaders.

Ellen London

Shareholder – London & Stout

The program exceeded my expectations. Even during a time when my workload was extremely heavy, I looked forward to reading the course materials in preparation for the weekly two-hour class. The time commitment was significant, but it was very worthwhile and enjoyable

Wei Chen

General Counsel at Infoblox and past Leadership in the Legal Profession participant

We can no longer add value merely by being an expert in a substantive legal area. We are now business partners with our clients and we must understand the business.

Jackie Donaldson

General Counsel – Zone Americas at Nestle and past Leadership in the Legal Profession participant

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Meet the Instructors

Anya Grossmann

Director of Global Outreach and Professional Engagement at Berkeley Law

Anya directs strategy and the global outreach team for Berkeley Law’s LL.M. degree program. The best part of her job is meeting attorneys at all stages of their legal careers, on almost every continent (not Antarctica, unfortunately), helping them determine and achieve the next step of their careers. Anya previously worked with students as an academic and career advisor. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, she worked as an attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York, where, among other projects, she designed and conducted Code of Conduct and FCPA trainings for senior leadership at Fortune 500 companies. Anya has a JD from University of Pennsylvania School of Law and a BA in Geography from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Nicholas Kenney

Assistant Professor at Minerva University

Nick currently teaches courses on leadership, managing complexity, and constitutional law at Minerva University. His training includes academic conference seminars on complexity theory in political science. Nick’s academic expertise centers on the study of complex national security issues and constitutional law, involving the intersection of conventional and unconventional threats. His research focuses on grand strategy and the rise of terrorist organizations, insurgencies, and cyberpower. Prior to entering academia, Nick practiced administrative, environmental, criminal procedure, and constitutional law at both the state and federal levels. In addition, he has worked in Jerusalem for a conflict resolution NGO and for the U.S. Department of State, as well as at the Department of Defense’s Special Warfare School. Nick earned his Ph.D. in International Relations from Tufts University, a J.D. from Boston College, and a B.A. in History from the College of the Holy Cross. He has also served as faculty at Tufts University, National Defense University, and St. Lawrence University.

Niki Nabavi Nouri

Senior Employment and Labor Law Counsel

Niki has eight years of experience working closely with California public school districts on a wide range of employment and labor law matters. Prior to becoming a Berkeley Law Executive Education leadership instructor, she served numerous public school districts and other public agencies through her role as Senior Counsel at Lozano Smith, a full-service California public agency law firm. Niki is passionate about using her leadership skills and training to help organizations navigate the legal landscape of employment and to empower employers and employees to reach their full potential so that they can thrive together. Niki holds a JD from Berkeley Law, a MIS in Political Science from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, and a BA in Political Science and Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley.

Luke Owings

VP of Product at Abilitie

Luke is currently the VP of Product at Abilitie, a platform that delivers unique virtual mini-MBAs and leadership simulations for emerging and senior leaders around the world, with clients that include Fortune 500 brands including Marriott, Coca-Cola, GE, and Southwest Airlines. Luke is also former faculty and course manager for Minerva Project Professional Learning programs. As a former Associate Partner at McKinsey and a leader of McKinsey Academy, he has advised senior executives at some of the world’s largest organizations in the design, development, and delivery of their learning systems. Luke has extensive experience playing operational and people leadership roles at a variety of entrepreneurial ventures and building edtech companies. In between these experiences, he has served as faculty at a number of higher educational institutions (including Harvard) around the world (including East Africa, Europe, Saudi Arabia, and Korea), helping build the skills of high-level executives.

Catherine Saine

Partnerships & Strategy at Mila

Catherine is passionate about helping leaders and organizations adapt to new challenges and develop their full potential. She started off her career as an associate at Norton Rose Fulbright and has since held various business and legal roles for organizations in AI (Mila), entertainment (Cirque du Soleil), strategy consulting (juniper Advisors) and cleantech (Cycle Momentum). Her experience with leadership skills building, strategic planning, negotiation capability building and managing complex relationships, has led her to deliver training programs for executives, professionals and entrepreneurs in collaboration with higher educational institutions. Catherine is also a part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. She holds a BCL/LLB (JD) from McGill University Faculty of Law, as well as a BA in Political Science from McGill.

Accessibility

For disability accommodation requests and information, please contact Lily Yang at [email protected]. Please attempt to make your service request with as much advance notice as possible.