History

The College of Law was an early adopter of curricular offerings focusing on leadership and professional development preparation. This training—essential to prepare lawyers for practice—has largely been absent from the traditional law school curriculum. Others in legal education came to a similar conclusion at or about the same time, with the late Professor Deborah Rhode leading the way undertaking curricular and research initiatives.

Utilizing a memorial gift from alumnus and bar leader, Larry Wilks (’80), Tennessee attorney George T. “Buck” Lewis III (’80) and the College of Law’s Professor and Dean Emeritus Doug Blaze worked together to develop “Lawyers as Leaders,” a course on leadership and professional development. Lewis, appointed as the Larry Wilks Distinguished Practitioner in Residence, did the lion’s share of the work in developing the course. Lewis and Blaze co-taught the course for over 10 years; Lewis has continued to teach the course since Blaze’s retirement from the College of Law.

Recognizing the success of the course, the college began to evaluate other curricular and extracurricular opportunities to address leadership preparation. Involved faculty noted that two existing college initiatives, UT Pro Bono and our mentoring program, also provide important components of leadership training. The faculty identified existing courses that included aspects leadership development and discussed ways to integrate leadership preparation elsewhere in the curriculum.

As a result of those efforts and discussions, the college embraced the potential and need for a coordinated leadership program involving teaching, service, and research. In discussing such a program with alumni, the potential financial support for the effort became readily apparent. The College of Law faculty voted to approve establishment of an Institute for Professional Leadership and received formal university approval in July 2014. The Institute now offers four leadership-related courses, has sponsored two national symposia on leadership education and research, maintains a blog on leadership development, frequently hosts speakers on important leadership topics, and provides leadership training through CLE programs for the profession. The Institute also played a significant role in establishing the Section on Leadership of the Association of American Law Schools.