Deans & Legal Education
A Selected Bibliography
June 2010

Leadership

Gregory O. Block, Deaning and Leadership - Keeping in Step, Keeping it Simple, 40 U. Tol. L. Rev. 297 (2009). 
The author offers his advice for setting and achieving strategic goals, as a dean.

John L. Carroll, Value-Based Deaning, 40 U. Tol. L. Rev. 327 (2009). 
The author expounds on his theory that deanship should be based on “core values,” fixed principles that guide the law school’s internal conduct and relations with the outside world.  He posits that four such sets of values come into play:  the core values of the legal academy; the core values of the legal profession; the core values of the law school; and the core values of the dean her or himself.

Samuel Marion Davis, There and Back Again: A Dean’s Tale in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 159-177 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers his strategies for achieving financial and academic success as a dean. 

Michael A. Fitts, The Non- Management Side of Academic Administration, 41 U. Tol. L. Rev. 283 (2010). 
The author explores the nature of the jobs that academic administrators do and how and why those jobs are often qualitatively different from business sector management. 

Claudio Grossman, Building a Stronger Future in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 7-18 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers his thoughts on leadership and measuring the dean’s success as a leader. 

Walter B. Huffman, A Short Comparison of Military Leadership with Law School Deaning – More Similarities than Differences?, 41 U. Tol. L. Rev. 315 (2010).  As the title suggests, the author finds a number of similarities between the leadership skills necessary to be an army general and those of a successful law school dean.  He identifies and discusses the good leadership attributes that overlap, illustrating them with examples from his army career.

Robert H. Jerry, II, Defining and Achieving Excellence in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 145-158 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers his perspective on excellence in law schools and how the dean can take the leading role in achieving it. 

Robert H. Jerry, II, Reflections on Leadership, 38 U. Tol. L. Rev. 539 (2007).
The author ruminates on management and leadership.  He notes “a leader must set the example the leader wants others to follow; a leader must listen to the ideas of others because no leader has all the right answers and others in the organization often have better ideas;  a leader must be comfortable delegating authority …; a leader is able to tolerate mistakes, but a leader is also intolerant of repeated mistakes and is able to deliver discipline…”

W.H. Knight, Jr., The Dean as Cultural Catalyst in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 71-99 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers “a few thoughts about what it means to lead in a law school context.”

Harold J. Krent & Ronald W. Staudt, Leadership Opportunities Hiding in Plain View, 36 U. Tol. L. Rev. 111 (2004).
The authors urge greater use of technology to provide additional opportunities to students and to help more individuals in need of legal representation.

Don LeDuc, Leadership, 35 U. Tol. L. Rev. 125 (2003).
The author discusses the qualities of a good leader.

Blake D. Morant, Reflections of a Novice: Four Tenets for a New Dean, 40 U. Tol. L. Rev. 385 (2009). 
The author presents four lessons learned from his first year as dean of Wake Forrest University School of Law.  These four lessons include creating a vision, assembling an effective team, seeking connections with various constituencies, and striving for self-awareness and balance. 

Elizabeth Rinskopf Parker, The Life Cycle of a Dean in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 35-47 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers her thoughts on maximizing the dean’s academic leadership potential over the length of her tenure as dean. 

Edward Rubin, Leadership and Literature in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 207-222 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author reflects on leadership and considers leadership advice, drawing on both business leadership literature and literary theory.

Kent D. Syverud, A Parable of Law School Leadership, 35 U. Tol. L. Rev. 207 (2003).
The author recounts the story of discovering a speech made at Vanderbilt by Dr. Martin Luther King.  He uses it as an illustration of the ability of an effective dean to empower law school personnel to make correct and courageous decisions.

Barry R. Vickrey, Commentary:  Understanding the Dean’s Job, 31 Seattle U. L. Rev. 833 (2008).
The author discusses the pastoral role of a law school dean, with reference to his own experience with the illness and death of colleagues at the University of South Dakota.  

Glen Weissenberger, Balancing the Challenges with the Rewards in Law School Leadership Strategies: Top Deans on Benchmarking Success, Incorporating Feedback from Faculty and Students, and Building the Endowment 2006, 49-56 (Inside the Minds Series 2006).
The author offers advice on how to be a successful dean, including having a vision, articulating it clearly, and choosing the right team to implement it.