By Emily Kelchen @eskelchen
As I write this, the first week of the NFL season is underway and the first meeting of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s 2017-18 Leadership Academy class has just taken place. I am humbled to be participating in the latter this year, and as I revealed during the academy’s two truths and a lie icebreaker, I am an NFL team owner (Go Pack Go!), so the former is important to me as well. Some of the commentary during the Packers win against the Seahawks on Sunday got me thinking about a few of the things that were mentioned during the Leadership Academy meeting held earlier in the week, so I’m jotting them down to share with you.
Green 18!
One of the things I like hearing about during the first game of the season is what the players did in the offseason and preseason. For example, I love that Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix interned for a judge in Green Bay over the summer.
The Leadership Academy fellows in my cohort have stories about where they come from and what made them want to participate in the academy that are just as interesting as the NFL players’ backstories and offseason exploits.
For me, the impetus for getting involved with the bar started when I was still a law student. The founder of the firm I was interning for sat me down and told me it was my responsibility to get involved. He said the bar is one of the last self-regulating professions. If you choose not to get involved with the bar, you are coming pretty close to violating a fiduciary duty you owe yourself and your colleagues. I belief this. And I believe that if we abdicate our duties, those who are anti-lawyer, or those who want to weaken the rule of law, will be happy to step up and tell us what to do.
I’m a man! I’m 40!
The presentation received got on the bar’s legislative priorities was a good reminder of the importance of engaging when there are policy debates related to the practice of law. Passing A-1982, which would standardize the statute of limitations in professional malpractice suits, is something the bar and my employer have both been working on. Attorneys can be sued for malpractice that was discovered up to six years ago, when memories have faded and records may have been lost. Suits against other professionals must be brought within two years of discovery. It would be fairer, and make much more sense, to have uniform statutes of limitations for all professional malpractice.
Hearing about the bar’s legislative priorities was just one part of a jam-packed morning session on all the parts and people that make up the bar, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Much like a rookie recruit, I thought I was pretty well versed in the topics at hand, but the hefty playbook I was handed suggested otherwise.
I was blown away by the services the bar offers that I had no idea existed. For example, did you know that the bar will help you with media relations if you are on a high-profile case? Or that the bar foundation publishes materials and does trainings for teachers on subjects like the Holocaust?
I'm Here So I Won't Get Fined
In the afternoon, we were challenged to improve our leadership skills over the next year and beyond by Herb Rubenstein, author of Leadership for Lawyers.
He reminded us that our participation in the Leadership Academy actually started well before the first class. You had to want to participate, and convince a selection panel that you deserved to do so. Doing so is evidence of a leadership mindset.
He also emphasized that what we are learning is worthless unless we apply it going forward. In order to participate in the academy, we all pledged to take on a leadership role in the bar and to mentor those who come behind us, but I also think it is important for lawyers to think about leadership beyond our profession. Traditionally, lawyers have been leaders in their own communities and in the highest branches of government. There are few other professions that the public identifies so closely with leadership, despite (hopefully not because of) the generally low popularity of our profession as a whole. This historic honor/accident is something we should be prepared to embrace if we are called to serve.
You Play to Win the Game!
In order to be an effective leader, Rubenstein stressed the importance of taking an inventory of your leadership skills and goals.
He asked us to set some goals, assess our strengths and weaknesses, and then rate ourselves on a scale of one to five on the following factors:
- Leadership ability
- Ability to successfully mentor others
- Success rate when seeking to be a leader
- Opportunity to exercise ability as a leader in the profession
- Leadership ability of fellow lawyers
- Leadership ability of superiors in your practice
- Willingness to act as a leader
- Interest in acting as a leader
- How others would rate your leadership ability
I think it will be really interesting to compare my current answers to those I give at the end of the program, and then to do so again every couple of years.
I look forward to putting in the work on this program along with the rest of my cohort, because I know it is important. As coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Leadership is not just one quality, but rather a blend of many qualities; and while no one individual possesses all of the needed talents that go into leadership, each man can develop a combination to make him a leader.”
Kelchen is a member of the 2017-2018 NJSBA Leadership Academy. She is also the director of public affairs for the New Jersey Civil Justice Institute.