This Leadership Certificate is a component of the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program, which educates students not only to be great lawyers but also to be great leaders. Leaders of the future need to have the skills to lead, counsel, and manage in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and to use law as a vehicle for social, organizational, and business change.  

The Certificate requires a minimum of 15 credits total, including three foundational courses, as follows:  

Required Foundational Courses

• *Professional Identity Formation (1 credit) (new required course for 1L students, starting in Fall 2023)
• L643C Legal Professionalism and Ethics (3 credits)  
• L768 Leadership Lessons of Highly Effective Leaders (3 credits)  

*Note: 2Ls and 3Ls must substitute one credit from another course on the below list in place of the one credit 1L Professional Identity Formation Course, so they still must earn 15 credits.

Electives (Upon approval of the faculty Curriculum Committee, students may earn elective credits toward their certificate from other courses that relate to leadership outside the below list.)

Law College Electives  

• L673S, Mediation (2 credits)   
• L 673, Mediation (2 credits)  
• L584, Negotiation Skills (2 credits)   
• L865, Arbitration and Negotiation Competition (1-2 credits)  
• L634 Transition to Practice (3 credits)  
• L663C Trial Advocacy (3 credits)  
• L763 Critical Race Theory (3 credits)  
• L824 Community Advocacy Law Clinic (3 credits)  
• Moot Court (maximum of 3 credits)  
• Thurgood Marshall Moot Court (maximum of 3 credits)  
• Mock Trial Team (maximum of 3 credits) 
• Constance Baker Motley Mock Trial (maximum of 3 credits) 
• *L860 Independent Legal Research (maximum of 3 credits) (*topic must be approved by the Faculty Director of the Leadership and Law Program (Dean Fisher) for credit toward the Certificate)  
• *Externship (maximum of 3 credits) (*placement must be approved by the Faculty Director of the Leadership and Law Program (Dean Fisher) for credit toward the Certificate)

*Note: up to 3 credits already taken for Independent Legal Research and up to 3 credits already taken for an Externship will count if approved by Dean Fisher.

Business College Electives (no more than 3 credits toward Leadership Certificate)

• Mgt 604 Leadership & Interpersonal Effectiveness (3 credits)
• Mgt. 605 Organizational Development (3 credits)
• ACT 639 Ethical, Social, Regulatory Issues in Accounting (3 credits)

Download the Leadership and Law Certificate Fact Sheet