The P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program was created in 2018 by Dean Lee Fisher and Kelly Tompkins ’81 through a generous donation by Kelly Tompkins.
Kelly Tompkins is a CSU College of Law Leader-in-Residence and former Chair of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors. He is also Senior Business Advisor to the President of Cleveland State University and Senior Advisor at Dix & Eaton. He is a past recipient of the Cleveland State University George B. Davis Service Award and CSU|LAW Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year and delivered the commencement address for the 2005 graduating class of CSU College of Law. His impressive legal and corporate career has included Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Cleveland Cliffs, and Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, RPM International. During his career at both Cleveland Cliffs and RPM, Kelly served as Chief Legal Officer. Kelly also served as President of the Cleveland Bar Association in 2005-2006.
The Leadership and Law Program seeks to educate students not only to be great lawyers but also to be great leaders.
Lawyers typically have little training in leadership. The law can be described as the rules and forces that operate on leaders, and so we teach the rules in which leaders operate, but most law schools don’t teach what it takes to be an effective leader. It is ironic that so many of our country’s great leaders, whether in the government, business, law or the non-profit sector, are law school graduates yet precious few had any course work dedicated to leadership. At CSU|LAW, we teach leadership skills that can be applied in any career path.
We prepare our students to make a difference in the world as citizens and leaders in a fast-changing environment.
Leaders of the future need to have the skills to lead, counsel, and manage in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. We provide training and practice in leadership strategies and skills that better prepare students to effectively manage the people and organizations they will lead.
The components of the Leadership and Law Program are:
- CSU|LAW Dean's Leadership Fellows Program. At the end of their 1L year, students may apply for the Deans Leadership Fellows program, a one-year program taken in their second year of law school. A limited number of second year law students are chosen through an application process. Selection into the Dean’s Leadership Fellows Program is competitive and based on outstanding academic achievement, leadership qualities and potential, a commitment to active participation in the Program, and a demonstrated commitment to and understanding of the values of the CSULAW Student Four Corner Pledge: Professional Integrity, Civil Discourse, Academic Effort, and Living Justice. Preference is given to students pursuing the Leadership and Law Certificate. Dean’s Leadership Fellows have the opportunity to interact with prominent community leaders to explore issues in leadership and the law and to receive leadership training through special programming planned at the law school.
- Leadership and Law Certificate. This Certificate is the first of its kind in the nation. Students may earn a Leadership Certificate that prepares them 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. One of the foundational courses is Law 768 - Leadership and the Law: The Habits of Highly Effective Lawyer-Leaders.
- Law 768 - Leadership and the Law: The Habits of Highly Effective Lawyer-Leaders, a leadership course for upper level students taught by Dean Lee Fisher, former State Representative, State Senator, Ohio Attorney General and Lt. Governor. Leaders-in- Residence Kelly Tompkins ’81 and Sharon Sobol Jordan, President/CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland co-teach the course with Dean Fisher. Topics covered include characteristics and styles of leadership, decision-making, problem solving, civil discourse, conflict management, teamwork and collaboration, and public speaking. The course utilizes real life leadership case studies and students have the opportunity to meet and interact with leaders at the center of the case studies.
- The Richard W. Pogue Leadership Conversation Series was established thanks to a generous donation from Richard W. Pogue. Richard ("Dick") Pogue is a member of the CSU|LAW Hall of Fame and is a member of the Executive Committee of the CSU|LAW Board of Visitors. He is Senior Advisor and former Managing Partner (1984-1992) of Jones Day, one of the largest law firms in the world. The series brings at least one prominent speaker on leadership each academic year with many of the conversations open to all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and the general community.
- CSU|LAW Leader-in-Residence Program We bring distinguished leaders to the law school to mentor, coach, and advise students on their prospective career choices and work on specific projects related to the law school’s strategic priorities. Leaders-in Residence maintain uniquely deep, long-term relationships with the law school. Our Leaders-in-Residence include not only Kelly Tompkins but also a former Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, former Fortune 500 corporate CEO, and former General Counsel of the Ohio ACLU.
- The CSU|LAW Hall of Fame and annual Leader on the Rise Award (an annual award given to a recent graduate within the past 15 years who has displayed extraordinary leadership. The Award is given at the annual Hall of Fame Celebration.)
- American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Leadership Section. Dean Lee Fisher is an inaugural member of this AALS Section, created in 2017. He is the 2024 Chair of the AALS Leadership Section.