Law School Deans, Law Schools

Lessons Law School Deans Should Know...

If you want to be a dean (or an associate dean), here are some things you need to remember...

By  
on

gavel apple law school booksAt the LawProfBlawg School of Law, deans come and go.  The average life expectancy of a law school dean nationwide is roughly five or so years, with some lasting decades and others lasting what seems like seconds.  Some are hard-working, ambitious, energetic people.  Others appear to be just plain evil.  I have had my mix of both, and some in-between.   The evil ones make it very hard to trust the good ones, especially given that deans are not infallible.

If you want to be a dean (or an associate dean), here are some things you need to remember:

  1. Anything you do, good or bad, will be instantly communicated to everyone. For example, suppose you chastised a professor for something.  That knowledge, via the law school network, will now immediately be communicated to your friends and enemies.  If you promised one faculty member x and another faculty member x+1, it will be known that you are treating them differently.Thus, your spin on a situation will likely not be effective if it deviates at all from the information that is communicated from the network, even if the information communicated isn’t entirely true.
  1. While most faculty members are expected to act like petulant children, deans cannot act like that. Feeling wrathful about a real or perceived slight?  Don’t even think about taking the low road.  For example, suppose, and this is just a hypothetical, that you suffered a micro-aggression as you were introduced somewhere.   Probably your best strategy is not to forever immortalize that experience in writing, forever chastising the participants.  No matter what else you do, this will now be your legacy.
  1. If your default answer is “no,” your staff’s desire to be innovative will decrease rapidly, approaching zero. No one likes to be micromanaged.  If you finding yourself as the bottleneck to several initiatives, then you might consider letting go a bit, especially if you start noticing that you have high turnover and your staff just looks exhausted.   If you’re feeling overwhelmed and like nothing is getting done, check to see if you are, in fact, doing the administrative equivalent of packing a musket (more assignments are coming in, but you aren’t clearing anything out).
  1. Have your own vision. It is probably not a good idea to borrow the visions of others (or their intellectual property).   Deans are brought in every so often as a breath of fresh air and innovation.  Thus, staying the course is probably not your best bet.  On the other hand, making dramatic changes too fast and too abruptly without stakeholder buy-in is a good way to assure your destruction, and kill your initiatives.
  1. Be a leader, not a boss. I have had the unpleasant experience of being chastised by more than one associate dean and dean.  If you’re finding yourself chastising faculty over minor things, you’re probably spending too much time not focusing on helping the faculty.  Also, if you’re speaking to your colleagues like they are your inferiors, rest assured that fine day when you step down from your leadership role, there will be hell to pay, especially if the new dean or associate dean was one of the ones you treated poorly.  Faculty typically do not like being treated like employees anyway, and some schools have reputations of running deans out to demonstrate who actually runs the place.

Sponsored

  1. Listen. I don’t mean that you should hear and then quickly dismiss the concerns of others.  I mean that you should listen to what they are saying.  Often times, your allies will try to warn you and help you.  Dismissing them suggests to them that they don’t need to warn you about that impending disaster you might be creating.  But don’t worry, your enemies will remind you of that disaster repeatedly after it has happened.
  1. Don’t treat humans as problems or commodities. While I understand that everyone (except me, of course) is replaceable, it is not a good idea to treat people as such.   If you demonstrate that you don’t care about the staff or faculty, then they will likely not be as invested in the place.  Or worse (for you), solidarity might kick in, and you’ll find that they care about each other, but not so much you.
  1. Humility is key. Your role as dean is not about you: It’s about the school, the accomplishments of the faculty, the success of your students, the savvy of your staff, and the rising stars (or established stars) who are your alums.
  1. Avoid the 7 deadly sins of deans. While most deans are well-meaning people, it is very easy to get pulled off that vision while under a constant barrage of needs and wants and conflicting objectives.  I was reminded of this as I watch new parents lose their minds as their children seek to fulfill competing needs, all the while the parent is shopping.  Not that faculty are children (most of the time).  But losing focus (or being too focused on your own objectives) can cause lots of pain and suffering, and you might react by engaging in one of the 7 deadly sins.  Which, due to principle #1, will be communicated instantly.
  1. Don’t annoy anyone who might be an anonymous blogger writing for Above the Law.  Ha ha!  Just kidding.

Sponsored

Enjoy your administrative experience.  And good luck. We’re all counting on you.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here and on Twitter. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

Topics

, , , ,