A new island-focused leadership lab training future legal and business leaders at the University of Hawaiʻi William S. Richardson School of Law will launch this Fall. The Island Leadership Lab (Lab) is the result of a unique collaboration between Law School alumni, Law School leaders, and volunteer “Leaders in Residence” who will share insight gained over decades of service with law students about to embark on their careers.
Increasingly, law school graduates find themselves exercising leadership outside law firms and courtrooms. Richardson Law has several generations of graduates who have founded businesses, become non-profit executives, and dozens have been elected to political office. Richardson Law graduates exercise leadership in multiple roles in many sectors across society, but legal education has traditionally focused exclusively on the role of lawyers within the legal arena.
In this unique seminar, William S. Richardson School of Law Dean Camille Nelson will be joined by several Leaders in Residence to provide an immersive leadership experience grounded in a curriculum specifically developed to prepare next-generation leaders for success. The seminar will feature candid conversations and case studies with established local and national leaders, including former Mayor Kirk Caldwell ‘84, Catherine Ngo, President of Central Pacific Bank, Kenji Price, Partner with McDermott Will & Emery LLP and former United States Attorney for the District of Hawai‘i, and Kellye Testy, President and CEO of the Law School Admission Council, all of whom will serve as inaugural Leaders in Residence.
The Lab is the brainchild of Law Dean Nelson, and came into fruition through close collaboration with a group of Richardson Law alumni and the support of the Hawaiʻi Leadership Forum.
“The Island Leadership Lab pilot program is designed to train our future state leaders upstream, and give our students the tools to succeed as leaders before they leave our doors,” said Nelson. “The Lab provides a leadership curriculum anchored in actual case studies and will foster serious conversations with high level leaders who want to invest in the next generation.”
Leaders in Residence represent a diverse cross-section of perspectives and experiences in the financial, public, legal, business, and non-profit sectors. The leadership curriculum for the Lab is based on a successful model created by the Hawai‘i Leadership Forum—the Omidyar Fellows. Omidyar Fellow and Richardson Law alumni Josh Stanbro helped facilitate the Lab creation. Led by Omidyar Fellow and attorney Noelani Kalipi, several Omidyar Fellows will share their training, and facilitate applied learning opportunities as a part of this Lab. Upper year law students have the opportunity to enroll in the one-semester pilot program which will begin in October, 2021.
“While Richardson Law students will be the direct beneficiaries of this program in the near term, given the high ratio of leaders who graduate from our Law School, we expect that the entire state will benefit from the Island Leadership Lab in the coming decades. As such, we hope to be able to secure support for the program beyond the pilot year,” added Nelson. “The pilot semester will demonstrate what an ongoing, endowed ‘Island Leadership Lab’ could provide for the state on an ongoing basis.”
Classes will be held in four-hour blocks on Saturdays from October 16th through November 20th, enabling enrollment by both day and evening students.
The seminar will highlight contemporary leadership issues including dimensions of leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, difficult conversations, courageous leadership, facilitation training, and collaborative problem-solving. The Lab will feature small group interactions that build leadership skills and share tools that will be used by students during their law school studies, upon graduation, and across their entire careers.
“Hawaiʻi faces huge challenges and opportunities in the coming decades,” said Nelson. “This is a joint effort by our alumni, leaders who want to give back in our community, and local partners to create an in-depth experience deep enough and real enough to meet those issues head-on.”
