Throughout a storied career that included serving as an Ohio state representative, state senator, attorney general and lieutenant governor; director of the Ohio Department of Development; president and CEO of the Centers for Families and Children; president and CEO of CEOs for Cities and a partner at Hahn Loeser, Lee Fisher searched for new ways to explore the topic of leadership. A member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 1984, he participated in Harvard University’s Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government, the Center for Creative Leadership’s Leadership at the Peak program and was trained at the Arbinger Institute about leadership and outward mindset.
“One mark of a good leader is somebody who recognizes they always have more to learn,” says Fisher, who earned his J.D. at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Law in 1976 and M.N.O. (master of nonprofit organizations) at CWRU in 2004. He recently received the 2020 Nonprofit Leadership Award by the CWRU Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
When Fisher was appointed dean of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University four years ago, he was determined to expand the curriculum and programming in ways that would give students myriad opportunities to develop leadership skills that complement their degree.
He achieved that goal in 2018. Through a $750,000 gift from P. Kelly Tompkins, a 1981 Cleveland-Marshall graduate and senior adviser at Dix & Eaton, the law school established the P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program. It’s designed to help students develop the leadership skills needed for the organizations they’ll be asked to lead in the future.
The program centers on principles Fisher believes are essential to success: knowing how to create contingency plans for different scenarios and engage in teamwork, collaboration and project management; understanding critical thinking as it applies to analyzing problems from multiple angles; and mastering the art of oral and written communication.
“I’ve always believed leadership really has very little to do with a title,” Fisher says. “Some of the best leaders I’ve ever met didn’t have the title president, CEO or dean by their name, but they were great leaders nonetheless. One of the things I’ve noticed over many years is that lawyers are often tapped to chair a board or are given a significant community title. Most are unprepared because they’ve had no formal leadership training. Business schools and medical schools are light years ahead of law schools when it comes to this kind of training. Law schools are finally beginning to catch up.”
In addition to a lecture series, the Leadership and Law Program includes an annual Hall of Fame induction honoring alumni, faculty and community leaders; a Habits of Highly Effective Lawyer-Leaders course taught by Fisher, which focuses on managing growth and change, public speaking, entrepreneurship, diversity and ethical responsibilities; and a Leader-in-Residence program in which Tompkins and a dozen other distinguished professionals in the field volunteer their time as mentors and coaches.
“When I sat down with Lee to talk about philanthropic giving, he knew I had a passion for leadership,” Tompkins says. “Through the years, I’ve talked with him about the concept of being a citizen lawyer active in both your profession and your community. We talked a lot about the disproportionate representation of lawyers in leadership roles, whether it’s in government, business or the nonprofit sector, and the lack of leadership training available to law students. The Leadership and Law Program is a tangible way to make an impact on the next generation of leaders, and that’s very rewarding. It’s also rewarding to see that our program is on the cutting edge nationally.”
Each year, students who exhibited outstanding undergraduate academic achievement and leadership potential are admitted to the Dean’s Leadership Fellows Program. Currently, 90 students have been chosen over the past three years to receive what Fisher calls, “an extra layer of leadership training” that includes special opportunities to interact with prominent national, state and local leaders in roundtable discussions; participate in group leadership projects; and prepare a strategic plan for personal and professional development.
“The great thing about having Lee Fisher as our dean is that he’s had such a distinguished career with a variety of leadership roles. Our law students benefit tremendously from that,” says Jill Kobus Johnson, Esq., Cleveland-Marshall’s director of strategic initiatives and the Leadership and Law Program. “It’s really exciting to be a part of our students’ legal education journey and making the program the best it can be.”
An avid “Law & Order” fan, Tayler Gill knew she wanted to practice law by age 9. The Boston Heights resident remembers embracing the advocacy roles that were prevalent throughout the series.
“I just love the idea of speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves,” she says. Now in her second year at Cleveland-Marshall as a Leadership Fellow, Gill knows she made the right decision after attending an open house the law school holds for prospective students.
“It wasn’t like your traditional administrative marketing event. They genuinely wanted to get to know me as a person,” says Gill, who secured a position as a summer associate law clerk at Thompson Hine this year. “As a minority student, I knew it would be important for me to have the extra opportunities in the legal arena the program offers.”
While completing her undergraduate degree at CWRU, Kelsey Holmberg began exploring options for law school. A varsity swimmer with a strong academic record, she considered Cleveland-Marshall along with a host of other schools.
“Many law schools engage in a very formal process involving letters and information sessions,” the second-year Leadership Fellow recalls. “A personal phone call from Dean Fisher changed everything for me. He really took an interest in what I was looking for in a law school. That meant a lot.”
While earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations with a minor in Arabic at Cleveland State University, Lakewood resident Samia Shaheen served as student body president, a role that included forging relationships between undergraduates and administration.
“Dean Fisher always encouraged me to take the LSAT and study as hard as I could so that I could continue to be a Viking in grad school,” says the second-year Leadership Fellow.
She appreciates the professionalism that began on day one when personal business cards were delivered to students to prepare them to network.
“Our Leadership and Law Program has become a very important differentiator that has attracted many students to our school over the last three years,” Fisher says. “Even though most law students who graduate from law school practice law, not all of them do. We want our graduates to be able to pivot and be flexible, and to use their leadership skills no matter what happens in their career.”