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Technology, Law, and Leadership – Fall 2026

leadership

TECHNOLOGY, LAW, AND LEADERSHIP – FALL 2026

This is the home page for LAW 5754 – TECHNOLOGY, LAW, AND LEADERSHIP for the Fall 2026 edition of the course.

The course will meet on Wednesdays from 12:40 pm to 2:40 pm. The class will meet on Zoom rather than face to face. Class meetings will not be recorded. Students are expected to be present for each meeting of the course.

READING ASSIGNMENTS AND OUTLINE OF CLASSES

Class meetings are organized in a loose sequence: Introduction and context (why learn about leadership, and why learn learn leadership skills?); what are relevant leadership skills, and how do learn them?; and what comes next? What do you do with what you’ve learned?

Each item below is available on the open Internet (some on the World Wide Web, some at YouTube on the Web (videos, of course), some at Spotify or Apple (podcasts), with a handful of exceptions identified as follows, indicating how you can access them: “[eBook at Pitt’s University Library System].”

The readings and other assigned materials are front-loaded, so that the workload is heavier at the start of the semester and lighter toward the end. The purpose of the front-loading is to give students more time and space to work their research papers into final form.

NOTE for the Fall 2026 edition of this seminar: To the extent possible, I have reduced the number of readings and other assigned materials compared to prior versions of this seminar.

The biographies of the authors, speakers, and responsible organizations are provided here. Many of the works assigned below are related to larger works.

Recommended (strongly encouraged, even), but not required, on the economic and technological challenges facing the legal profession today

Websites, authors, and Substacks:

For podcasting fans, these podcasts:

Recommended, because they relate to non-law themes of the seminar but are not law-themed

Recommended: leadership literature

“Leadership” has been the subject of numerous books and has been packaged and sold as several different “models” of leadership. Each has strengths and weaknesses. My general view, which is reflected in this seminar, is that a student of leadership – and a present or future practitioner of leadership – should pick what works in their context from any and all available resources, monitor their performance to determine whether those elements are working well,, look skeptically at what does not work, and be curious about changing course. Here are several of the best known “models,” with links to key texts that describe and illustrate them.

Related: texts about leadership (subjects listed alphabetically)

Optional: movies that illustrate leadership themes

Learning about leadership – and learning about yourself, which is part and parcel of the “leadership” process – is often pursued as effectively via fiction as via instruction. Pointing students to “leadership fiction” and “leadership stories,” I might include novels (“Don Quixote“), or plays (“King Lear“), or poems (“Ozymandias“). Instead, because I am a huge movie fan and because law students in 2026 tend to have limited familiarity with the great Hollywood movies of the last 100 years, for each class meeting I have included pointers to feature films that illustrate and may illuminate the themes of that class.

With streaming services, YouTube, and the Carnegie Library system of Allegheny County (where patrons can borrow DVDs and Blu-rays for free!), getting access to most 20th century and early 21st century American movies for little to no money is straightforward.

If you watch any of these films in connection with class, I have one request/suggestion: do not focus on the story or the plot. Focus instead on the characters themselves. Why are they acting as they do? Why are they making the decisions that they are making? How are they responding to or motivating activity by other characters, and if you can tell, why? How might you reflect on your own decisions and choices – your processes as well as your results – in light of what you see on the screen?

CLASS 1

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2026  

Our first meeting will review big themes and expectations for the seminar. We will talk about individual students: their backgrounds, ambitions, and questions.

[A] Why focus on leadership in law school? Law schools have long talked about training lawyers as leaders, but simultaneously they have long failed to deliver on that promise implied by that “talk.” This seminar is about action. Read an introduction to leadership for lawyers and law students:

And

[B] Context: Leadership has always mattered to law and lawyers, but how it has mattered has always been in flux. Read about the changing character of law practice, the legal profession, and the legal industry:

[C] Context: Law is a human creation. As with all human creations – as with technology, for example – understanding is key. Law (like technology) isn’t natural; law (like technology) isn’t neutral. Law (like technology) is not simply “there.” “Understanding” law and law practice mean understanding where [law] [technology] comes from; how and why [law] [technology] is shaped, received, reused, and changed; how [law] [technology] shapes [humans] [biophysical and cultural ecologies and environments], and how “our” environments – things we build, things we choose – shape us, as humans. Read one of the following two accounts of knowledge and culture in the so-called “field”:

Optional movie suggestions: “Choosing: technology for good, and technology for ill.”

CLASS 2

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2026  

We will dig into the changing power and importance of law, lawyers, the legal profession, and the legal industry. We will talk about values and ethics, we will talk about economics, and we’ll talk about technology. For multiple reasons, having to do both with context (what do law graduates do, and what are they expected to do and why) and having to do with individual ambitions and conditions for success (how can law graduates built successful careers for themselves), we will talk about why leadership is important now.

Material on what lawyers have done and what they might do:

Material on how tech and economics are raising urgent, big questions about the values and purposes of lawyers and the legal profession:

Optional movie suggestions: “Purpose”

CLASS 3

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2026  

The first two meetings set the stage. Now, we get into details. What should leaders know, and what should they do?

Optional movie suggestions: “Multi-dimensionality”

Friday, September 11, 2026: The short summary of the research paper topic is due.

CLASS 4

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2026  

In a phrase, be curious. Why and how are imagination, creativity, and vision crucial to leaders and leadership? If those are skills to be learned and cultivated rather than attributes that are in-born or innate, where and how do they develop?

Optional movie suggestions:

CLASS 5

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026  

New professionals often are advised to “network” – a verb, rather than a noun – in order to build careers. That’s terrible advice. Don’t “network.” It doesn’t work, and the people on the receiving end of your “networking” often feel exploited. Used. Leadership requires building relationships, and building relationships requires developing and using emotional intelligence; identifying and working toward satisfaction, goals, and success, however you define those; and navigating inevitable setbacks and failures. In contemporary jargon, that’s “EQ.”

Optional movie suggestions: “Relationships, and emotional intelligence”

CLASS 6

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2026  

As the poet once wrote, “No man is an island.” Leadership is all about you, but it’s also all about other people. Leading means groups and organizations. Rallying and motivating people to work together. Figuring out what they want (and what the world wants), and helping them deal with getting that – and losing that. That leads to some critical skills: communication and storytelling.

[A] On organizational dynamics:

[B] On storytelling:

Optional movie suggestions: “Making sense and leading amid unpredictable and unknown conditions”

CLASS 7

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2026  

We will talk more, and in different ways, about leadership as collaborating, team-building, and paying it forward.

Optional movie suggestions: “Teams”

Friday, October 9, 2026: The outline of the research paper is due.

CLASS 8

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2026  

Getting everyone on the same page is difficult enough. Keeping them there may be even more difficult. How should leaders handle conflict, at small scales and large ones?

Optional movie suggestions: “Conflict”

CLASS 9

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2026  

Maybe leadership means “keeping the good times going.” Often, however, leadership means change: identifying the need for change, understanding the character of new directions, strategies, or goals, overcoming resistance to change, initiating and guiding change, and knowing when you’ve arrived at your changed destination. We could spend a full semester or more on theories and practices of change management. Pilot projects to test ideas! Small wins as proofs of concept! Building and managing positive feedback loops and shutting off negative ones! We will introduce change management themes in single session.

Optional movie suggestions: “Stability and Change”

CLASS 10

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2026  

“Decision-making” and exercising “judgment” are two labels for related – but distinct – attributes of leaders in organizations. How do you learn to make good decisions? How do you learn to exercise good judgment?

[A] On decision-making skills, for yourself and for your groups:

[B] On finding your place and beginning to learn judgment (on finding and choosing jobs and starting careers), for individuals in law school and elsewhere:

Optional movie suggestions: “Decision-making”

CLASS 11

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2026  

As we approach the end of the semester, we connect key leadership competencies with contemporary problems and possible solutions in the design of legal institutions.Where are the problems, and where are the solutions? How can learning and mastering leadership skills help in both settings?

Optional movie suggestions: “How leadership matters”

Friday, November 6, 2026: The first draft of the research paper is due.

CLASS 12

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2026  

Zoom out from law to society and culture more broadly. “Legal” leadership is only the tip of a very large iceberg, and law graduates may well use their leadership skills in additional chilly settings. Those settings run the gamut from “will technology save us?” to “will technology kill us all?,” plus, of course, lots of settings that don’t (seem to) have much to do with technology at all. Family. Neighborhood. Community. Team. Congregation. Volunteer group. Company or other organization.

Read or watch at least 5 of the following:

Optional movie suggestions: “Trust”

CLASS 13

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2026 (LAST CLASS)  

We will do our collective best to pull leadership together in a simple, useful, and usable package, the way that clever public intellectuals and management consultants do. There is the big picture (what is leadership today?), and there is the focused picture (what does that mean for you, right now?). Assess your context: Is your environment providing conditions for success, for yourself and for others? Assess yourself: where are you on the path to leadership, and how are you faring?

Optional movie suggestions: “Leadership and putting it together when things do not go as planned”

Optional movie suggestion: “The future of lawyers?”

Wednesday, December 9, 2026: The final draft of the research paper is due.

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