Beware of Navel Oranges

Abstract

This talk was given for the purpose of providing insight into leadership in law schools. Thirteen principles and irreverent topics are discussed: establish a set of principles; you’ll almost never know whether people like you because you are the dean or because of your scintillating personality; actually, you can ignore the last observation. People like you because of your spouse or partner; you better have a tough skin; ninety-percent of your decisions are irrelevant; if you stick around long enough, everything devolves into whether you should have let the faculty make a decision; the most important thing I needed to know about being a dean I learned in Political Science 101; it is one of life’s ironies that it is a failure if you actually have to first mention to a prospective donor the idea of a major gift. Of course, if neither you nor they mention the gift, it’s an even bigger failure; never buy boxed wine; the amount of money you raise is in direct correlation to the amount of weight you gain; show humility; you learn to hate everything that you once did as a faculty member; beware of navel oranges; everything you need to know about clinical wars; understand what cynicism is; and, be brief.