This course develops skills for students who wish to pursue leadership roles in their careers (both through formal roles and informally through influence): as practicing lawyers, in-house counsel, leaders of law firms, in government, and in non-profits.
The course is experiential and includes an eclectic variety of exercises, cases, and simulations to develop leadership skills, entrepreneurial thinking, and effective communication.
The course is taught by Jon Sobel '90, a Michigan Law alum who has held a number of leadership roles as an attorney and as CEO. Jon served as General Counsel of Tesla Motors, General Counsel of Yahoo!, and General Counsel of Calera (a clean tech company focused on C02 capture) and he has served as a litigation partner at Folger Levin in San Francisco. Jon has worked extensively on domestic and international regulatory and policy issues and he has an extensive background in technology companies. Jon co-founded a venture-backed AI company for industry, and has served as its CEO since 2012.
This course integrates leadership skills and perspectives from legal practice, industry, and government and is designed to prepare students for a variety of leadership opportunities as their careers develop.