Leadership in law schools fundamentally requires the same as leadership skills in any organization. I had the tremendous benefit of being in a number of leadership positions before becoming the dean of a law school. For example, I served as the director of a program for high school students at Northwestern University, spent a year as President of the campus-wide Academic Senate at the University of Southern California, and chaired government commissions. Most importantly, I was elected by Los Angeles voters in 1997 to a commission to rewrite the Los Angeles City Charter and then chosen by my fellow commissioners to chair the Elected Los Angeles City Charter Reform
Commission. These experiences guided me when I assumed the position as the first Dean for the University of California, Irvine School of Law (UCI).