“In leadership, a change may fall on the negative end of the spectrum, and it may be entirely out of your control. However, in order to adapt, leaders must first embrace the change before considering any potential solutions.”
Savannah Hall
University of Tennessee College of Law Class of 2025 and President of Law Women
The most rewarding part of law school by far has been my leadership experience through Law Women. Law Women was founded at the University of Tennessee College of Law more than fifty years ago in 1973. The organization’s mission is simple: empower women and encourage them to pursue leadership in their future career, no matter what path they take as an attorney. Within this broad goal lies a focus on networking, mentorship, career opportunities, academic success, and education about issues specific to women in the legal field.
Based on my prior leadership experience in a women’s organization in college called Leading Women of Tomorrow, I knew Law Women was the perfect organization to invest my time in during law school. In my first year, I served as Speaker Co-Chair and learned the ins-and-outs of the organization. At the end of my first year, Law Women held an impressive membership of 143 members. The following year Tiffany Oliver served as President and I served as Vice-President. We watched Law Women grow by 53% to 219 members, including honorary undergraduate members. This school year, Law Women has already grown to 245 members, comprising 58% of the law school student body.
Clearly, this immense change in membership meant that Law Women needed to adapt in order to serve the interests of the majority of the student body. The lessons learned from this growth in membership have been transformative in my personal and professional life. Throughout this process, I learned six steps for leaders to take in the process of organizational change:
1) Embrace the Change
As you can imagine, it was quite easy to ‘embrace the change’ of expanding membership. This change was–and remains–an exciting, positive challenge because it demonstrated a sense of community and the organization’s impact on law students.
In leadership, a change may fall on the negative end of the spectrum, and it may be entirely out of your control. However, in order to adapt, leaders must first embrace the change before considering any potential solutions. First, strive to take the change as is, for better or for worse, assuming you can no longer change the outcome. Then, reflect on the change and what it means for your organization and its future.
2) Contemplate Creative and Non-Creative Solutions
One of the best things leaders can do is be a creative outlet for change and follow through with implementation. The first solution you or a teammate consider is not always the best solution.
In Law Women’s case, we started with the basics: What do all law students have in common? There seems to be a never-ending list of common interests, but the main ones we considered were academic success and support, student advice on interviews and summer jobs, diverse speakers and topics for all law students, mentorship, and networking.
With this list in mind, I considered my previous leadership experiences and I realized a trusty solution that I had used in the past: constitutional amendments. What better way to address our expanding membership than to change our internal executive board structure to cater to these interests? With this specific change, a creative solution was not needed. We had all we needed to get started.
3) Solicit Feedback and Discussion
Before finalizing any plans, leaders must solicit feedback and discuss with their inner circle. For Law Women, this included a constitutional committee consisting of four to five executive board members. But it shouldn’t stop there. Organizations must consider their stakeholders and solicit feedback from consumers, shareholders, and the community. For Law Women, this includes undergraduate and law students, the executive board and faculty advisors, alumni, and law school administration.
It is easy to solely seek feedback internally, but going beyond to external sources can often provide unique solutions and perspectives on your challenge.
4) Put in the Hard Work
It is often easier to ideate the solution than to implement it. It took hard work to put a committee together, draft amendments to the Law Women Constitution, and present it to the executive board in a digestible format. President Tiffany Oliver and I spent many late nights finalizing the amendments in preparation for voting, all while executive board elections crept up on us.
During this process, in order to best serve the student body, we realized that we needed a new position that encompassed specific goals. This new position is our Outreach Chair, who oversees honorary undergraduate membership, Law Women’s mentorship program, and our alumni network. We decided to give this position a 1L Co-Chair in order to support them and introduce them to the position before running in later elections.
Next, we split up our Communications Chair into Secretary and Communications. Our Communications Chair focuses on external information, including social media, our weekly newsletter, and merchandise, while our Secretary focuses on internal communication and academic support.
Lastly, we made the decision to rearrange our 1L Co-Chairs to better position them for leadership succession. Prior to this change, we had representatives from each class but noticed that this position was not properly integrated into our executive board structure. Now 1Ls have leadership opportunities as Co-Chairs under the respective Events, Fundraising, and Outreach Chairs.
We knew the hard work of developing and transitioning into a new leadership structure was worth it when we saw tangible benefits for community members. Now, the positions work in tandem, and communication is stronger and more efficient than ever.
5) Evaluate Your Decision and Monitor Progress
Successful organizations require regularly-scheduled evaluations. In our case, a semester evaluation worked best. With the new structure having been in effect since elections in April, our Constitution Committee will review the Law Women Constitution over winter break and continue to make needed changes.
The value of committees in any organization cannot be overstated. Leadership must adapt to the evolving needs of an organization and committees are some of the best tools for challenging complacency. Leaders must know how–and how often–to utilize this tool when monitoring progress and making more changes.
6) Repeat
The final step is the simplest: repeat. There will be numerous changes for better and for worse in any organization. Fortunately, these steps can be applied in more settings than just organizational leadership. They can be applied to personal changes and hardship, in addition to professional settings.
Repeating these steps as change occurs helps us to develop grit. As a leader, it takes diligence and perseverance to adapt to change, but it is helpful to remember that every experience makes you a better and stronger leader.
I am grateful that these experiences have allowed me to reflect on intentional servant leadership. Leadership in student organizations motivates you to do your best work in and out of the classroom. It allows you to be well-balanced, organized, and connected to your community. Naturally, you curate lifelong friendships with your team and connect with other student leaders, along with law faculty and staff.
I encourage current and future law students to invest their time in an organization they care about and to pursue leadership opportunities in them. Not only will it be rewarding, but it will also help build your legacy as an attorney and a leader.
