The LSAC Board retreat on Friday was reflective of what is happening across legal education.  Each of the various entities are thinking about, and getting poised to respond to what the future of legal ed might be.  In addition, the retreat gave the board a chance to become better acquainted as we prepare to work together on behalf of LSAC and our member schools.

To help us learn a bit more about each other, Steve Willborn, Board Chair, had everyone write one thing about themselves that no one else would know.  Once all the notes were collected we had to guess who was who.  Some of the tidbits that came out were: one person got washed out of a boat in a hurricane, another was the youngest person to run for office in her state, we had a board-breaking, karate chopper, someone who gave a two minute television speech on the topic of Thomas Paine and someone who began his college career at the air force academy.  After that was done (by the way, the most correct guesses was 8 out of 23) Dan Bernstein, President and CEO of LSAC, and Steve gave opening remarks that helped set the tone for the discussion to follow and each committee chair shared his or her plans for the upcoming two year cycle.

 

For those who might not have been following LSAC developments closely, the Board of Trustees members are:

Dan Bernstein (CEO of LSAC), Janet Bolin-Washington University, Michael Burns-DePaul, Faye Deal-Stanford, Ian Holloway-Calgary, Carolyn Jones-Iowa, Susan Krinsky-Tulane (Test Development & Research Committee Chair), John Miller-Idaho (Audit Committee Chair), Cyndi Nance-Arkansas (Finance & Legal Affairs Committee Chair), Daniel Ortiz-Virginia (Past Board Chair), Christopher Pietruszkiewicz-Louisiana State (Chair, Investment Committee), Michelle Rahman-Richmond, Richard Schmalbeck-Duke, Michael States-North Carolina, Athornia Steele-Nova, Reynaldo Valencia-St. Mary’s (Chair Diversity Committee), Ricardo Villarosa-Wayne State, Christina Whitman-Michigan, Steven Willborn-Nebraska (Chair, Board of Trustees), Cassandra Williams-Harvard (Services and Programs Committee Chair).

After a full day of discussion, idea generation, and board orientation, we sat down to a buffet dinner in the hotel, which afforded us an opportunity to become better acquainted, or to catch up with old friends. I very much enjoyed hearing what my former dean, Carolyn Jones, was up to since she stepped down, including work on a piece on the Social Gospel Movement, an interest we share.