Lawyers as Future Leaders.

Many law students arrive at law school interested in a career in politics. Too often they leave without knowledge of how lawyers can most effectively run for office. Leaders From Law, a start-up initiative launched in the wake of the 2016 U.S. elections, is a co-curricular program aimed specifically at law students and young attorneys with interest in running for elected office, especially at the state and local office. By focusing on law students and young attorneys, Leaders from Law aims to support the relationship between the rule of law, democracy, and American ideals of justice.

Progressive law students and young attorneys are a unique population for purposes of developing a candidate pool for state and local office. Many law students arrive at law school interested in politics, but few law schools provide concrete information about paths from practice to public office. Current training programs for new candidates focus on a general audience, often subdivided by traditional demographic categories. Law students and young attorneys transcend these categories and have singular skills and knowledge – and gaps in skills and knowledge – that call for programming targeting them as a discrete group.

Leaders from Law is developing an extracurricular workshop series for progressive law students and young lawyers interested in careers in state and local politics. The workshop series will cover topics such as:

The structure of U.S. political parties, especially at the state and local level, and how state and local parties interact with national party organizations * When, whether, and how to become a formal member of a state or local branch of a political party * Public offices that specifically call for legal training, e.g. judgeships, state attorneys general, city attorneys, district attorneys * Election law, focusing on law relevant to candidates’ campaigns * Ballot access and voting procedures * Role of digital in state and local campaigning * Successful relationships with the press * Civic organizations that serve as pipelines to elected office * Causes relevant to running to for office, e.g. ballot access, reforming partisan gerrymandering * Campaign fundraising