LeadershipSBOT Celebrates 10 Years
Classes develop skills to move diverse lawyers into leadership roles.
By Eric Quitugua
In October 2008, the State Bar of Texas kicked off LeadershipSBOT, a
yearlong program designed to give attorneys tools to develop leadership
roles in their firms, bar associations, and communities. The program has
provided leadership training to lawyers who reflect the diversity of the
State Bar and has been a springboard for career success for its nearly
200 graduates, with alumni including bar directors, Texas Bar Foundation
trustees, and local bar leaders.
Former State Bar President
Harper Estes, who helped create LeadershipSBOT, said the program pushes
its classes into public service and provides leadership opportunities
for people who might not get them elsewhere. “The idea was to develop
bar leaders that looked like Texas—in terms of race, ethnicity, and
gender but also in practice area and geographic area—so we could have
leaders from all different walks who could relate to the needs of
lawyers all around the state,” Estes said. With the help of the Texas
Young Lawyers Association, or TYLA, Estes planned a curriculum of
team-building exercises and public service projects in parts of the
state that were not necessarily served by existing leadership programs.
Each class has about 20 nominated attorneys who meet twice
during the year for training and to learn about paths to leadership from
guest speakers. Their team-building exercises can be light-hearted in
nature—sandcastle building competitions, escape rooms, and
constitutional trivia contests against high schoolers—but they are
designed to foster trust among the students. LeadershipSBOT members
present their service projects during the State Bar’s Annual Meeting.
Baili Rhodes, State Bar of Texas director and immediate past
president of TYLA, offered advice to the 2017-2018 class, describing her
journey with TYLA. Rhodes said that while LeadershipSBOT isn’t a direct
pipeline to TYLA, which has several board members who graduated from the
program, it is another example of where the program can lead
attorneys.
“I think most people come in working at the local
level and want some way to get involved and get their toes in the water
but don’t know how,” she said. “This gives them a great
opportunity.”
State Bar of Texas Director Rudolph K. “Rudy”
Metayer, a Pflugerville city councilman and an attorney working in
Austin, traces his role with the bar board to his time in LeadershipSBOT
from 2012 to 2013. One project involved Metayer and his classmates
building bicycles for children at a Boys & Girls Club in Harlingen.
Another project saw Metayer putting together a curriculum on, and
teaching young kids the tenets of, decorum, respect, and civility as
people argue and make their points.
LeadershipSBOT, he said,
shows its classes that the legal field will look remarkably different in
25 years and emphasizes that including viewpoints and ideas from people
of diverse backgrounds will help the legal profession succeed, and, in
turn, help restore people’s faith in courts and society.
Who
fits the bill to help in that effort?
“A practicing attorney
who loves the law, who loves people, and loves service,” Metayer said.
“If you love those three things, LeadershipSBOT is for you. Frankly, the
State Bar is for you—and we’ll find you a place.”
For more
information on LeadershipSBOT, go to texasbar.com/leadershipsbot.TBJ
