The Capacity to Lead: The Role of Women Educators in Higher Education and the Law

By Hannah Bushyeager
California Western School of Law 

On April 28, California Western School of Law hosted a panel discussion chronicling the inspiring journeys of two trailblazing female leaders in the legal field—Chancellor Emerita Phoebe Haddon and California Western’s Dean and President Sean Scott. 

Chancellor Hadden, a constitutional scholar and renowned legal educator, is former chancellor of Rutgers University-Camden, former dean of the University of Maryland King Carey School of Law, and former faculty member at the Temple University Beasley School of Law for 25 years. She is also the recipient of the 2019 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools. 

Dean Scott has served as dean and president of California Western School of Law since August 2020. Prior to joining California Western, she was a faculty member at Loyola Law School for 30 years and eventually served as Associate Dean of Faculty. She is also a former associate director of the Association of American Law Schools, and she currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Society of American Law Teachers.  

Chancellor Hadden and Dean Scott, both women of color, discussed how their own challenges have inspired them to leadership within academia. The event, moderated by outgoing CWSL Student Bar Association president Claudia Salinas, focused on the topics of leadership and mentorship within the legal field, and the obstacles and challenges both of these leaders have faced on their journey to achieving their goals.  

Both leaders have held positions of influence and provided invaluable insight to burgeoning legal minds. Chancellor Haddon is passionate about bringing together diverse voices and engaging as a team in “the kind of quiet thinking that goes behind respectful and conscientious dialogue.” She shared: “My vision echoes the sentiment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who stated, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Vision and problem solving should be viewed the same way. You don’t know if you’ve forged through a difficult period until you’re there.”  

Dean Scott shared her vision to create a robust legal community that is constantly working towards and reevaluating the values we have as a nation. While noting that the difficulty of actualizing this vision has ebbed and flowed throughout her career, Dean Scott emphasized the importance of always pushing forward.  

When discussing the concept of leadership, both speakers agreed that being an effective leader doesn’t mean that you are always “in charge.” Rather, they discussed the importance of creating opportunities for others to grow into positions of leadership. As Dean Scott so aptly put: “You don’t always have to be the person leading the parade. Sometimes being a leader means stepping aside and letting others take the credit. The hardest thing to learn is when to be in the lead and when to step back.”  

The speakers shared “war stories” of the challenges they have had to overcome throughout their legal careers that were steeped with racism, sexism, and misogyny. Chancellor Haddon recalled a time early in her career when an associate asked her to sharpen pencils and complete other administrative tasks that were unrelated to her legal position. Dean Scott told the troubling story of when she requested parental leave, organized the faculty to adopt a policy, and was ultimately voted against during tenure for not showing “appropriate deference for the institution.”  

Although both women faced challenges of being taken seriously as women and mothers in the legal profession, both discussed how not having the presumption of competence has provided the invaluable opportunity to become a better leader. Dean Scott stated, “Being in this position and weathering all of the slights (some larger than others) [is] worth it because I am now in a position to ensure that we act equitably; that other people coming after [us] are given the presumption of competency.”  

This led to the second topic of mentorship, which began with both speakers noting the disparity of power in leadership within the legal profession. Dean Scott emphasized the importance of recognizing that the classic characteristics of “a leader” are not neutral, but in fact, gendered. Chancellor Haddon then shared her hypothesis that due to the historical lack of women within the legal profession holding positions of power and bolstering other women, there has persisted a systemic disparity between the genders. She spoke to the dire importance of finding a mentor who has overcome obstacles in order to show you how to navigate the same waters.  

Despite the struggle to find mentors within the legal field, both speakers shared how their mothers served as inspirations through their legal journey. Through tears, Dean Scott shared that she has found a mentor in her mother, who tenaciously continued to speak out against race inequality even while struggling with dementia. Chancellor Haddon shared the inspirational journey her mother took from being one of the so called “hidden figures” (as depicted in Margot Lee Shetterly’s book of the same title) to taking on a second career as teacher and guidance counselor. Chancellor Haddon said that her mother’s encouragement of students in Passaic, New Jersey, to rise above their social and economic challenges and find equal opportunity for education inspired her own journey and pursuit of justice and equality. 

This panel covered the importance of striving for diversity in leadership and facing challenges with grace. Overall, it was an incredible portraiture of two women who have overcome obstacles to be a voice and light for the future generation of leaders and legal minds.