Last month, Colorado Law students and faculty teamed up with business leaders and representatives from universities across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming to examine the future of ethical leadership.
They attended the second annual , an annual gathering of the 11 schools participating in the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program. Nearly 180 students, faculty, and business leaders attended the summit, held October 29-30, 2015, in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
To ensure a range of perspectives, each school was represented by students, faculty members, and local business leaders of mid- to large- companies.
Colorado Law students Ben Hand-Bender (鈥�18), Ariel Diamond (鈥�17), Shazad Sahak (鈥�17), and Joely Denkinger (鈥�16) attended, along with Dean Phil Weiser; Melanie Kay, director of the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative at Colorado Law; Amy Griffin, director of academic and legal writing support; Amy Bauer, legal writing professor; and Helen Norton, law professor.
Denkinger said the summit affirmed for her that she will not only confront her own ethical challenges in the practice of law, but will also help both individual and corporate clients confront their own ethical challenges, and decide how those interact with their legal challenges.
鈥淓thics and ethical leadership are valuable topics for students and professionals to examine because they are guaranteed to come up for each of us, in small and large ways,鈥� Denkinger said. 鈥淗opefully many of us will never have to confront large-scale fraud, perjury, or deception in our organizations. However, ethical leadership by example is something each of us can seek out in our career, and we can start by practicing it every day. Practicing how to identify and discuss smaller, routine ethical dilemmas can set the stage for effective problem solving in situations of larger, and perhaps unexpected, ethical problems.鈥�
A primary focus of the summit was engaging local business leaders to demonstrate the involvement of business in ethics education, and show relevance beyond campus into the business world. Amber Tafoya (鈥�02), director of external affairs at AT&T Colorado; Chris Allyn, vice president and associate general counsel at Quiznos; and Jon Lehmann (鈥�04), senior director for government and regulatory affairs at Comcast, represented Colorado Law.
For Lehmann, the summit was an opportunity to connect seasoned professionals with younger generations to make ethical leadership feel 鈥渞eal鈥� to them, and to help them understand that every day, in any profession, they will face ethical dilemmas and decisions.
鈥淓thical leadership is the constant evolution of dealing with difficult decisions and trying to do the right thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淢any of the biggest transgressions began with a very small, minor misdeed that leads to another minor misdeed, then another, until small transgressions don鈥檛 seem very small at all. Ethical leadership is a conscious effort of paying attention to the ethical impact of your decisions so that you don鈥檛 travel down that slippery slope.鈥�
Ethics and professionalism are more than just 鈥済ood business,鈥� said Denkinger鈥攖hey are the very foundation of why clients can trust their lawyers, and why lawyers and judges trust one another.
Kay said she is already looking forward to attending next year鈥檚 summit.
鈥淭he summit proved to be a valuable tool to enable our students to consider some of the real-world ethical challenges they may face in practice, as well as to hear from seasoned business leaders on the ways they have navigated such challenges throughout their careers. It was inspiring to hear from industry leaders who view a commitment to integrity as a vital component of their success,鈥� she said.
In 2014, Colorado Law became the first and only law school selected to join the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, a consortium of 11 different business and law schools that promotes principle-based ethics education and building a foundation for personal and organizational ethical decision-making and leadership.
