The School of Law\u27s new dean, nationally prominent in legal education, is known for engaging the thoughts of others, then acting decisively to move things forward

Smith, Jamie

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A Leader by Consensus

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A Leaderby ConsensusThe School of Law's newdean, nationally prominent inlegal education, is known forengaging the thoughts ofothers, then acting decisivelyto move things forward.By Jamie SmithJD 2009 I 12 IFROM YOUR FIRST CONVERSATION withPhoebe Haddon, it's quickly apparent whyshe is universally described as a great listenerby colleagues, friends, and family alike. Hersmile is broad and luminous, her laughteruninhibited and contagious. She leans slightlyforward across the tabletop, maintains asteady contact with her warm, dark eyes, andnods, gently encouraging you to go on. Andan interview intended to provide the Univer-sity of Maryland School of Law's new Deanwith an opportunity to hold forth about her-self - at length and without interruption -quickly becomes a conversation in which shelistens almost as much as she speaks."To listen well is as powerful a means ofcommunication and influence as to talkwell," said John Marshall. Dean Haddon'srecord of leadership and the broad respectshe enjoys throughout the legal professionbear out the words of the U.S. SupremeCourt's first Chief Justice.Revealingly, the people she's most inter-ested in hearing from are those who disagreewith her."I'm always going to listen to what yousay. I'm not afraid to engage the thoughts ofothers. They may be helpful in fixing what I'mdoing wrong," Dean Haddon says, reflectingtwo other aspects of her personality repeatedlyidentified by those who know her best: self-confidence and respect for the views of others.Over the last three decades, she has em-ployed these strengths to improve institutionsranging from the American Bar Association'sCouncil of Legal Education and Admission tothe Bar, to the Redevelopment Authority ofthe City of Philadelphia, to the American LawInstitute-ABA Committee on ContinuingProfessional Education."Dean Haddon has been recognized as anational leader for years," says former Deanof the University of North Carolina Schoolof Law Judith Wegner, who co-authoredthe Carnegie Foundation for the Advance-ment of Teaching's 2007 landmark report,Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profes-sion of Law. "Maryland Law's uniquestrengths provide a perfect opportunity forPhoebe to employ her experience and visionfor improving legal education in a way thatwill position the School even more promi-nently within the legal profession and thelegal academy."13 JD 2009Colleagues cite Dean Haddon's facility forbringing together an organization's diverse,sometimes antagonistic constituencies, andgetting them talking. She listens, finds thecommon ground, and builds a coalition ofsupporters. Then she leads them in developingand implementing an approach that results inthe achievement of a shared goal."Phoebe has a personal and professionalphilosophy that you can get more thingsaccomplished with cooperation instead ofcompetition," says 1. Herman Stern ProfessorEmeritus of Law Frank McClellan, who hasbeen Haddon's colleague on the TempleLaw faculty since 1981, and her husbandsince 1985."It's an interesting approach for a lawyer toget people out of the adversarial approach andinto a cooperative one where you're lookingfor similarities in what you believe, not differ-ences. She doesn't see competition as thedominant model, and she's not looking to winif it means someone else has to lose."But Dean Haddon's emphasis on collabora-tion shouldn't be confused with a lack ofmettle, say those who know her well. Herscholarly expertise includes such famouslycontentious areas as torts litigation, and thejury. And when emphasizing a strongly-heldbelief, she'll remove her brown plastic-rimmedglasses and fix you with a look that leaves nodoubt: Dean Haddon is a leader.parents Ida Bassette Haddon andWallace James Haddon"Phoebe has a philosophy that participa-tion and collaboration are key to the delibera-tive process. But what she's really good at ismaking things happen after the deliberationsare over," says Joanne Epps, Dean of TempleUniversity's Beasley School of Law and afaculty colleague of Haddon's for more than20 years. "Some people have great ideas, butcan't go from the idea to its execution. Phoebeis committed not only to arriving at a greatidea but also ensuring that it is acted upon."A strategic thinker who is deeply engagedin developments in higher education and thelegal profession, Dean Haddon is in the begin-ning stages of organizing a strategic plan forthe School of Law. Characteristically, thisplanning process has begun by listening. Shehas conducted a retreat with her deans, hasbegun to meet with members of the Board ofVisitors, and - after hosting a breakfast for allLaw School faculty and staff on the morningof her first day at Maryland - is now in theprocess of holding one-on-one interviews withevety member of the faculty and law schooladministrators. And while Dean Haddon'splan for the Law School ultimately will reflectthe shared views of a wide range of con-stituents, it will no doubt be shaped by herown vision for the future oflegal education.When the Carnegie Report was publishedin 2007, its challenge to law schools to focusmore on developing students' ethical skillsand commirment to justice was highly influen-tial and groundbreaking. Dean Haddon hadissued a similar call almost 15 years earlier.In "Education for a Public Calling in theTwenty-First Century," 69 Washington LawReview 573 (1994), she wrote that law schools"have an opportunity to define good lawyering... as a public calling which emphasizes aprofessional obligation to promote equalityin the legal system ... to clarify the valuesimportant to the practice of law in contem-plation of a more pro-active public role."Today, she believes more firmly than everthat lawyers' moral obligations to advancejustice extend far beyond their responsibilitiesas client advocates and officers of the court.JD 2009 14"That doesn't describe what I believe tobe the richness of lawyers' societal obliga-tions, which can be very broadly and richlydefined, and clearly includes something morethan simply following the rules of the court,"she says.In her article 15 years ago, Haddon citedMaryland Law as one of the few institutionsthat was addressing those issues. Today, DeanHaddon says the School is positioned to bea leader in reshaping not only legal educa-tion, but perhaps the legal profession itself.Location, prominence in clinical education,engagement in public service, and an out-standing faculty-committed to excellencein teaching and dedicated to scholarship thatsearches for solutions to real world problems-all playa part."Our location provides a tremendousopportunity to be part of not only a metro-politan statewide conversation, but of a na-tional and global conversation," she says."We can help define what justice is, andsolve problems in ways that recognize thecomplexity of today's society. And we canbe leaders in thinking creatively about theroles of teachers and scholars, of students,and the legal profession in today's world."A fourth-generation lawyer and educator,Dean Haddon says it was clear from child-hood that she would either study law orbecome an educator, and in her family, shesays, "It was not unusual to do both."Her father Wallace James Haddon, a den-tist, moved the family in 1955 from Hampton,VA, to Passaic, NJ, after identifying it as acity where an African American could establisha substantial professional practice. Haddon'smother began her career as a mathematicianat the National Advisory Committee for Aero-nautics (NASA's precursor), then became ajunior high school math teacher and highschool guidance counselor when the familymoved to New Jersey.Throughout Haddon's middle class child-hood, belief in the importance of educationwas a core value of her family. So, too, were acommitment to excellence and the determi-nation to overcome any obstacles that mightdeter that pursuit. Dean Haddon points inparticular to her grandmother, Phoebe Bassette,as someone from whom she inherited morethan her name. Once, Bassette - notoriouslylate and frequendy trying to juggle 20 thingsat once - was pulled over for speeding downthe street in her hometown of Hampton. Itwas the 1940s, and undaunted by either hisbadge or his race, she told the white policeofficer of this small southern town, "I'm sorry,but I have some place to go. If you need to talkto someone, my husband's office is right downthe street," and kept on going."I do that sometimes, too. I get so involvedin what I'm doing that the fact that theremight be some barriers or things that are inthe way doesn't even occur to me as stoppingprogress," says Haddon.While in high school, Haddon took amonth-long trip to France with a studentgroup, engendering a lifelong love of travelthat has taken her to every continent exceptIas Duquesne Law Review editor in 1976, with theschool's Dean, Ronald Davenport"MARYLAND LAW PROVIDES a perfect opportunityfor Phoebe to employ her experience and vision forimproving legal education in a way that will positionthe School even more prominently."=ludith Wegner, former AALS President and Dean of UNCSchool of LawAntarctica and Australia. At Smith College,she earned a degree in government, withminors in economics and African Americanstudies. The experience was so important toher that she remained deeply involved inthe life of the College, serving on the Boardof Trustees for a decade, including a term asVice Chair.After moving to Pittsburgh in the early1970s, Haddon applied to several nearby lawschools. One school offered her admission,as well as scholarship support through anaffirmative action program that stipulated its15 JD 2009participants take one fewer course than otherstudents. She still bristles at the memory."Though well intended, this requirementwas based on some notion that AfricanAmericans would not do as well, or meet thesame standards, as other students. My back-ground gave every indication that Iwould doas well, or even better than those grossstereotypical predictions suggested," she says."That kind of broad, overly inclusiveassumption does not sit well with me. Peoplehave to be judged as individuals. That doesn'tmean we don't think about how various groupshave been discriminated against and try toaddress persistent structural barriers thatcontinue to impede some groups from attain-ing equality. But you can't build your responseto discrimination without being mindfulof the subtle influence of stereotypes."Dean Haddon instead enrolled atDuquesne Law School, where she received afull scholarship and went on to become editor-in-chief of the Duquesne Law Review. Aftergraduating in 1977, she served as a law clerkfor The Hon. Joseph F. Weis, Jr., UnitedStates Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit,and practiced at Wilmer Cutler & Pickeringin Washington, DC, before joining the facultyat Temple law school in 1981.At Temple, Haddon taught courses onconstitutional law, torts, products liability,and race and ethnicity. She established herselfas a national scholar on constitutional lawand tort law, co-authoring several casebooksin those fields, and published numerous schol-arlyarticles on equal protection, jury partici-pation, academic freedom, and diversity."Whether it's writing about torts or conlaw, or teaching a seminar on the jury, there'salways been a kind of civil rights edge to whatI've been doing; my focus has always beenshaped by a belief in equality, particularlyrespect for the rights of others," says DeanHaddon. "I don't fit the model of scholarswho get interested in one particular substan-rive area of study and use the classroom andlaw journals to express their views divorcedfrom the context of the lived experiences ofpeople - I am particularly concerned aboutapproaches that take account of peoplewho are marginalized in the system."Haddon's scholarship is a continuationof her family's tradition of social activism.Her father was an active leader in theNAACP. Her aunt, Rachel B. Noel, led publicschool desegregation efforts in Denver, cul-minating in the U.S. Supreme Court's rulingin Keyes v. Denver School District No.1,Inew faculty member at Temple Law"MY FOCUS HAS ALWAYS been shaped bya belief in equality, particularly respect for therights of others."which made Denver the first city outsidethe South to receive instructions from theSupreme Court to address segregation.Striving to improve access to quality edu-cation, at law schools and beyond, becameher true academic passion. Haddon quicklyattained national prominence for her efforts,earning appointment as a member of theexecutive committee of The Association ofAmerican Law Schools, a trustee of theLaw School Admissions Council, and co-President of the Society of American LawTeachers. Today she is a member of theCouncil of the American Bar AssociationSection on Legal Education and Admissionto the Bar, the official accrediting body ofAmerican law schools, and serves on a numberof committees of those other organizations.''A real strength for Phoebe is her lead-ership in groups like the ABA and others-Dean Phoebe HaddonJD 2009 16outside the academy. It's given her an oppor-tunity to look at the challenges of legaleducation and the profession not just as amember of one school, or even as an academic,but from a very broad perspective," says PaulBekman, Chair of Maryland Law's Board ofVisitors. "Ar a time when law schools arefacing a scarcity of resources, and the legalprofession is rethinking ways of serving clients,she is the right person at the right time to beDean of our Law School."Other law schools had pursued Haddonfor deanships in the past, but she alwaysdemurred. Her experiences had made heran expert in not only legal education, butin law schools themselves. Dean Haddoncould tell when the fit just wasn't right, orif an institution wasn't poised for futuregrowth. From her first visit to MarylandLaw, she knew she had found a new home.Haddon envisions a Law School that en-hances its quality by making itself more acces-sible to students from a wide range of racial,educational, and economic backgrounds. Shewants to broaden the definition of facultyexcellence to embrace the range of problem-solving talents, of theoretical scholars, out-standing classroom teachers, policymakers,and practitioners providing experiential learn-ing opportunities consistent with the missionand rich tradition of the Law School. In sodoing, she wants to attract people who shareher vision of a school both accessible and elitein its stature among excellent law schools."There are individuals here - faculty, staff,and students alike - who have the qualifica-tions to go anywhere. But they've made acommitment to Maryland because they believein what we can accomplish together. I seethat as very different from many other insti-tutions," Haddon says. "When I hear themtalk about their reasons for choosing to be atMaryland, it's very energizing to me. It rein-forces my belief that I made the right choicein joining them."with husband Frank McClellan and daughter Cara17 JD 2009

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