In her new book, “Lawyers as Leaders,” Professor Deborah Rhode argues that the legal profession must do a better job of training lawyers to be leaders. This is a proposition that's difficult to argue with. However one feels about lawyers, there are few who would contend that the profession is peopled with stellar leaders. Unlike business schools, where leadership has long been part of the curriculum, law schools have historically focused on teaching technical skills. Leadership roles were presumed to flow to the most technically skillful. Today, however, we have a profession whose leaders are not necessarily either proficient lawyers or skilled leaders.

I certainly do not consider myself a “great leader,” far from it, but for 10 years now it has been my honor and privilege to lead two great corporate litigation teams. I have worked very hard to be the best leader I could be to both of them. I know that sometimes I have fallen short. I'd like to think that sometimes I have done alright.

With the benefit of that experience, I want to focus on two aspects of leadership not discussed in Professor Rhode's book, two things about team building I learned from a now mostly forgotten group of long-dead men. As always, it begins with a story.