Back to School: Mission of the Appalachian School of Law

A Mission Tied to Its Locality

As I noted in an earlier blog, I am using this week to remind faculty, students, alumni, and entering students why the Appalachian School of Law is so special.  Let's move to its unique mission.

The Mission

Appalachian School of Law (ASL) is a mission-driven school created by local business, legal, and political leaders concerned about the well-being of people living in the central Appalachian Mountains.   ASL’s founders hoped to create an opportunity for central Appalachians to see beyond their own mountain valleys and, having done so, to return home with greater insight, effective legal skills, leadership ambitions, high ethical standards, and a commitment to community service.   

A 2008 student survey, conducted in conjunction with the strategic planning process, revealed that on average the parents of ASL students only had “some college” or a “2-year degree.”  Thirty-four percent of our students reported that their mothers obtained only a high school diploma (or less).  Another 30 percent reported their mothers had business or trade school, some college, or a two-year associate degree.  Their fathers tended to be more highly educated, with 26 percent of alumni reporting their fathers had a high school education (or less), with 20 percent reporting their fathers had business, trade school, some college, or a two-year associate degree.  

Our students are ambitious, working-class kids looking for a way to increase their earning potential, engage in a service profession, and make changes in this part of the world. 

           

At the same time, ASL's founders hoped that lawyers educated within the region would more likely stay in and provide service to the people of the region.  In other words, they hoped to educate lawyers for Main Street, not Wall Street.  

That hope has been fulfilled.  ASL has conferred a total of 1,064 law degrees over the last thirteen years.  Approximately half of our alumni are employed in small law firms in Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.  Our graduates have become community leaders,  holding positions as state legislators, judges, magistrates, Commonwealth Attorneys, public defenders, solo practitioners, and industry managers (especially in natural resource production companies).

For more information about the Appalachian School of Law, see here and here.

Under-served Client Population

ASL’s founders expected to provide legal services and civic leadership to under-served and economically depressed communities. In 2005, of the 250 counties in the U.S. with the lowest per capita incomes, Kentucky claimed thirty-five of those counties. Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia added another twenty-four counties to this list. Thus, the region ASL serves includes 23 percent of the poorest counties in the United States.

The map recently created by the Appalachian Planning Commission graphically represents this economic reality.

Using Your Super Power and Being Indispensable.

As part of my summer concentration on books written by Seth Godin, I recently read his 2010 Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  It ties to many of the themes I summarized in my post,“Leaning In” as a Woman Lawyer, found here.

 

Godin argues that with so many means of direct communication with so many different “tribes” in a hyper-competitive world, each one of us can make an indispensable contribution, as a linchpin, to a business, art, project, or something we care deeply about.  You have the choice of being indispensable.  Just make it.

He defines linchpins as the “people who own their own means of production, who can make a difference, lead us, and connect us.”  “The linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order, someone who can invent, connect, create, and make things happen.  Every worthwhile institution has indispensable people who make differences like these.”   They are artists and givers of gifts.  They bring humanity to work.  They have vision and engagement.  They help the organization fulfill its mission.

We live in a revolutionary time that gives each one of us the opportunity to bring our “best sel[ves] to the marketplace and be rewarded for it.”   Each one of us can chart our own path and create value as we go. 

But the path involves difficult work.  The tasks require “maturity and soul and personal strength.”  And, you must be motivated by the right reasons.  You must be “brave enough to make a difference.”    You must be bold and think bigger.  

Linchpins do not wait for instructions, but identify and choose the next steps.   They can chart those steps with confidence because linchpins “understand their subject so deeply.”

The linchpin understands that the work requires him or her to make something happen every single day!  Knowing that “changes what you do all day.”  So many opportunities exist to lead.  So many things need to be done.  So many situations offer a way to contribute. 

  

The seven abilities of the linchpin are:

• Providing unique interface between members of the organization;
• Delivering unique creativity;
• Managing a situation or organization of great complexity;
• Leading customers;
• Inspiring staff;
• Providing deep domain knowledge;
• Possessing a unique talent.  It’s a superpower!

“The 'super' part and the 'power' part come not from something you’re born with, but from something you choose to do, and more important[ly], from something you choose to give.”

The work connects the linchpin to others.   When the work fails to connect with others, the linchpin has received the signal to create new work that will.  Godin advises to make the choice of a linchpin again and again.  Learn from what you did and then create something else. 

In contrast, most individuals respond to the messages of their “lizard brains” and avoid situations that feel risky, threatening, difficult, or generous.   These folks “want [a] pretty safe skill to be enough.  Enough to make you valued, enough to make you fairly paid, enough to make your life stable.  But it’s not.  It’s not enough because in a very connected, very competitive marketplace, there are plenty of people with your pretty safe skill.”   

Amen.  Choose to be remarkable.  Choose to be indispensable.