LEAVING THE BAR 22


Lawyers who chose to leave the profession to become college presidents warn that such a position is not a fi gurehead. A seven-day-a-week job with long, unpredictable hours, the presidency requires management skills to marshal sundry constituents. Shouldering omnipresent pressure, these leaders are acutely aware that their decisions impact thousands of students, professors, and alumni. Nevertheless, lawyers are stepping up and meeting the challenge.


AS A SENIOR EXECUTIVE at pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, Alecia DeCoudreaux was often courted by recruiters who dangled prestigious jobs in and out of the legal profession. But only one job intrigued her enough to apply for


it. In 2011, DeCoudreaux switched gears by becoming president of Mills College in Oakland, Calif. “I had fabulous legal positions,” says


DeCoudreaux, who was once vice president and general counsel of Lilly’s U.S. affi liate. “Any second career of mine would only be in the nonprofi t world, preferably in higher education.” She is among lawyers around the country who have


left the bar to preside over institutions of higher learn- ing. As Baby Boomer presidents retire, college governing boards are slowly yet steadily hiring new presidents from outside academia to lead the campuses in an era of seemingly unprecedented challenges in student access and aff ordability, opportunities in technology and online education, and stepped-up competition for top faculty. About 20 percent of college presidents in 2011 were from outside of higher education, compared with


DIVERSITY & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013


only 13 percent in 2006, according to the American Council on Education. Among incumbents in 2011, only 1 percent had come directly from the legal profes- sion, as DeCoudreaux did. Other so-called outsider presidents came from government, business, the military, or the clergy. Meanwhile, career academicians still made up the majority of presidents. Yet in Diversity & the Bar interviews, several attor-


neys-turned-college-presidents noted that many of the daily issues on a college campus—housing, benefi ts, employment, and fi nance, among others—are parallel to those facing GCs within corporations. Even faculty tenure—the near-guarantee of permanent employ- ment for professors no matter what viewpoints they espouse—is essentially a contract. So it’s no surprise that DeCoudreaux and her peers believe careers in the law bear relevance for steering colleges and universities. In 30 years at Lilly, DeCoudreaux’s responsibilities


included guiding the company through compliance processes for all U.S. regulations, such as its applica- tions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch new drugs. In recent months, she has drawn


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