The Value Differentiator: Lawyers Who Lead Mindfully

Michèle Huff, Senior Associate University Counsel, University of New Mexico

The pressure is mounting on legal organizations to respond to disruptive forces. Law schools are faced with online offerings (MOOCs and degree programs), higher costs, falling enrollments, and a stagnant job market. Firms are competing with open source, DIY models and legal service organizations that place lawyers (full or part time) with clients (on site or remotely) to work on discreet projects for a flat fee. The way we teach, learn, and work in our profession is morphing, and new skills will be required to attract and retain talent, and to avoid obsolescence. My focus is on teaching others how to negotiate holistically, and by extension, creating more awakened individual negotiators. I describe the principles of transformative negotiation in my book, The Transformative Negotiator: Changing the Way We Come to Agreement from the Inside Out, and currently teach courses on the topic as part of the Mediation and Conflict Resolution certificate program, and the ULead Leadership Development program at the University of New Mexico.

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USA Management University July 2016 Vol. 9, No. 36, Summer 2016

Michèle Huff

Michèle Huff has practiced intellectual property and licensing law for the past 30 years. She is currently Senior Associate University Counsel at the University of New Mexico (UNM) where she specializes in Intellectual Property, Research, and Technology issues. Ms. Huff is the author of The Transformative Negotiator: Changing the Way We Come to Agreement from the Inside Out (Unhooked Books, 2015). Prior to joining UNM in 2008, Ms. Huff taught a semester of licensing as an adjunct at UNM’s School of Law and managed the Archer Law Group, a boutique firm specializing in licensing and IP law. She mentors new lawyers for the State Bar of New Mexico, serves as the Mentorship Chair for the New Mexico Women’s Bar Association, and presents workshops nationally to managers, mediators, business incubators, and entrepreneurs. She teaches Transformative Negotiation for UNM’s Continuing Education Mediation Certification program and its Employee Organizational Development group. Ms. Huff was born and raised in New York City, received her BA from Colorado College and her JD, magna cum laude, from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. She is a member of the California (1985) and New Mexico (2004) Bars. Follow her at http://www.michelehuff.com.

University of New Mexico

The University of New Mexico is the state’s flagship institution of higher learning whose mission is to serve through demonstrated excellence in teaching, research, patient care, and community service.

USA Management University July 2016 Vol. 9, No. 36, Summer 2016