A major program of the 3M legal department to train leaders and business-savvy lawyers

Marschall Smith, the General Counsel of 3M, described at the SuperConference one of his department’s significant investments in leadership development. He explained that every six months 15-20 of his 165 lawyers spend one week off campus at a program called the Leadership Development Council. The aim is to “turn them into business associates with law degrees.”

The Council runs twice a year, so he is able to teach many more lawyers about business than the three lawyers a year that can attend a corporate high-potential program (See my post of July 29, 2007: high potentials with 10 references.).