We Interview Scott Westfahl on leadership and critical lessons that he learned from his father– a former captain on a nuclear submarine. Professor Westfahl then explains design thinking and how it helps and can be harnessed by teams. He then discusses the legal profession, education, and dealing with uncertainty. Professor Westfahl concludes by analyzing a proposed case in which a firm notices that high performing associates have behavioral issues.

A bit about Scott Westfahl:

Prof. Westfahl is the Director of Harvard Law School Executive Education and also teaches courses on leadership and design thinking and innovation within the law school’s J.D. curriculum. In 2024, his Legal Innovation Through Design Thinking course was recognized by Bloomberg Law as one of the law school innovations of the year. He oversees and teaches global leadership and design thinking for legal leaders from firms, government, and the judiciary. He focuses his Executive Education teaching and writing on leadership, teams, talent development as strategy, design thinking and driving innovation and organizational alignment from a talent management and diversity and inclusion perspective.

Before HLS, Professor Westfahl was the Director of Professional Development at the law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. In 2008, Professor Westfahl was chosen as one of Law Firm, Inc. magazine’s five “Innovators of the Year” for his development of a cutting edge attorney assignment system and database called iStaff, which effectively ties attorney work assignments to their professional development needs. Professor Westfahl is the author of the book You Get What You Measure: Lawyer Development Frameworks and Effective Performance Evaluations (NALP, 2008).

Prior to his work at Goodwin Procter, Professor Westfahl spent six years leading professional development for the Washington, D.C. office of McKinsey & Company. Professor Westfahl earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, and is a graduate from Dartmouth College.