Leadership Lab

Leadership Lab: Navigating the Shifting Terrain of Legal Ethics

Thursday, November 13, 2025, 5:10 pm, Stackhouse Theater

Judge Mike Luttig ’76 and Mr. Lewis Powell III, Esq. ’74, P’18, P’20 will hold an armchair conversation about their contributions to the “American Democracy Task Force” of the American Bar Association, a prominent non-partisan institution committed to investigating legal process, democratic rule of law, and responsible leadership.

Michael Luttig served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006, appointed by President George H.W. Bush. Before joining the bench, he held several prominent legal roles, including Assistant Counsel to President Ronald Reagan (1981–1982), law clerk to then-Judge Antonin Scalia on the D.C. Circuit (1982–1983), and law clerk and Special Assistant to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger (1983–1985). At the U.S. Department of Justice, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (1989–1990) and as Assistant Attorney General and Counselor to the Attorney General (1990–1991). After leaving the judiciary, Luttig was Boeing’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel (2006–2020) and later its Counselor and Senior Advisor to the CEO and board. From 2021 to 2025, he served as Counselor and Special Advisor to the Coca-Cola Company and its board. Over the last few years Luttig has authored numerous articles and provided interviews to major news outlets about the recent challenges to our democracy and the rule of law.  

Lewis Powell is a trial lawyer. In 2018, the National Law Journal recognized him as a “Master of The Courtroom”. His litigation practice has spanned intellectual property, commercial, fraud, antitrust, nuclear regulatory, environmental, toxic tort matters, and telecommunications issues. He has tried and appealed cases in state and federal courts and before regulatory agencies in more than 15 states and the District of Columbia. Most recently, he served as lead counsel in two related federal jury trials: in the first, a high-stakes antitrust and breach of contract case, the jury found entirely for his client and awarded substantial damages; in the second, a different jury rejected nearly all of the adversary’s 67 trade-secret claims. He regularly lectures on federal trial practice.

Both Luttig and Powell attended college at Washington and Lee University and law school at the University of Virginia. From 2023 – August 2025, Luttig co-chaired the American Bar Association’s bipartisan Task Force for American Democracy. Powell was one of its 30 members. 

Luttig has two grown children, one of whom attended W&L. Of Powell’s three grown children, two are Generals; one of them recently married a fellow ‘18 classmate.

Both Luttig and Powell spend as much time in Colorado as their schedules allow.

Leadership Lab: Reflections on Ethical Leadership in Contemporary Times

Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Leyburn Library 128

Drawing from the practice and study of leadership across democracies, Kenneth P. Ruscio, President Emeritus of Washington and Lee University, will reflect on ethical leadership during our current challenging times. In this inaugural lecture of the Mudd Leadership Lab, Ruscio suggests that two qualities—humility and trust—serve to distinguish leadership from the mere use of power. His talk on May 7, 2025, will examine how these foundational aspects of ethical leadership are informed and sustained by notions of the collective good. Indeed, these topics have been a central focus of Ruscio’s writing and teaching over the last few decades. We are fortunate to have him explore with us these defining principles of ethical leadership.

Ruscio served as President of Washington and Lee University from 2006-2016. Prior to that he held faculty and administrative positions at W&L and was Dean of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond from 2002-2006. His writing and teaching have focused on democratic theory, political leadership, trust, and public policy. He is the author of the 2004 book The Leadership Dilemma in Modern Democracy. He currently serves on the Boards of Skidmore College in New York, The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, and the Collegiate School in Richmond.