Jennifer Leonard L’04

Jen Leonard L’04 is the Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director of the Future of the Profession Initiative (“FPI”). Leonard advances educational and thought leadership projects that integrate an evolving understanding of the skills and knowledge lawyers need to thrive in a rapidly changing professional landscape. She and her colleagues also develop projects that engage Penn Carey Law students and creative thinkers from other disciplines in designing solutions that make civil legal systems more accessible.

Leonard teaches “Modern Law Firm Business Strategy,” a course that explores the many trends contributing to an unprecedented era of change in the legal industry. She also teaches “Innovation in Practice: Design Thinking for Legal Professionals.” This experiential class teaches law students how a client-centered mindset and powerful problem-solving frameworks can generate new solutions to intractable legal service delivery challenges.

Leonard previously served as Penn Carey Law’s Associate Dean for Professional Engagement and as Director of the Center on Professionalism. She was Chief of Staff to the City of Philadelphia Law Department from 2008-2013. She also practiced as a litigator with a Center City law firm and worked as a judicial law clerk.

Leonard’s work promotes greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession, including through her service on NALP’s Driving Inclusion in the Legal Industry Task Force. She also focuses on improving the health and well-being of the legal community. She and her colleagues design various activities, including a Professional Responsibility module on the connection between attorney well-being and ethical obligations to clients, that support law students in understanding and responding to the pressures of practice. She has also served on the ABA Law Practice Attorney Well-Being Committee.

Leonard has received Penn’s Beverly Edwards Memorial Award for Excellence in Leadership. Her community service includes her role as Vice President of the Board of Directors for The Caring Center, an exemplary early childhood education center in Philadelphia’s Mantua neighborhood.

Leonard graduated from the Law School in 2004 and from Penn State University in 2000. She lives in the Art Museum area of Philadelphia with her family.

Jennifer Leonard In the Media

Q&A with Jennifer Leonard, Chief Innovation Officer and Executive Director at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law’s Future of the Profession Initiative
McKinsey & Company In the Balance Blog

Episode 2 - Defining Innovation with Jennifer Leonard, Chief Innovation Officer, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Leaders and Changemakers Podcast

Penn Law Future of the Profession Initiative, Design Thinking, and Creativity for Lawyers
Practising Law Institute PD Insider Podcast

Ep. 116 – Jennifer Leonard of Penn Law’s Future of the Profession Initiative
The Geek in Review

Penn Law’s Jennifer Leonard on the future of legal practice, the Future of the Profession Initiative and how Covid-19 affects the legal industry
Case in Point Podcast