Education in Leadership—go Cobalt!
| Publication year | 2015 |
| Pages | 5 |
| Citation | Vol. 44 No. 10 Pg. 5 |
In and Around the Bar CBA President's Message to Members
Education in Leadership—Go COBALT!
By Loren M. Brown.
I'm often asked how I managed to become President of the CBA. It's hard to identify a single thing or circumstance that has led to my success thus far—a combination of many supportive people and events brought me here. However, if I were forced to identify the largest driving factor, beyond good fortune, it would be my participation in the CBA's Leadership Training Program (COBALT). I'm a proud graduate of the 2010 COBALT class. I went on to serve on the COBALT Programs Committee (2011-12) and Executive Committee (2012-14), eventually serving as Chair of the Executive Committee (2013-14).
There are many paths to CBA leadership available to our members, but this is the one I was lucky enough to take. COBALT taught me what it means to be an effective leader and helped me sharpen my leadership skills. Through my participation in the program, I expanded my network, which now includes fellow COBALT grads who live and work throughout the state. Without COBALT, I would not be where I am today.
What is COBALT?
COBALT was created in 2006, through the efforts of many, including Roger Clark (then CBA President), Liz Starrs (then CBA President-Elect), and Dana Collier Smith (CBA Assistant Executive Director). The program was modeled after the Tennessee Bar Association's Leadership Law program —TBALL—and was created to train lawyers to take over as the future leaders of the CBA. The mission of COBALT is to enhance, promote, and inspire the leadership of the legal profession.
The first COBALT class was held in 2007, and the program will mark its tenth year in just a few short months. The continued success of COBALT is the result of a true labor of love of Collier Smith, who organizes and oversees the program.
Each year, the COBALT Executive Committee selects a new class (of up to 20 CBA members) from an ever-increasing pool of applicants. The selection process focuses on past leadership experience or potential. It also strives to achieve ethnic, gender, age, practice area, and geographic diversity. COBALT brings together lawyers from different practice areas with a variety of experiences from across Colorado. These lawyers are often acknowledged leaders of the profession and their communities, or those who are seen as having...
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