
Straight from the Students: Study Helps Reveal the Impact of Law School Experiences on Professional Identity Formation
By: Megan Bess, Director of the Externship Program & Assistant Professor of Law, University of Illinois Chicago School of Law Legal education has fully entered a new era of recognizing the importance of professional identity formation (PIF). All law schools now have programs in place to support professional identity formation across curricular and extracurricular programming.[1] Despite this, legal educators do not have much evidence about the impact of law school experiences on student professional identity formation. Other professions, notably medicine, have gathered more data about the major transitions students experience on their paths from student to professional. I’ve written before about the importance of Professor Neil Hamilton’s research on the significance of 1L experiences on law students’ thinking and acting like lawyers.[2] His research revealed how work experience during the summer following a student’s 1L year significantly impacts the PIF process. Past studies of lawyers and law school graduates suggest experiential learning is highly valuable in preparing students for legal practice.[3] To the extent that legal educators can gather more data about the impact of experiences on students, this information can help schools better develop professional identity formation during key moments. Improving the quality of support for experiences that are […]