Professional Formation
Articles are organized by year.
Current Events in Legal Classrooms: Enhancing Professional Identity Formation (June 2, 2025)
Leahy, Stevie, Current Events in Legal Classrooms: Enhancing Professional Identity Formation (June 02, 2025). Suffolk University Law School Research Paper No. 25-9, Mercer Law Review, Vol. 76, No. 3, Pg. 1109 (2025)
Abstract
In the Fall of 2023, educators were surveyed on their inclusion of "current events" in classroom spaces ("CE Survey"). The term current events was broadly defined as: "events that are happening in the world, including recent legal decisions (U.S. or global), political events that impact the operation of the legal system, and/or social events that impact your community. This definition is intended to be inclusive." Based on nearly 100 responded, the results indicate that while the large majority of educators agreed that incorporating current events into instruction is vital, there are still many barriers to responsible inclusion of this type of material in many law school classrooms. This Article discusses the results of the CE Survey and advocates for intentional and responsible inclusion of this type of material to facilitate student professional identity, as well as to grow students' ability for ethical and respectful disagreement in an increasingly global society. The Article provides starting exercises, aimed at educators new to incorporating legal skills within context - they do not require an expert position on an incredibly challenging legal issue that changes with each news cycle [nor should an educator attempt this when not sufficiently qualified or informed]. Rather, the exercises are intended to place the topics they are learning in a broader context within our cultural and legal society and allow the students to grow their own professional identities. Educators embrace challenges with thoughtful preparation, clear pedagogical goals, and a commitment to fostering a classroom environment where students can critically engage with the law as it operates in society. The Article concludes that educators new to this space need to responsibly adjust their approach to match the needs of students and the mandates of the profession.
Reforming the Rules: A Proposal for Modifying the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to Permit Partnerships Between Lawyers and Nonlawyers in the Practice of Law
Zeitlin, Sholom, Reforming the Rules: A Proposal for Modifying the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to Permit Partnerships Between Lawyers and Nonlawyers in the Practice of Law (February 01, 2025). Cardozo Law Review, Volume 46, Issue 3, pp. 1133-1165 (2025).
Abstract
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit partnerships between lawyers and nonlawyers in the practice of law, a ban that purportedly exists to protect lawyers’ professional independence of judgment. Despite this noble sentiment, the prohibition ultimately hurts the legal market, to the expense of potential clients, by limiting the professional options available at the lawyer’s disposal. The existence of lawyer-nonlawyer partnerships, recently espoused by two states, both decreases the costs and barriers involved in obtaining justice and encourages much-needed legal innovation. While other scholars have proposed schemes that would permit such partnerships without compromising the lawyer’s professional responsibility, their methods arguably fail to align the incentives of lawyers with those of their nonlawyer partners. This Note attempts to address this issue by drawing from traditional principles of partnership law and vicarious liability. Holding lawyers, individually, to a strict liability standard concerning the legal misconduct of their nonlawyer partners while designating their partnerships as independently disciplined entities safeguards the professional responsibility of lawyers and nonlawyers alike, paving the way for reform of Model Rule 5.4(b)
The Guided Sequence for Formation of Professional Identity
Thomson, David I. C., The Guided Sequence for Formation of Professional Identity (January 03, 2025). U Denver Legal Studies Research Paper No. 25-10, 20 Univ. St. Thomas L.J. 869.
Abstract
When the ABA approved a requirement that law schools offer opportunities for the formation of professional identity, there were already several courses on the topic that had been developed in numerous law schools. But those are limited to the students who take them, and do not - even taken together - fulfill the ABA rule. Instead of trying to teach a course on professional identity—as if that were teachable in the didactic sense—we should instead create exercises (or modules if you prefer) in which students may practice making these decisions. We must do that in virtually every course a student takes in law school. This way, they can have multiple opportunities to form an identity that is consonant with the identities they brought to law school, their developing understanding of their duty to uphold the rule of law, and their own decisions about what kind of lawyer they want to be. The approach recommended by this article is a Guided Sequence for Formation of Professional Identity, or a "GSFPI." It is so named because it starts with a legal question that would likely come from one (or more) of the substantive legal subjects being studied in the course. In this way, a GSFPI can be inserted in any course. It is a five-step process, fully described in this article.
Professional Responsibility and the Privilege in the Cross-Border Practice of Law (November 21, 2024)
Abstract
This article captures my presentation and the discussion at the May 2024 Dubrovnik Program on Cross-Border Dispute Resolution co-sponsored by the Center for International Legal Education (CILE) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Law Faculties at the University of Verona and the University of Zagreb. I review U.S. law on professional responsibility and cross-border practice, with a focus on disciplinary decisions and cases dealing with the unauthorized practice of law. I follow that discussion with consideration of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrines in order to highlight how challenges to the admissibility of evidence in dispute resolution proceedings both demonstrate the differences in legal system approaches to the lawyer-client relationship and indicate the need for careful communication at all stages of that relationship when it crosses borders. I conclude that the current system of lawyer regulation does not meet the needs of the contemporary world. The result is a need for vigilance on the part of any lawyer engaged in the cross-border practice of law.
Professional Identity Formation and the NextGen Bar Open Opportunities for Law Student and Law School Success (November 16, 2024)
Abstract
All law faculty, staff, and students want students and graduates to be successful with respect to: (1) academic performance; (2) bar passage; (3) meaningful post-graduation employment; and (4) excellent service to clients and the legal system. Both the 2022 changes to ABA accreditation Standard 303 and the ongoing implementation of the NextGen Bar starting in five states in 2026 and ten more states in 2027 open substantial opportunities for law students and law schools to achieve more success at these four goals.
The 2022 revision to accreditation Standard 303 requires that each law school must provide substantial opportunities each year for students to explore the core values of the profession that are foundational to successful legal practice. The National Conference of Bar Examiners and many state supreme courts, based on empirical evidence, are now moving to the NextGen Bar that encompasses a broader range of skills necessary for newly licensed lawyers successfully to practice law that the current bar examination.
These two changes are asking law faculty and staff to think about legal education in two fundamentally different ways to help students achieve greater success at the four goals above. The first fundamental change is that the organized bar through accreditation and the state supreme courts through the bar examination are signaling that law schools must give more attention (1) to each student's reflective exploration of the professional values foundational to successful legal practice, and (2) development of a wider range of foundational lawyering skills beyond the thinking like a lawyer skills including client counseling, client relationship, negotiation and dispute resolution, and investigation skills.
The second fundamental change is that an effective curriculum to foster each student's growth toward later stages of development regarding both exploration of the professional values foundational to successful legal practice and the four new foundational NextGen Bar skills will happen principally together in authentic professional experiences (that are or mimic actual professional work) combined with coaching, feedback, guided reflection, and an action plan for the student to go to the next level on a skill. The thinking like a lawyer curriculum and the authentic professional experiences curriculum must be coordinated to foster each student's growth step by step towards being a newly licensed lawyer.
Straight From The Students: The Impact of Law School Experiences On Professional Identity Formation (November 13, 2024)
Abstract
Unlike other professions, there exists little research about the professional identity formation of law students. This process is key to professional socialization as they transition from student to lawyer. Research from other fields (notably medicine) and limited research on first-year law students suggest that authentic real-world experiences have a significant impact on professional identity formation. With this hypothesis in mind, this paper presents data gathered from graduating law students about the impact of law school experiences on their ability to think and act like a lawyer. This research was conducted with a goal to aid law schools in focusing professional identity formation efforts on the experiences that students identify as most valuable to their professional development.
Merging the Bench, Bar, and Law Schools: How a Student Scholars Program Achieves Professional Identity Through Scholarly Writing, Mentorship, and Presentation (September 22, 2024)
Abstract
This Article describes an innovative co-curricular program, the Student Scholars Program, that provides law students with an opportunity to present their scholarly papers before the bench, bar, and law school community. The Program aids law schools in meeting accreditation standards, such as the ABA Standards 302 and 303. Standard 302 requires law schools to achieve specific learning outcomes. Standard 303(b)(3) requires law schools to provide "substantial opportunities" for students to develop a "professional identity." This program aids schools in achieving these standards. Furthermore, this program increases interaction between students and the legal profession by creating episodic mentoring opportunities. Launched in April 2021, the Student Scholars Program is hosted annually by the Federal Bar Association's EDNY chapter; and the FBA law student divisions at the schools of St. John's University School of Law and Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law School.
Professional Identity Formation Through Exploring Academic, Professional, and Personal Well-Being (August 30, 2024)
Abstract
Law students have reported common barriers during their academic journeys. They report that demands on their time are at an all-time high, that they believe that there’s one “right way” to be a law student and lawyer, or that they are constantly comparing themselves to others. Research suggests, however, that students can shape the way they experience difficult moments by looking at these challenges in positive ways and adopting a perspective that helps them to thrive. Working with psychology researcher Dr. Omid Fotuhi, and a group of law students, we created an intersession course—Thriving in the Law: Tools for Academic, Professional, and Personal Well-Being—that allows students to discuss the myriad of challenges that they face and to support their cultivation of a resilience toolbox to help them persevere when challenges arise.
In this course, we helped students analyze behavior and mindset from a psychological perspective. We know there are certain points in the students’ law school journey where they question their ability and that there are things in their environment that cause them to question themselves. Some are particular to our institution, some to law students as a whole, and some to students generally. We are not trying to take any of these things away; it would be impossible to do. Instead, we focused on helping students make meaning of the events that are maladaptive. We used science-based strategies to help students understand ways to boost motivation, manage distraction, form more meaningful connections, and improve performance. Using exercises, videos, lectures, and journaling, we explored best practices for learning how to thrive academically, professionally, and personally. Together, we helped students develop actionable skills, strategies, and routines for their toolbox so that they can positively adapt to challenging circumstances.
By addressing students’ well-being in these three categories, we are also guiding students in developing their professional identity. American Bar Association (ABA) Standard 303(b)(3) provides that “A law school shall provide substantial opportunities to students for: . . . the development of a professional identity.” Interpretation 303-5 has clarified that “[t]he development of professional identity should involve an intentional exploration of the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.” Earlier works defining professional identity focused on values and guiding principles. Little time has been spent on developing professional identity through well-being. This article adds to the literature by exploring professional identity through the lens of students’ personal, academic, and professional well-being and discussing a new course where these concepts are explored with students.
This article first provides a brief overview of the history of professional identity formation in legal education. The article then explores the psychological research in the areas of well-being and mindset that influenced our work. With this backdrop, the article discusses in detail the Thriving in the Law course, providing information about the course creation, development, implementation, and lessons learned. Finally, the article provides examples of well-being practices that professors can adapt to their law school classrooms.
Cultivating Teaching Assistants' Professional Identities (August 26, 2024)
Abstract
In 2022, the American Bar Association (ABA) amended Law School Accreditation Standard 303(b) by adding an explicit requirement that law students have “substantial opportunities” for “the development of a professional identity.” In the years leading up to this change, several scholars stressed the importance of teaching professional identity—that is, of helping students begin to cultivate the personal and professional values appropriate to the practice of law. Yet one cohort of law students is surprisingly absent from the existing professional-identity literature: teaching assistants (TAs).
Law-school TAs have responsibilities—from offering reasoned advice, to editing legal-style documents, to problem-solving with supervisors—that mirror many of the tasks they will assume as new attorneys. Moreover, as the above self-reflection excerpts make clear, TAs inhabit a liminal space between student and professor, academia and legal practice. Thus, we argue in this article that TAs’ unique apprenticeship position provides an important opportunity for professors to help their TAs form strong professional identities.
In Section I of this article, we discuss the ABA’s professional-identity requirement. In Section II, we explain how TAs’ roles and responsibilities provide a rich site for exploring professional-identity issues. In Section III, we present practical guidance and suggestions for ways that law professors can help foster TAs’ professional-identity formation.
While we focus specifically on legal-writing TAs, our insights and suggestions apply to any law-school TAs who have a substantial student-facing or mentoring component.
Moral Remainders: What Is The Price of Professional Integrity? (June 06, 2024)
Vaughan, Steven, Moral Remainders: What Is The Price of Professional Integrity? (June 06, 2024).
Abstract
For me, the requirement to act with integrity is primarily a reminder of an obligation on solicitors to think about their special role in society and what we expect because of that important role (alongside their obligations to their clients). I also argue that exercises of integrity may and sometimes will be morally criticisable. This could be because of the significance of the impacts of doing the legal thing for a client: the moral cost despite doing the right thing. Criticism might instead be offered because we are wrong about what the professional values are that matter, or what those professional values reasonably mean. Or criticism might be because we are not sure which set of values—personal or professional—matter most (or we get that decision ‘wrong'). Integrity means taking that criticism - withstanding it and accepting/acting on it. Being able, as Tim Dare put it, to withstand a bit of shaking. The lecture offers a view that integrity is hard because it’s often hard to know what is required in general and in particular contexts. Here, we might think that integrity captures the ‘spirit’ of the professional role, quite apart from the individual substantive rules. But the challenge of articulating the spirit remains. Towards the end of the lecture, I offer some thoughts on how that articulation might occur in practice.
What About Us? (March 21, 2024)
Abstract
The revised ABA Standards require law schools to provide substantial opportunities for law students to develop their professional identity. An individual’s professional identity as a lawyer consists of one’s personal identities integrated into who they are as a professional. Gaining a professional identity means going from an outsider to an insider in that profession, and a law student’s professional identity formation refers to the process of evolving from law student to lawyer. Law schools must dive into the murky waters of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation because that is where our historically underrepresented law students are, trying to become professionals in a system that sees them as the other, different, and outsiders."
Entertaining and Embracing Professional Identity Development in the 1L Legal Writing Curriculum (February 24, 2024)
Abstract
This Article offers a definition of professional identity and explains why the requirement to provide opportunities for "professional identity" development across the curriculum renders objections to taking on this curricular responsibility largely irrelevant. This Article calls on first-year legal writing faculty to be leaders in professional identity development and offers a proposal for how they can use the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to introduce ethics and professionalism in the first-year legal writing curriculum in an interesting and entertaining way.
Professionalism in Law and in Health (February 9, 2024)
Abstract
There are countless examples of lawyers portrayed both on screen and in print. Fans of onscreen legal dramas will recall, Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The show depicts a man who works as a mailperson in a law firm to put himself through law school. Even as endearing as his character is, he is a con man using the law to his personal advantage in the most unethical ways. In fact, the show is a masterclass on what not to do as a lawyer. From, Atticus Finch to Perry Mason; from shows such as Law & Order to Suits, being a lawyer focuses on going to court, either prosecuting the bad guys or defending the good ones. Scenes are centered on courtroom drama with the adversarial nature of litigation on full display. And almost every finale involves the lawyer triumphing through a protracted courtroom battle (think A Few Good Men).
But this is just a slice of what the law and what lawyers do on a routine basis. Indeed, what lawyers engage in is not much different from bioethicists a point that has perhaps resulted in the proliferation of JD/MBE programs. That is, to provide counsel, support, and reassurances to clients many of whom are in varying amounts of distress. For lawyers, these scenarios can range from the mundane to violent crimes but can also fall squarely in the realm of bioethics in areas such as estate planning. Lawyers assisting clients in estate planning are often also involved with end- of-life care planning. As a pedagogical matter, estate planning (trusts and wills) is a part of the law school doctrinal curriculum. Unfortunately, and not unlike medical schools, there is no mandatory class on how to develop the skill set necessary to communicate and engage with clients in these conversations. If students wish to develop such skills, some law schools particularly those connected with a medical school, provide elective clinical or experiential learning courses. Yet, estate planning and more specifically, end- of-life care planning is a critical and essential thing to do.
Creating a Culture of Professionalism: Equipping Students for the Practicalities and Paradoxes of the Legal Profession (January 31, 2024)
Abstract
This article explores the urgent need for law schools to foster a culture of professionalism that addresses the evolving realities of legal practice. Tracing the historical shift from apprenticeship models to academic legal training, the authors critique the dominance of Langdell’s case method and its limitations in preparing students for the ethical, interpersonal, and paradoxical challenges of modern lawyering. Against the backdrop of new ABA requirements emphasizing professional identity formation, the article argues for a more holistic legal education—one that integrates technical competence with moral reasoning, self-awareness, and a service-oriented mindset. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship and practical teaching experience, the authors propose pathways for embedding character development, leadership training, and values-based decision-making into the law school experience. This culture shift, they contend, is essential not only for student well-being and career success but for upholding the public responsibilities of the legal profession in a complex and changing society.
Between Continuity and Change in the Italian Legal Profession - Boutique Law Firms as the Last Bastion of Professionalism (January 26, 2024)
Abstract
This paper provides an empirical study of Italian "boutique law firms". By building on seventeen semi-structured interviews with lawyers, the paper explores institutional, professional, and societal features of such firms and their lawyers. The article shows that, while the rise of large law firms triggered a partitioning of the Italian legal field in the past decades, more recently this small, but economically important, sector of the profession revived the classic model of delivering legal services characterized by a strong sense of autonomy and independence, a client-centered but ethically robust approach to legal practice, a close relationship with academic and political environments, and a focus on projecting a professional image of themselves and their firms in society. These are, in other words, the last bastion of professionalism and are increasingly gaining an important role in the Italian field.
The Rule of Law, The Lawyer's Role as a Public Citizen, and Professional Identity: How Fostering the Development of Professional Identity Can Help Law Schools Address the Crisis Facing American Democracy (January 01, 2024)
Abstract
American democracy is in crisis. The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol must serve as a renewed wake-up call for the legal profession. We can no longer keep our heads down, focused solely or even primarily on serving our clients, without being mindful that what we do every day as lawyers starts and ends with our duty to uphold the rule of law and our system of justice. By training the lawyers of tomorrow, American law schools are uniquely positioned to elevate the role of the lawyer as a public citizen charged with upholding the rule of law and remedying injustice. Accordingly, this article will explore the intersection of the Preamble’s definition of lawyer “as public citizen” with law student professional identity formation and training on cross-cultural competence, racism, and bias required by ABA Standards 303(b)(3) and 303(c). This intersection provides a crucial means to help students discern their role as future lawyers and empower students in their duties to protect the rule of law as the foundation of democracy, provide access to justice, and make change where the law has created injustice.
Standard 303 and the Development of Student Professional Identity: A Framework for the Intentional Exploration of the Profession's Core Values (October 8, 2023)
AbstractLegal educators, following the change in ABA accreditation Standard 303(b)(3), must face directly the question “what are the core values of the legal profession?” This article offers a framework both to help faculty and staff clarify their thinking on what are the profession’s core values and to spotlight the choices law schools need to consider in purposeful fashion.
Using Technology to Promote Well-Being and Foster Professional Identity Formation in the 1L Classroom (October 01, 2023)
Abstract
Critical components of professional identity are associated with self-determination theory. While all three of the basic psychological needs contribute to well-being, autonomy is considered the most important. Moreover, when student autonomy is supported, “by giving them (1) as much choice as possible, (2) a meaningful rationale to explain decisions, and (3) a sense that authorities are aware of and care about their point of view,” it leads to “(1) higher self-determined career motivation; (2) higher well-being; and (3) higher academic performance.” For the past three years, I have incorporated two simple online tools to address student well-being in my Contracts classroom: a minute of meditation and a quick retrospective board soliciting responses to three questions. While my focus was informed by the connection of professional identity formation and well-being, it was only after I started using the online tools that I realized that both tools help to address the three basic psychological needs defined by self-determination theory.
Breaking Down Siloes and Building Up Students: The Transformational Possibilities of Professional Identity Formation (August 30, 2023)
Abstract
Because Standard 303(b)(3) is necessarily tied to the unique character, existing structures, and available resources of a law school, each school’s plan will be different. That has been our experience as we have worked as professional identity formation leaders in different roles with varying perspectives. In this essay, we hope to emphasize that professional identity formation efforts can occur all across the law school’s operations, from administrative offices to classrooms to voluntary student activities. We also provide specific examples of how schools can be more intentional and explicit as they weave together multiple professional identity formation opportunities for their students. This process takes time and attention, but it creates a powerful whole-building approach to identity formation that not only complies with 303(b)(3), but best positions our students for a successful, fulfilling, and impactful career in law.
Integrating Artificial Intelligence Tools into the Formation of Professional Identity (August 28, 2023)
Abstract
My claim in this Article is that a lawyer’s personal use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the practice of law is now an essential component of a lawyer’s professional identity that must be intentionally developed as a law student before entering the practice of law. After demonstrating the strong connection between the use of AI tools in legal practice, the requirement of lawyer competence, and the formation of professional identity, the Article proposes four “best practices” principles for integrating AI tools with traditional lawyering skills exercises to assist students in the formation of professional identity. The Article concludes with an example that can be used in the first-year Property course.
Professional Responsibility and Professional Identity Formation in a Community of Practice with Alumni (August 6, 2023)
Abstract
This article explores a new approach to the required professional responsibility course that provides reasonable coverage of the law of lawyering, legal analysis, and compliance, but also helps each student understand and participate in a community of practice focused on all the discretionary calls of lawyering in the area of the student’s ultimate practice interest. The student sees that legal ethics knowledge and capacities are not just doctrinal knowledge and legal analysis but are also social and situated in a community of practice. The student also sees that many alumni of the law school are successful in the practice of law while living into the values of the law school and the profession, not just compliance with the minimum floor of the law of lawyering. The student will also understand that in any practice area, the experienced lawyers know who can be trusted and who are the jerks. It will be the student’s and new lawyer’s choice which path to take.
Professional Identity Formation through Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) (August 4, 2023)
Abstract
Therapeutic Jurisprudence (“TJ”) is an approach to law which highlights “wellbeing” as an important component of the legal system. The aim of this blog is to prove that applying law in a TJ manner is a simple and “ready to use” tool to fulfill the revised ABA Standards for the development of a professional identity in the legal profession. To this purpose we will present a set of TJ legal values creating the “lens” through which professionals can apply the law in a “better and more fulfilling way” and a collection of examples of different legal roles that can give tangible ideas of professional identity formation.
An Unexpected Synergy: How Integrating Professional Identity Formation Exercises in a Civil Procedure Course Not Only Helps Students Form a Professional Identity but Also Enhances Their Understanding of Civil Procedure (Forthcoming) (July 14, 2023)
Abstract
This article demonstrates that integrating professional identity formation exercises in a required course accomplishes multiple goals. The Carnegie report stated, "[l]egal analysis alone is only a partial foundation for developing professional competence and identity." The report was clear that only the formation of values and the ability to exercise moral judgment would allow students to practice as true professionals. Both first-year and advanced civil procedure courses feature professional identity formation exercises. They present dilemmas litigators face, particularly ones that the Model Rules of Professional Conduct do not answer.
Leveraging Professional Identity Formation in the Doctrinal Law School Class (June 23, 2023)
Abstract
American law schools are paying increased attention to the professional identity formation of their students. The trend should grow now that the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has revised its accreditation standards to prescribe that “a law school shall provide substantial opportunities to students for … (3) the development of a professional identity.”
As law school faculty and staff proceed, professors who teach traditional doctrinal classes may doubt they can do much if anything differently in their courses to support professional identity formation. Questions about course coverage and their own competency to focus on professional identity formation understandably arise and may give professors pause. This article illustrates how purposeful focus on professional identity formation in a doctrinal course can be done to enrich the educational experience for students. Rather than detracting from the doctrinal work, professional identity formation features can be a multiplier. They can be leveraged to promote the doctrinal learning and the sharpening of cognitive skills traditionally expected in the course, while also contributing positively to the student’s development as a professional in other ways. Importantly, doing so is not difficult and requires no special expertise of the professor.
Civility Matters: Why Law Schools Must Teach Students to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable (June 1, 2023)
Abstract
As society becomes less civil and less willing to engage in civil discourse, law schools face a heightened need to instill civility as a cornerstone of being a lawyer. The inherently adversarial nature of the legal profession often involves intense conflicts and high-stakes situations. For the system of justice to function, those representing clients must be able to negotiate, debate, and disagree without being disagreeable. Civility fosters a respectful and collaborative atmosphere, enhances the administration of justice, and upholds the integrity of the legal profession. Civility also provides a better culture for lawyer well-being. This Article examines the historical context of civility in the legal profession, its ethical underpinnings, the practical implications of cultivating a civil legal practice, and the importance of addressing professional expectations of civility beginning in law school.
Lawfluencers: Legal Professionalism on Tiktok and Youtube (May 1, 2023)
Abstract
This article investigates the rise of lawyer-influencers or ‘lawfluencers’ and what their arrival means for legal professionalism. In today’s attention economy, ‘influencers’ are now central players. An influencer shares knowledge and ‘lifestyle’ on social media to accumulate a ‘following’ whose loyalty they ‘monetise’ for commercial gain and/or cultural capital. They do so through performance strategies, usually by curating an ‘amateur’ (charismatic and relatable) identity. Lawfluencers are part of a rising crop of – underexamined – ‘knowledge influencers’; professionals who are sharing their expertise and daily lives with global audiences. To be successful, lawfluencers must choose which balance between professional (trusted expert with certain duties and values) and amateur (authentic and approachable personalities) best suits their ‘brand’ and audience. This public engagement and exposure is unprecedented for a profession that has historically opposed advertising and maintained a certain mystique. Our article explains what lawfluencing is, focusing on TikTok and YouTube as the two most prominent video-based social media platforms. It identifies the drivers behind and technological features shaping the appearance of influencing in law. It also describes the types of videos lawyers are creating, and with what blends of professional versus amateur. Our article focuses on the implications of ‘lawfluencing’ for ‘professionalism’ or for the identities, expertise, values, and arrangements that have typically marked out professional status. Lawfluencing might be offering greater access to justice for the public, and new outlets for creativity and career progression for lawyers, but this activity is occurring on the platforms of Big Tech, subject to their commercial imperatives and the sovereignty of the algorithm. This article outlines the ethics risks influencing poses to clients and lawyers, and the possible challenges to the legitimacy of the legal profession and the legal system. In the process, we identify responsible lawfluencing practices necessary for the sustainable development of the legal profession in the digital era.
Integrating Professional Identity into the Traditional Classroom (April 10, 2023)
Abstract
This article focuses on Integrating Professional Identity in the Traditional Classroom. In part, the article explores my experience as a Civil Procedure teacher and how attempting to enliven arcane concepts, I almost by necessity adopted simulations into the traditional classroom.
The article explores one of the core lessons about developing a professional identity. As the students discuss among themselves and then with me, they must struggle with whether they must hand over a smoking gun, which damages their client’s case. The article explores typical reactions of class members as they realize that their view of the zealous advocate may run afoul of their obligations as officers of the court and may even cross the line between legitimate law practice and obstruction of justice.
Student Professional Identity Formation and the Foundational Skill of Building a Tent of Professional Relationships to Support the Student (2023)
Abstract
This article is a guide for law faculty and staff who want each student to build a tent of professional relationships – a professional network – who both support the student and trust the student to do the work of a lawyer. The importance of professional networks for work performance and career opportunities has been well-established in hundreds of empirical studies. In addition, a growing research literature is documenting that the creation of a professional network requires pro-active networking behaviors - defined as an individual’s efforts to develop and maintain professional relationships with others who can potentially provide assistance to them in their career or work.
Louis D. Brandeis and the Formation of a Positive Professional Identity (2023)
Abstract
We are fortunate to live in a country where political liberty and economic opportunity are both possible, though many injustices remain. But we sometimes forget that it is the rule of law that provides the essential foundation for a free society. Our laws, however, are not self-executing. But we need more than competent representation from our attorneys - we need them to have a positive professional identity that enables them to serve both their clients and the public interest with distinction.
Exploring Well-Being Practices As Part of Law Student Development of a Positive Professional Identity (2023)
Abstract
The American Bar Association (“ABA”) is now requiring all ABA-approved American law schools to provide “substantial opportunities to students for . . . the development of a professional identity,” in turn interpreted to “involve an intentional exploration of the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.” The ABA does not define either what well-being practices should be intentionally explored or how to go about it. This Article is designed to help fill that gap by drawing on my experience in teaching multiple upper-level courses, as well as a new one-credit first-year course. An objective of these courses has not only been to help the students form a professional identity that includes well-being practices, but also to help that identity be a positive one by trying to bring out the best in them. The pedagogical idea is to encourage law students to use state Bar admission standards of character and fitness as positive aspirations, not just minimum requirements. The Character element allows student exploration of their and others’ positive character. The Fitness aspect allows student exploration of what might be the best fit in terms of a preferred professional role, as well as six dimensions of well-being: Relationships, Engagement, Vitality, Achievement, Meaning, and Positive Emotion, summarized into an acronym: “REVAMP.” Both Character and Fitness are important for law students’ positive professional identity development, as lawyers who could be strong in all six domains of well-being could still be engaged in morally blameworthy conduct. This Article will also quote from some student writing for or related to my courses, with the students’ consent, reporting how such well-being practices have been helpful.
The Access and Justice Imperatives of the Rules of Professional Conduct (October 26, 2022)
Abstract
The rules of professional conduct are the backbone of legal ethics. The primary objective of legal ethics, and thus of the rules, is protecting clients, the legal system, the public, and justice. Increasingly, however, the rules fail at protecting the public and advancing justice. The problem does not lie with a particular rule. Rather, the rules are based on antiquated assumptions, which no longer reflect some of the fundamental needs of clients and the public nor the practice realities of lawyers. To fulfill their objective, the rules must address the contemporary needs of clients and the public: they must help address the problem of insufficient access to lawyers for those who cannot afford to pay for legal services, and they must meaningfully address widespread forms of inequality, including gender and racial injustices. The Article explains and rejects the legal profession’s traditional defense of the rules pursuant to which lawyers are three-legged stools who effectively balance the interests of clients, the legal system, and the public. Instead, the Article advances the best possible defense of the rules, an account in which lawyers serve the public by serving clients and advancing the Rule of Law but shows that this account is unsustainable given contemporary practice realities. Prevalent insufficient access to lawyers, changing power dynamics between clients, lawyers, and non-lawyers, and persistent injustices mean that lawyers can no longer credibly claim to indirectly serve the public by serving paying clients. Rather, the rules should be revised to mandate that lawyers increase access to legal services and pursue justice directly. The Article concludes by developing an access and justice-driven agenda for reforming the rules.
Moral Convergence: The Rule of Professional Responsibility Should Apply to Lawyers in Business Ethics (October 3, 2022)
Abstract
This article argues that the rules of professional responsibility should extend to lawyers advising on corporate ethical questions. It establishes how lawyers became ethical advisors to business organizations and then suggests that the ethical foundations of law and business have converged in a manner that brings their conceptions of "right versus wrong" increasingly into alignment. It finds evidence for this in two parallel developments. The first is a series of scandals that have rocked the corporate world and are likely symptoms of a larger phenomenon; the second is a series of key doctrines that have permeated professional education in law and promoted profit maximization as a shorthand for justice. Between these two parallel stories lie shared ethical concepts that embody the convergence in values to which this article attends. Whereas this convergence might make decision making easier, it diminishes ethical rigor within organizations. With that in mind, the following pages advance two related claims. A descriptive one argues that the resulting moral convergence is a condition in which managers and lawyers effectively rely on one another's conceptions of "right" rather than applying separate moral standards to ethical problems, thereby diminishing the rigor of ethical judgment in the business context. And a prescriptive claim argues that the rules of professional responsibility could help resolve this by extending their reach to cover lawyers advising on ethical questions in business organizations.
Reflections on Professionalism in Tribal Jurisdictions (August 8, 2022)
Abstract
In this article, I will canvass several themes of professionalism in tribal practice, drawing my tribal law experience. Many lawyers to undervalue — even disrespect — tribal governance. This lack of professionalism has significant costs to tribal governments, tribal business, and their business partners.
The Content of Social Competencies of a Lawyer Contained in the Text-Requirements of Russian Employers for the Training of Students within the Framework of Higher Professional Education (June 2, 2022)
Abstract
he article deals with the competence-based approach to education in its social aspect from the standpoint of training students-future lawyers. The author emphasizes the importance of introducing a competence-based approach in higher professional education, based on an analysis of the works of both domestic and foreign authors and regulatory documents, since there is a need to provide the education system with a more fully, personally and socially integrated result of education as today it is represented by complex, multi-component personal quality of a person which, in addition to knowledge, skills and abilities, also involves the experience of personal responsibility and independent activity. Accordingly, the understanding that the competence-based education results is of utmost importance today and it should serve as a basis within modern education system. Social competence is also considered as an integral part of the social and professional competence of a professional lawyer in the international sphere. Russian legal firms, in addition to the requirements for professional skills, require specialists to be socially competent, which determined the analysis of the content of the job requirements for the lawyers. On the basis of the method of content analysis, a study of the texts-requirements of Russian legal firms was conducted, as a result of which the requirements for social competencies and skills of social interaction were identified, and a ranked list of these requirements was compiled, which allows to identify the most and least demanded skills of social interaction required by the Russian law firms.
Professionalism as a Racial Construct (March 29, 2022)
Abstract
This Essay examines professionalism as a tool to subjugate people of color in the legal field. Professionalism is a standard with a set of beliefs about how one should operate in the workplace. While professionalism seemingly applies to everyone, it is used to widely police and regulate people of color in various ways including hair, tone, and food scents. Thus, it is not merely that there is a double standard in how professionalism applies: It is that the standard itself is based on a set of beliefs grounded in racial subordination and white supremacy. Through this analysis, professionalism is revealed to be a racial construct.
This Essay examines three main aspects of legal professionalism: (1) threshold to withstand bias and discrimination, (2) selective offense, and (3) the reasonable person standard. Each Subpart starts with a day in my life as an attorney to illustrate how these elements play out. The final section details ways to disrupt professionalism as a racial construct.
A Taxonomy of Professional Identity Formation (August 1, 2022)
Abstract
Following the ABA’s recent mandate requiring law schools to provide students with opportunities for “professional identity formation,” this is the first article to taxonomize the field of professional identity formation advanced or employed in U.S. law schools. By organizing this muddled field into three dominant approaches and examining the primary and sometimes unspoken goals of each, this article unveils the potential pitfalls in this project, including the possibility of coercion, indoctrination, impotence, or waste. Ultimately, this article paves the way for more honest, open, and fruitful dialogue and debate as law schools strategically plan how best to engage in the professional identity formation of future lawyers.
Legal Professionalism in a Context of Uberisation (February 01, 2022)
Abstract
From around the millennial turn, Australia was to the fore among common law countries in the liberalisation of legal practice with a range of radical reforms, such as the ownership of firms by non-lawyers and listing on the stock exchange. Albeit not peculiar to Australia, technological innovations, including remote working, digitalised platforms and artificial intelligence (AI), are also dramatically changing the way law is practised. Invariably motivated by profit maximisation, the impact of these reforms poses discomfiting questions for the underlying values of legal professionalism. This article will overview the reforms that have occurred, drawing on a small study of NewLaw firms in Australia and the UK, to illustrate how the ‘Uberisation’ of contemporary legal practice is contributing to a new incarnation of postprofessionalism. The article will also show how the injunction to work at home in response to COVID-19 has given ‘Uberisation’ an adrenalin shot in the arm.
The Professionalism Paradox: A Sense of Professionalism Increases Vulnerability to Conflicts of Interest (December 24, 2021)
Abstract
Professionalism is often viewed, in the management literature and in practice, as a desirable sought-after trait in employees and managers. This belief, however, does not consider a potential dark side of professionalism. A high self-concept of professionalism often coexists with a shallow notion of the concept and can paradoxically lead to detrimental outcomes, such as greater unethical behavior and increased vulnerability to conflicts of interest. This article describes the circumstances in which this outcome is likely to occur and how workplace policies that rely solely on cultivating intrinsic values at the expense of monitoring and extrinsic controls may fail or have a contrary effect. It recommends integrating both intrinsic and extrinsic approaches together, and redefining professionalism as a deeper concept that includes a set of consistently repeated practices rather than a character trait.
Using Experiential Learning to Create an Inclusive Classroom, Promote Equity, and Develop Professional Identity (December 16, 2021)
Abstract
This Article outlines a pedagogical approach that uses experiential learning to create an inclusive family law classroom, promote equity, and prepare students for law practice through the development of knowledge, skills, and professional identity. The Article describes and analyzes a series of short, in-class exercises I designed to teach third party custody doctrine and build multiple foundational lawyering skills—such as statutory interpretation, client interviewing, client-centered lawyering, and oral advocacy—in a single class session.
Growing Number of Leadership Programs and Courses Supports Professional Identity Formation (October 12, 2021)
Abstract
Through service and leadership, lawyers influence people and impact organizations and communities. Law students need to be aware of their opportunity for influence as part of their professional identity and they need to be prepared for the obligations of service that accompany the privilege of acquiring a law degree. The number of law schools with leadership development courses and programs has grown rapidly over the last ten years to: encourage law students to embrace their obligation to serve clients and society; better equip law students for positions of leadership and influence (including building relationships with clients); and inspire them to boldly seek opportunities to be difference-makers in their communities and the world. The movement to increase the development of lawyers’ professional identity also has grown during that time and will continue to advance with the proposed revisions to ABA Standard 303. The author discusses the important role of lawyers as leaders in society, examines the growth of the leadership-development movement, and offers thoughts about its relationship with the professional-identity movement. The author advocates that both professional identity and leadership development complement professional responsibility efforts and are essential to the education and training of modern law students.
A Letter to Students on the Meaning of Work and Professional Formation (October 5, 2021)
Abstract
The law is a wonderful profession—one that provides opportunities for individuals to make a formative difference in people’s lives, to work with talented colleagues and against skilled opponents, to earn the respect of others, and to make a generous income while doing so. However, it is also the profession with the highest rates of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression among its members—particularly for attorneys within their first ten years of practice. While the rewards of practicing law can be great, so too can be the demands and, at times, the costs. Finding one’s place within the profession while navigating the challenges is a difficult process for all lawyers. In particular, how will one respond when their professional choices or actions challenge their deeply held (but perhaps previously untested) views of themself? Ultimately, how does one reconcile who they are as a lawyer with who they are as a person? We all search for meaning in our work. We all struggle with the tension between maximizing comfort and maximizing impact. We all struggle to reconcile our various roles—as an advocate, colleague, mentor, parent, spouse, child, and friend. And we all fall short from time to time. These reflections, written from a Christian perspective but intended as a letter to all law students discerning their future, address the concept of calling, the inherent value of work, what constitutes the “right” work, and the limits of work.
Becoming Global Lawyers? A Comparative Study of Civic Professionalism (September 12, 2021)
Abstract
Through their professional education and training, new lawyers are generally encouraged to adopt a civic vision of professional identity. This article explores convergences and divergences in how new lawyers entering an increasingly globalized legal profession conceive of their civic roles in different national contexts. In particular, I draw on interviews and a cross-cultural identity-mapping method to examine the lived experiences of civic professionalism among corporate-lawyers-in-training in the United States and China. I found that professional identity formation in the US sample is largely marked by role distancing and a sense of constrained public-interest expression. In contrast, Chinese respondents generally identified strongly with their civic roles, while framing their public contributions in pragmatic, state-aligned terms. I conclude with a comparative analysis of young lawyers’ bottom-up efforts to expand their civic impact.
Divided Selves: Professional Role Distancing Among Law Students and New Lawyers in a Period of Market Crisis (September 12, 2021)
Abstract
In the terms of Erving Goffman’s classic role-distancing analysis, newly admitted law students often aspire to an “embraced” lawyer role that directly expresses their personal and political values. Empirical research has suggested that during law school these students are instructed in an amoral and apolitical vision of professionalism. The literature has paid less attention to how students internally experience these norms within their continual processes of self-construction. This article takes an exploratory microdynamic look at professional identity formation drawing on longitudinal interviews and identity mapping with three student cohorts. Over the course of their legal education, students bound for large corporate law firms tended to report increasing professional role distancing. In contrast, students who pursued jobs in the public-interest sector tended to sustain a more proximate conception of professional identity, overlapping with racial, gender, political, and other centrally constitutive roles. The article concludes with normative and theoretical implications.
The Foundational Skill of Reflection in the Formation of a Professional Identity (September 10, 2021)
Abstract
There is a growing scholarly literature on the professional development and formation of law students into the core values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.1 This growing scholarly literature can guide effective curriculum development to foster student growth toward later stages of development on these learning outcomes. This article focuses on the skill of reflection as one of the most effective curricular strategies to foster each student’s growth toward later stages of these learning outcomes. This same curricular strategy will also be effective in engaging practicing lawyers to grow toward these same goals.
Using Narrative Therapy to Re-Author the Dominant Law Student Narrative, Foster Professional Identity Development, and Restore Hope (September 2021)
Abstract
Clinical teaching during the pandemic provided a clear view of the adverse effects of significant gaps in the legal academy’s education of law students, particularly in the area of professional identity. For 130 years, the academy has perpetuated a dominant law student narrative that “boxes” students into a restrictive vision of what it means to be a lawyer and to practice law; this narrow vision not only inhibits the development of law students as creative thinkers, possibility seers, innovative problem-solvers and positive change-makers, but also prevents them from developing a professional identity that harmonizes with their own values and beliefs, leading to feelings of uselessness, helplessness and hopelessness. This Article proposes that Narrative Therapy offers essential tools to free students from the “box” by exploring and deconstructing the dominant law student narrative; exposing the principal discourses of the academy that underlie this narrative; helping law students to envision the lawyer they want to be; and creating space for students to re-author what it means to be a lawyer and to practice law in a manner that fits with their own values and beliefs and the needs of the public, thereby fostering the development of a positive professional identity. In so doing, Narrative Therapy restores hope to, and for, law students and the legal profession."
The Phantom Menace to Professional Identity Formation and Law School Success: Imposter Syndrome (August 4, 2021)
Abstract
Professional identity formation, which involves teaching law students to recognize their responsibility to others, particularly clients, and encouraging the students to develop the professional competencies of a practicing lawyer, has gained considerable prominence in the legal academy. Professional identity formation relies on students to identify the professional competencies they excel in currently and the competencies in which they need to improve, and they must work to develop those competencies. Part of that process requires an accurate self-understanding of who law students are. The imposter syndrome serves as a sinister force that threatens a law student’s ability to develop her professional identity and to succeed as a lawyer. The pervasiveness and negative effects of the imposter syndrome warrant that law schools who incorporate professional identity formation into their curriculum, as well as any law school that wants its students to succeed, should address imposter syndrome with its students. Part I of this Article briefly discusses professional identity and how it requires self-reflection and self-awareness. Part II explains imposter syndrome in general, and Part III examines imposter syndrome and its prevalence in the legal profession. Part IV provides practical, tangible ways for law schools, professors, and law students to address imposter syndrome. This Article concludes that law schools, regardless of whether professional identity formation is a part of their curriculum yet, should help those law students facing imposter syndrome overcome it.
The Intersection of Technology Competence and Professional Responsibility: Opportunities and Obligations for Legal Education (July 25, 2021)
Abstract
Technology has fundamentally changed the legal profession and the delivery of legal services. Lawyers routinely use technology, including artificial intelligence, for legal research, e-discovery, document review, practice management, timekeeping and billing, document drafting, and many other tasks. The American Bar Association (ABA) amended the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in 2012 to include an explicit duty of technology competence, and thirty-nine states have adopted a rule requiring technology competence. Further, the ABA adopted a resolution in 2019 urging the courts and profession to address the ethical issues around using artificial intelligence in the practice of law. This essay traces the developing use of technology in the practice of law, examines the ABA’s guidance with respect to the use of technology in practice, and addresses the intersection of legal competence and professional responsibility. Law schools have an obligation to prepare students to be effective, ethical, and responsible participants in the legal profession, which includes technology competence. Further, law schools must establish learning outcomes which provide competency in professional skills needed for competent and ethical participation as members of the legal profession, which also includes technology competence. Law schools have many opportunities to prepare students to be ethical, responsible users of technology in practice. Required Professional Responsibility courses and curricula should include the ethical pitfalls and considerations of using technology in practice. Law schools should also address the intersection of technology and professional responsibility in legal writing courses, clinics, and externships.
Formation Without Identity: Avoiding a Wrong Turn in the Professionalism Movement (April 20, 2021)
Abstract
This article argues that the professionalism movement must avoid developing an integrated model of legal education relying on the abstract professional identity rhetoric of the organized bar and the existing elite law school model. Rather, reform efforts must be centered upon developing a contextual model that considers how actual lawyers experience professional responsibilities and values: that is, how they develop professional identities. Specifically, because most students, graduates of non-elite law schools, are likely to experience such duties and values in circumstances different than their elite counterparts, non-elite law schools must not accept the elite paradigm “as is.” Instead, they must develop a model that introduces their students to the professional challenges they are likely to encounter. Elite law schools, in turn, must revise their traditional client-centered instrumentalist model and commit to inculcating the duties and values of morality, justice, equality, and commitment to the public interest in the contexts in which their students will experience them. The article offers a blueprint for professional identity formation for the majority of non-elite law schools and the mainstream of legal education, as well as for elite law schools.
Ethics and Professionalism in Advocacy: Resolute Advocacy and Civility (April 2, 2021)
Abstract
This paper considers the duties of advocates from an ethical perspective and explores the moral justification for the duty of resolute advocacy and the limits on that duty imposed by its own moral underpinnings. Particular attention is given to the principles of civility. The paper considers whether requiring advocates to adhere to the principles of civility unduly impairs their ability to discharge their duty of resolute advocacy. It suggests that professional disciplinary proceedings based on allegations of incivility rather than on more specific transgressions of professional ethics are ill-advised. On the other hand, fostering civility as a professional aspiration is not only essential to achieving the ideal of adversarial justice, but is also the most effective guide to persuasive advocacy.
Mentor/Coach: The Most Effective Curriculum to Foster Each Student's Professional Development and Formation (January 11, 2021)
Abstract
Law schools must give more attention to fostering each student’s growth toward both ownership of the student’s own continuous development and the relationship skills that clients and legal employers need. A fast-growing number of law schools (almost a third of all law schools) are moving in this direction and experimenting with required professional development and formation curriculum in the 1L year to respond to concerns about bar passage, post-graduation employment outcomes, and student well-being. Since many disadvantaged students in particular need help to grow toward later stages of both ownership of professional development and relationship skills, law schools considering a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative should give attention to required professional development and formation curriculum as part of the initiative. These skills are also important for initiatives to foster student wellbeing.
Antiracism, Reflection, and Professional Identity (November 6, 2020)
Abstract
Intent on more systematically developing the emerging professional identities of law students, the professional identity formation movement is recasting how we think about legal education. Notably, however, the movement overlooks the structural racism embedded in American law and legal education. While current models of professional development value diversity and cross-cultural competence, they do not adequately prepare the next generation of legal professionals to engage in the sustained work of interrupting and overthrowing race and racism in the legal profession and system. This article argues that antiracism is essential to the profession’s responsibility to serve justice and therefore key to legal professional identity. Fortunately, developing a legal antiracist identity does not require inventing a new approach. Rather, infusing reflective practice with critical race consciousness provides a sound basis from which to launch a new effort to develop the next generation of antiracist lawyers."
Professional Identity Formation as a 'Power Skill' (Jan 1, 2020)
Abstract
Law school is disorienting, especially in the first year, as students begin their socialization to the profession. This socialization impacts professional identity construction by defining roles, communicating norms, and unspooling narratives about what it means to be a lawyer and to practice law. For too long, the end goal of this socialization has been to “think like a lawyer,” and thinking like a lawyer has meant mastering black letter law, tactical issue spotting, and dispassionate communication. As a result, many new law students find themselves quickly adrift, cut-off from their former selves. This essay argues that challenging the White-normative professional identify framework is essential to rebuilding the legal profession and provides a few examples for how to integrate exercises into 1L courses to help students develop and express their authentic, multidimensional identities.
Look Up and Around: Musings on Mentors, Role Models, and Professionalism (Revised and Updated) (January 2020)
Abstract
As part of Contract Management magazine's 2020 Professional Development issue, this (revised and updated) article offers a rather simple overarching suggestion for successful professionals and future leaders: look up and around. The article encourages readers to identify mentors, embrace the strengths of their role models, and open themselves up to learn from others, evolve, and grow. The article discusses, among other things, education, networking, professional development (and, of course, writing), and the power of optimism.
Professional Identity Formation, Leadership and Exploration of Self (2020)
Abstract
In this Article, we propose that one way in which law schools can address the disconnect between one’s internal values and the values of the legal profession is to explore established leadership principles, such as emotional intelligence and ethical decision making, in the context of exploring one’s “story of self.” This Article, through a careful description and analysis of “Lawyers as Leaders: The Practice of Leadership,” a course that draws from the study of leadership in business and executive training programs, will explore the ways that the lessons of leadership development, in particular using the story-of-self frame, help improve the formation of professional identity in law students, which serves as a strong foundation upon which such students can further shape and refine their identities throughout their careers. In “Lawyers as Leaders,” we reinforce self-reflection, self-awareness, and self-direction as tools to develop values of fairness, honesty and trust. Through readings, simulations, and group projects centered on teamwork, communication and the exploration of self, students are required to reflect upon and assess their deeply personal values, based upon their individual backgrounds and experiences, and connect those values to the profession and their responsibilities to their colleagues, clients, organizations and society as a whole.
Training Law Students to Maintain Civility in Their Law Practices as a Way to Improve Public Discourse (2020)
Abstract
Our current social discourse is broken. Not only have we resorted to name-calling instead of reasoned discussion, but we have also resorted to the fundamental attribution error: we attribute bad motives to people with whose positions we disagree rather than starting with the presumption that, perhaps, buried deep within their positions could be a grain of truth. We need to find a way to reach across the void. As a way of mending our torn social fabric, I recommend that we train law students not only to pick apart bad arguments but also to find ways to pick arguments apart without showing disrespect for the person making the argument. By training law students to behave civilly, even when they are convinced that the other person is flat-out wrong, we might just be able to get people to hear each other, rather than speak past each other--not just in law schools, not just in universities, but in our society.
Joint Identities?: A Self-Case Study of the Professional Identity Development of J.D./Ph.D. Professionals in Education Law (October 1, 2019)
Abstract
Professionals in education law often hold both law and advanced education research degrees, and yet the education law field knows little about how joint-degree programs prepare future professionals in the field. Using a self-case study method, this study provides an in-depth examination of the professional identity development of joint-degree students in law and education. Specifically, this study examines whether joint-degree students and early professionals experienced conflicts as they developed their professional identities and what role social networks played as they developed their identities. The findings show that developing professionals experienced three types of conflicts: (a) siloed bureaucracies, (b) bifurcated epistemologies and ontological differences, and (c) (de)valued expertise in opposing markets. Social network partners were a crucial source of support as the developing professionals navigated professional conflicts. The divided professional identities led the joint-degree students to develop a professional double consciousness, in which they identified their professional identities as divided and difficult or impossible to integrate. This Article provides recommendations for programs offering joint degree programs in law and education.
Speaking the Truth: Supporting Authentic Advocacy with Professional Identity Formation (December 19, 2019)
Abstract
Using Plato’s denunciation of rhetoric and rhetoricians as a starting point, Part I of this Article will explore how the first year of law school may create and exacerbate tension between law students’ desire to advocate on behalf of their clients and their desire to truthfully communicate the law. Part II will explore how law school could resolve this tension with an explicit discussion of legal determinacy and the lawyer’s role in creating law: what students need to hear, when they need to hear it, and where that conversation might be placed within the curriculum. The Article will identify the developing area of professional identity formation as a natural location for an effective discussion, which would ideally occur within the first year of studies. In that discussion, law students can explore a view of lawyers as meaning-makers and truth-tellers: rhetoricians who understand and are faithful to the true essence of a law but are also able to create alternatives within the scope of that true law. Students and lawyers can integrate their own identities into this professional identity, and maintain authenticity in their advocacy.
The Major Transitions in Professional Formation and Development from Being a Student to Being a Lawyer Present Opportunities to Benefit the Students and the Law School (2019)
Abstract
The premise of this article is that each law student during law school, similar to each medical student during medical school, will also have significant transitions where the student is growing, step by step, from being a novice outsider with a stance of an observer ultimately to join a new community of practice as an insider to the profession. Unfortunately, there is very limited scholarship about the significant transitions each student must navigate in legal education. Part II of this article provides an analytical framework regarding the major transitions a law student must make to become a competent practicing lawyer. In Part III, the article provides data from law students starting the 2L year that identify the students’ perception of the major transitions from being a student to being a practicing lawyer in the 1L year and the summer between the 1L and 2L years. Part IV analyzes principles that should inform an effective curriculum to help students grow during the major transitions of law school. Part V applies the principles of an effective curriculum from Part IV to the specific transitions that the students identified as most important in Part III.
Professional Identity Formation Through Pro Bono Revealed Through Conversation Analysis (June 26, 2019)
Abstract
Law school is supposed to teach legal analysis and lawyering skills as well as mold law students’ professional identities. Pro Bono work provides an opportunity for law students to use their legal knowledge and skills and to develop their identities as emerging legal professionals. As important as both pro bono work and identity formation are, there has been very little research regarding how pro bono contributes to students’ identity formation. This paper utilizes a data set of over forty student-client consultations at a pro bono brief advice clinic that have been recorded and transcribed. It uses conversation analysis to study the approaches students take in presenting themselves to clients. These students are volunteers supervised by pro bono attorneys and are not enrolled in a clinic or class designed to teach lawyering skills or to explore professional ethics. As a result, their presentations of themselves are largely untutored portraits. The paper mines this rich data set to understand not only the inclinations of the students but also how law schools might best guide and assist students to reflect upon and develop their professional identities in the context of their clinic volunteering.