Connecting Professional Identity Formation to Specific Law Student Career Paths.
- What is professional identity formation?
- Why should you care about it? (It's tied to career satisfaction!)
- How is professional identity developed?
- Where should you start?
Reflection on Professional Identity Formation:
The law student begins as an outsider to the professional legal community and its ways, values, and norms. Through experiences over time, inside and outside the classroom and the law school, the individual gradually becomes more and more an insider, “moving from a stance of observer on the outside or periphery of the practice through graduated stages toward becoming a skilled participant at the center of the action.”(Quote is From the Holloran Center).
Exercise
Read this article and perform the accompanying identity mapping exercise found at the end. As you make the leap from law student (outsider) to legal professional (insider) what is your strategy for responding to role distancing that may emerge during this process? Is role distancing always harmful? Could there also be some benefits? How does your anticipated legal practice setting and personal values influence your approach to answering the previous questions?