Law Students: Gaining an Understanding of the Foundational Values of the Legal Profession
Understand What You are Moving Towards Before You Make the Leap!
VS.
Professional identity formation involves making the transition from law student (outsider) to a legal professional who has internalized the values and guiding principles that are foundational to successful legal practice (insider).
Students can begin this transition by exploring common foundational values that apply to all practice settings (despite the fact the execution of these values may look different in various practice settings).
By exploring, understanding, and ultimately demonstrating these values, students can advance their career and professional development. Additionally, with this understanding, law students can explore how their personal values can integrate into their professional identity without needing to identify the perfect job as their starting point.
So, what are the foundational norms and core values of the legal profession?
The Holloran Center has published a framework for understanding these core values (that are foundational to successful legal practice) that apply to every legal career path.
Each professional should understand, internalize, and demonstrate:
1) a deep responsibility and commitment to serving clients, the profession, and the rule of law (which includes equal access and bias elimination)
2) a commitment to pro-active continuous professional development toward excellence at all the competencies needed to serve others well in the profession’s work (which includes well-being practices)
[These are similar to Arthur Brooks', a Harvard professor on happiness, findings on what leads to meaningful work and career satisfaction. A topic we covered in an earlier module.]
Exercise
How will you make the transformation from a legal education consumer to a committed legal service-oriented provider? How will you take ownership of your own growth toward meeting the responsibilities you have inherited as a member of the legal profession?
As a student, you may have an intuitive sense of what it means to have a "deep responsibility and commitment" to others and a "commitment to... continuous excellence." However, what may be mystifying at this point is what are the competencies needed to serve others well in the legal profession. After all, you have not had sustained exposure to this yet. Further, once you know what the competencies are, how can you track your continuous improvement in them? The Holloran Center has resources for both. Holloran Competency Milestones | School of Law | University of St. Thomas (stthomas.edu).