Event Title
Looking Inward And Outward: Engaging Students In Professional Identity Development In Our Externship Seminars And In Our Wider Institutions
Location
Hirsch Hall, Room H
Start Date
9-3-2018 2:45 PM
End Date
9-3-2018 4:00 PM
Description
Externship courses have long-focused on professional identity formation—or the development of skills, values, ethics and self-reflection necessary for effective lawyering—in our students. This introspective curriculum departs substantially from that taught in much of law school. Yet, due to pressure from employers and the ABA for practice-ready students, the effort to foster students’ sense of their own professional identities is moving mainstream. Many law schools are now seeking to incorporate professional identity formation into the curriculum and student experience more prominently. As more attention is paid by the faculty at large, are we able to speak with expertise on this topic? How can we best use our expertise to support other faculty and shape the curriculum going forward?
This program seeks to look inward and outward; we will first examine our own exploration of professional identity development in our seminars; and then look towards how we are bringing our expertise to the faculty and institution at large.
We will start with a short presentation about the definition of professional identity development, drawing from legal sources, training used in other professional disciplines, and psychological research.
Next, we will turn to our own externship seminars and offer three concrete assignments and exercises we use to gain “buy-in” and engage students in self-development.
Finally, we will look to ways that externship faculty can leverage our expertise to help guide our institutions. For example, Santa Clara University School of Law introduced a mandatory 1L class introducing legal skills through the Schultz-Zedek competencies, a curriculum that used to be the focus of the externship seminar. Additionally, we will discuss how lunch-time sessions, orientation sessions, partnerships with law school career offices, and reflection in doctrinal/LRW courses can enhance and reinforce concepts of professional identity development.
Looking Inward And Outward: Engaging Students In Professional Identity Development In Our Externship Seminars And In Our Wider Institutions
Hirsch Hall, Room H
Externship courses have long-focused on professional identity formation—or the development of skills, values, ethics and self-reflection necessary for effective lawyering—in our students. This introspective curriculum departs substantially from that taught in much of law school. Yet, due to pressure from employers and the ABA for practice-ready students, the effort to foster students’ sense of their own professional identities is moving mainstream. Many law schools are now seeking to incorporate professional identity formation into the curriculum and student experience more prominently. As more attention is paid by the faculty at large, are we able to speak with expertise on this topic? How can we best use our expertise to support other faculty and shape the curriculum going forward?
This program seeks to look inward and outward; we will first examine our own exploration of professional identity development in our seminars; and then look towards how we are bringing our expertise to the faculty and institution at large.
We will start with a short presentation about the definition of professional identity development, drawing from legal sources, training used in other professional disciplines, and psychological research.
Next, we will turn to our own externship seminars and offer three concrete assignments and exercises we use to gain “buy-in” and engage students in self-development.
Finally, we will look to ways that externship faculty can leverage our expertise to help guide our institutions. For example, Santa Clara University School of Law introduced a mandatory 1L class introducing legal skills through the Schultz-Zedek competencies, a curriculum that used to be the focus of the externship seminar. Additionally, we will discuss how lunch-time sessions, orientation sessions, partnerships with law school career offices, and reflection in doctrinal/LRW courses can enhance and reinforce concepts of professional identity development.