An Introduction to Professional Identity Development for Law Students

4 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2016

Date Written: March 22, 2016

Abstract

Professional identity involves the inner self in relation to the legal profession. It is a lawyer’s personal legal morality, values, decision-making process, and self-consciousness in relation to the practices of the legal profession (legal culture). It provides the framework that lawyers use to make all their decisions. Helping students develop their professional identities is the next step in legal education reform.

This paper introduces law students to professional identity development. It explains what it is, it discusses law schools that have professional identity programs or classes, and it tells students how they can develop their own professional identities.

Keywords: legal ethics, legal education, Carnegie Report, legal profession

Suggested Citation

Fruehwald, Edwin S., An Introduction to Professional Identity Development for Law Students (March 22, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2753139 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2753139

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