Law School and the Making of the Student into a Lawyer: Transformation of First Year Law Students in the National University of Singapore

Abstract

This paper examines whether legal education and law school have an impact on the student’s moral development and conception of professional identity, through an empirical study of first year law students of the Class of 2010 at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I explain the methodology of the study and then situate the subjects — legal education and the law student — in the larger context of Singapore. I set out the results of the study in order to determine whether students’ views change over the course of a year, and if so, in what way — statistically for the cohort as well as in terms of views held by individuals. I aim to locate the factors that cause such a transformation, in and outside of law school. For that part of the moral and professional transformation for which law school or legal education may be said to be responsible, is the transformation desirable? And if not, what changes may be made to legal education to effect a different transformation? Given that legal education in Singapore is similar to that in other law schools in common law jurisdictions, the analysis is, with allowances for different socio-political contexts, of wider import than just Singapore. The project aims to increase consciousness of how law school remakes students and develops the moral and professional identity of future lawyers, and to facilitate a dialogue that reshapes legal education to achieve its aims.

Keywords: legal education, lawyers, ethics, professional identity, professionalism