Leveraging Professional Identity Formation in the Doctrinal Law School Class

American law schools are paying increased attention to the professional identity formation of their students. The trend should grow now that the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has revised its accreditation standards to prescribe that “a law school shall provide substantial opportunities to students for … (3) the development of a professional identity.”As law school faculty and staff proceed, professors who teach traditional doctrinal classes may doubt they can do much if anything differently in their courses to support professional identity formation. Questions about course coverage and their own competency to focus on professional identity formation understandably arise and may give professors pause. This article illustrates how purposeful focus on professional identity formation in a doctrinal course can be done to enrich the educational experience for students. Rather than detracting from the doctrinal work, professional identity formation features can be a multiplier. They can be leveraged to promote the doctrinal learning and the sharpening of cognitive skills traditionally expected in the course, while also contributing positively to the student’s developmentas a professional in other ways. Importantly, doing so is not difficult and requires no special expertise of the professor.Part of a symposium exploring pedagogies to support professional identity formation, the article reports on the author’s personal experience since 2016 teaching a basic constitutional law course with professional identity formation as a central feature. The reader will find a model that has delivered positive results for students and the professor alike, and which any professor can employ in any typical doctrinal course. In addition to reviewing strategic considerations, thearticle digs into the details of what to do and how to do it. It identifies and walks through various components that can be introduced to accent professional identity formation concepts while advancing traditional learning objectives. The components are easily adaptable to suit the needs and preferences of the professor, and faculty interested in experimenting can select one or more for a test run in their classes

Process, the Constitution, and Substantive Criminal Law

Criminal law scholars have pined for a substantive constitutional criminal law ever since Henry Hart and Herbert Packer first embraced the notion in the late 1950s and early 1960s. To this day, scholars continue to search for a theory fhat giv:es content to, in Hart\u27s words, the unmistakable indications that the Constitution means something definite and spμiething serious when it speaks of \u27crime.\u27 To their dismay, the Supreme Court has - with two exceptions - seemingly resisted the notion. The two exceptions are familiar. First came the 1957 case of Lambert v. California, in which the Court came as close as it ever has to constitutionalizing a mens rea requirement as fundamental to the just imposition of a criminal sanction. Lambert was followed in 1962 by Robinson v. California, in which the Court came as close as it ever has to constitutionalizing criminal law\u27s other Latin half, the element of actus reus. Both cases were certifiable breakthroughs that found previously unrecognized content in the Due Process Clause and the Eighth Amendment, respectively, to limit the power of American legislatures to define criminal laws. Both decisions were tantalizing symbols as well. They held out hope for a vibrant relationship between the Constitution and the criminal law, one that might develop new principles to help bring about a more humane, moral, and altogether more sound substantive penal law

Law School Leadership and Leadership Development for Developing Lawyers

A growing number of legal educators are calling for greater attention to leadership development as an element of legal education at American law schools. Some make the case directly in the name of leadership education. Others see leadership development as part of a broader law school responsibility to provide purposeful support for students in the formation of their professional identity. For yet others, development of leadership skills figures in a law school’s appropriate commitment to the professionalism, professional development, or wellness of its students. These educators, though employing different locutions, constitute a “coalition of the willing” – law school faculty and staff who are adopting innovations to help advance their students in their development as professionals. They are promoting, at bottom, the same fundamental innovation: the institution of purposeful, more systematic educational effort by the law school to support each student’s formation of professional identity and purpose. Were this innovation to take hold, it would bring about a major and beneficial reframing of legal education. This article submits that the reframing is within reach. To attain it, however, will take effective leadership. Drawing on Everett M. Rogers’ classic work, Diffusion of Innovations, this article demonstrates that the conditions for successful leadership are present. The necessary leaders are in place and identifiable. They are the members of the “coalition of the willing” – opinion leaders with the greatest potential sway on those colleagues who have yet to adopt. The necessary followers similarly are in place and identifiable. They are legal education colleagues with discernible sensibilities – and they are disposed to give the innovation deliberate and open consideration, and to value heavily the examples set and opinions shared by their colleagues in the coalition. The consideration these potential adopters will give to the innovation will follow a predictable process and take into account predicable factors – permitting the leaders to engage in purposeful, effective leadership that meets their followers where they are, providing them the information they need in the form and manner most conducive to their adoption. A well-informed and well-led consideration should leave the potential adopters impressed with the innovation. Purposeful support of professional identity formation is an innovation that is compatible with their values, easy to try and implement, and replete with relative advantage for students, the law school, and the faculty and administrators who work there

Law Student Professional Development and Formation

Although law schools do an excellent job of helping students to 'think like a lawyer', data show that clients, employers, and the legal system require a greater range of competencies. This book offers actionable steps to legal educators to help develop each student's professional identity