Law Student Professional Development and Formation

Bridging Law School, Student, and Employer Goals

Neil W. Hamilton, Louis D. Bilionis

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781108745659
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108806718
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Law schools currently do an excellent job of helping students to 'think like a lawyer,' but empirical data show that clients, legal employers, and the legal system need students to develop a wider range of competencies. This book helps legal educators to understand these competencies and provides practical ways to build them into a law school curriculum. Based on recommendations from the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Schools, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it will equip students with the skills they need not only to think but to act and feel like a lawyer. With this proposed model, students will internalize the need for professional development toward excellence, their responsibility to others, a client-centered approach to problem solving, and strong well-being practices. These four goals constitute a lawyer's professional identity, and this book empowers legal educators to foster each student's development of a professional identity that leads to a gratifying career that serves society well. This title is Open Access.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: The Four Foundational Professional Development and Formation (PD&F) Goals and Their Benefits for Students, Faculty, Staff, and Administrators
• 2 A Framework for Purposefulness to Realize the Four Professional Development and Formation Goals
• 3 Competency-Based Education as Another Step in Purposefulness – Lessons Learned from Medical Education’s Fifteen Years of Additional Experience with Professional Development and Formation Goals
• 4 Ten Principles to Inform Curriculum Development
• 5 Going Where Each Major Stakeholder Is and Building Bridges among Them in Order to Realize the Four Professional Development and Formation Goals
• 6 The Opportunity to Lead
• Index