Teaching Professional Identity Formation through Life Design

Go Back

Session Type: Lightning Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Franciscan C

Floor: Ballroom Level

Law students are too often told that there is one way to succeed: get a 4.0 GPA, get on law review, and graduate with honors. The next steps are also set: get a clerkship or a plumb fellowship (ideally both), and have an offer lined up at a highly selective corporate law firm with a 2,500 billable hours requirement. What we don't tell them is that there’s a good chance this path will involve unhappiness, substance use and mental health problems, and a desire to leave the law. There has to be a better way! What if, instead of telling students there is one way to succeed in life and the law, we taught that each one of them could have a different definition of success? Our students come to us with varied interests, values, talents, and goals; we should nurture those differences instead of shoehorning them into the same mold. Using a Life Design approach to professional identity formation is one way to encourage students to identify their own values, re-define success for themselves, encourage mindfulness, and nurture a growth mindset. Along the way, these lessons may also reduce the stress associated with feedback, lessen competition between students, and encourage flexibility in career planning. It also encourages students to develop their own narrative in accordance with their authentic values. Using my Life Design Externship Seminar as a model, I will walk participants through the steps to professional identity formation that borrow from Life Design topics, including Be Curious, Try Things, Reframe, Ask for Help, and Know it’s a Process. I will share exercises I use both in and outside of class, and highlight student feedback I’ve received about the course.