Showing Up as Our Authentic Selves

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Essex A & B

Floor: Fourth Floor

As clinicians and law school administrators, we have much power as role models both in the classroom and as to the practice of law. Showing up as your true self encourages students to celebrate and elevate their own identities and how it can impact their lawyering and their professional development. Since we are living in tumultuous political times, where individual identities are under constant attack under the law, we must empower students to embrace these aspects of themselves as future advocates. This session will be led by three women of color clinicians and administrators of diverse teaching experience who teach at public and private institutions. The exercise will allow participants to observe a fishbowl conversation about how the presenters share aspects of their identity in the classroom, supervision, and rounds. The conversation will highlight tools and techniques for students to explore the power of elevating and celebrating one’s self-identity. We will explore the importance of bringing the clinician’s self-identity into the classroom as a method to challenge students as to those who have power in the law. As part of this session, Clinicians will learn the value of showing up as your true self as a method to encourage students to celebrate and elevate their identity and how it can impact their lawyering and their professional development. Additionally, we will discuss how self-identity can also serve as an advocacy skill to better serve their client community.