Recently I’ve had several conversations with fellow law professors about the American Bar Association’s new Accreditation Standard 303(b)(3), which holds that law schools “should provide substantial opportunities to students” for the “development of a professional identity.” The ABA’s Interpretation 303-5 of that Standard states that:
…(P)rofessional identity focuses on what it means to be a lawyer and the special obligations lawyers have to their clients and society. The development of a professional identity should involve an intentional exploration of the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice. Because developing a professional identity requires reflection and growth over time, students should have frequent opportunities for such development during each year of law school and in a variety of courses and co-curricular and professional development activities.
I confess my skepticism towards ABA requirements that can easily prompt somewhat ham-handed attempts to treat topics about values and personal qualities as content to be covered -- in this case, shoehorning professional identity formation into enough courses to claim regulatory compliance. Rather, I see professional identity formation as something that develops organically and depends a lot on (1) the social, emotional, and intellectual maturity of individual students, and (2) legal educators and lawyers being aware of openings to weave potentially teachable moments into conversations and discussions.
Nevertheless, the topic itself is important for our students' professional development. As my Suffolk Law colleague Harmony Decosimo points out in her insightful taxonomy of factors contributing to professional identity formation, values, wellness, and professional competencies are all part of the mix. As I see it, opportunities to highlight these elements may occur at any time and in unscripted ways, such as a student’s response to a simulation exercise or clinical assignment, a professor’s reference to some aspect of practice, or an attorney’s account about representing a client in an important case.
To the extent that professional identity is tagged as a topic for classroom discussion, the approach should be engaging and contemplative, rather than directive or pedantic. Towards that end, I’d like to look at three items: (1) a Japanese concept for examining life purpose; (2) a novella by Leo Tolstoy that invites big questions about life and work; and, (3) a school of theory and practice that can serve as a useful lens for creating a life in the law.
Ikigai
Ikigai, explains Wikipedia, “is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living.” It is usually captured via some version of the diagram reproduced here. Being at the intersecting center of all four circles is the state of ikigai.
Laura Oliver, writing for the World Economic Forum, says that the philosophy and practice of ikigai is “a way to live longer and better.” She explains:
While there is no direct English translation, ikigai is thought to combine the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live,” and kai, meaning “the realization of what one hopes for.” Together these definitions create the concept of “a reason to live” or the idea of having a purpose in life.
Oliver adds that those who have studied ikigai raise four key questions to start us down the path toward an ideal state:
- “What do you love?”
- “What are you good at?”
- “What does the world need from you?”
- “What can you get paid for?”
Hmm, this sounds like an invitation to law students to consider professional identity formation.
In fact, I have added a session on ikigai to a seminar-sized, workshop-style course I teach at Suffolk University Law School called the Law and Psychology Lab, which introduces students to the intersection of legal and psychological insights through the lens of therapeutic jurisprudence. Although originally I wasn’t confident that such a session would resonate with my students, these discussions have been lively, thoughtful, and interactive. And, consistent with a recurring Generation Z theme, some students have incorporated the importance of work-life balance into their own ikigai models.
My approach for this class session is to distribute the ikigai diagram, explain a bit about the overall concept, and then give students five minutes to jot down some thoughts before giving everyone a chance to share what this means to them and their aspirations for the future.
Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich
The protagonist in Leo Tolstoy’s 1886 novella is Ivan Ilyich, a middle-aged man who is a respected high court judge, a husband in a marriage of long standing, and a father of two. He suffers an accident and is eventually diagnosed with an incurable illness. Ivan and his family struggle with the prospect of his unexpected, pending mortality. However, buoyed by exchanges with his young servant, Gerasim, Ivan eventually starts to ask deeper questions about whether he has led a good and authentic life.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich has been praised as a masterful contemplation on the meaning of life, one that invites the same of its readers. While the novella likely carries more punch for older readers, it can be a thought-provoking read for younger folks as well. It appears regularly on college reading lists and is the final piece in an excellent anthology for undergraduates on life purpose and vocation, Leading Lives That Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be, by Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass (2nd ed. 2020).
The novella's short length (53 pages in the Vintage Classics paperback edition, pictured here) and the fact that its main character is a judge may be sufficient to get young law students to give it a try. Even if the idea of facing one’s mortality seems foreign to some of them (as it did to me in my mid-twenties), the mere exercise of reflecting upon life through the mind of a fictional character who has enjoyed success in the law may be a useful seed planter for thinking prospectively about their own paths.
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is widely available in print, via e-book, and online. The translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky is often recommended.
Therapeutic Jurisprudence
Therapeutic jurisprudence, or “TJ,” is an interdisciplinary school of legal theory and practice, founded in 1987, that examines the therapeutic and anti-therapeutic properties of laws, legal systems, and legal institutions. In normative terms, TJ favors outcomes in legal proceedings and events that support psychological health, dignity, and well-being, while respecting considerations such as due process, individual rights, and economic efficiency.
TJ co-founder and law professor David Wexler (U. Arizona, emeritus and U. Puerto Rico, senior status) first raised the potential connection between the ABA Standard on professional identify and TJ in a recent email to fellow board members of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence. I responded with my doubts about jumping onto what is already a crowded bandwagon, citing my above-mentioned skepticism regarding how the Standard might be implemented. Nevertheless, after a bit more thinking about this, I see a strong connection between a popular frame for TJ analysis and contemplations about professional identities.
Several years ago, Wexler proposed a basic framework for posing TJ-related inquiries: First, we ask if the design of a law, legal system, or legal institution promotes or undermines therapeutic outcomes. Second, we ask if the application (i.e., practice and implementation) of an existing law, legal system, or legal institution promotes or undermines therapeutic outcomes. It strikes me that we can apply an analogous inquiry to invite law students (and lawyers!) to think about their professional identities:
- How can you design your career to be personally satisfying and to use the law for advancing the well-being of your clients and society?
- How can you apply your skills, abilities, and values to your work to support your career satisfaction and to serve your clients and society effectively?
These two questions provide plenty of useful fodder for law students. They can keep us thinking reflectively throughout our careers.
Summing Up
When professional identity formation is offered as an invitation for inquiry, rather than as check-the-box content to be covered, the implementation of the ABA’s Standard can be engaging and perhaps even formative for our students. Hopefully these three sources – ikigai, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and therapeutic jurisprudence – can serve as useful tools for fostering these discussions during law school and beyond.
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To learn more about Therapeutic Jurisprudence:
I invite you to look at two of my recent articles, both of which summarize Prof. Wexler's therapeutic design & application framework discussed above:
- “Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Foundations, Expansion, and Assessment,” University of Miami Law Review (2021) (a deeply researched but rather lengthy canvassing of the field); and,
- “Teaching Therapeutic Jurisprudence,” University of Baltimore Law Review (2021) (a shorter piece that complements the Miami article).
You may also visit the website of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence. I served as the founding board chair of the ISTJ from 2017-19. Please write to me at [email protected] if you're interested in getting involved.
Sources:.
- The ikigai image is reproduced courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
- Portions of this piece have been adapted from past articles published on my Minding the Workplace blog.
The best why to develop professional identity is through answering metacognitive questions and developing practical wisdom. https://www.amazon.com/Developing-Your-Professional-Identity-Creating/dp/1519114109
Posted by: Scott Fruehwald | July 09, 2023 at 01:48 PM