Senior Director of Professionalism and Special Projects Jordana Confino was quoted in a National Jurist article discussing the proposed revisions to the ABA law school accreditation standards that includes a requirement for professional identity development.
The American Bar Association House of Delegates passed a package of proposed revisions to the ABA law school accreditation standards at its midyear meeting in February, including a requirement that law schools provide bias training and substantial opportunities for students to develop a professional identity.
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Jordana Confino, senior director of professionalism at Fordham University School of Law, said the resolution recognizes that legal knowledge and technical and analytical skills are only a subset of what students need to build satisfying, successful careers in law.
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The new interpretation states: “Professional identity focuses on what it means to be a lawyer and the special obligations lawyers have to their clients and society. The development of 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.”
Several schools like Fordham Law and the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law have been a little ahead of the game in this area.
“At Fordham Law, we’ve witnessed the transformative and overwhelmingly positive effects that our professional identity formation offerings have had on our students, but far too many schools have thus far failed to appreciate the importance of — or to prioritize — this element of legal education,” Confino said. “This is why it is so exciting that Resolution 300 will now require them to do so.”