Self-Compassion and Law Student Professional Identity Formation

The American Bar Association’s Standards for Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar require law schools to provide students with “substantial opportunities” for “[t]he development of a professional identity.” The Standards do not require a particular curriculum or mode of instruction but offer two guideposts for legal educators: one, that “professional identity focuses on what it means to be a lawyer and the special obligations lawyers have to their clients and society,” and two, that professional formation “should involve an intentional exploration of the values, guiding principles, and well-being practices considered foundational to successful legal practice.” The guidance and concomitant flexibility afforded by the Standards offer law schools remarkable challenges and opportunities, notably that law students be invited to intentionally explore the contours of their vocation. This essay adds to the discourse on professional identity formation by asserting that self-compassion ought to number among the “values, guiding principles, and well-being practices” to which law students are formally introduced and invited to internalize as essential to their professional identity formation.