they are thinking, feeling, assuming, and doing as professional beings.
In a word, we must intentionally teach to self-awareness. We must
help students navigate both inward as well as outward in addressing
the demands of professional role and encourage them to bring an
integrated self to client representation – a thinking and feeling self,
able to monitor and tap, with a self-conscious eye on consequences,
the intellectual, emotional, and experiential resources necessary for
sizing up and sculpting solutions to client problems and sustaining
professional relationships.6
Thus, my own academic experiences in non-clinical settings [like
my Professional Visions course, which uses literary characters to
explore the interpersonal and emotional dimensions of professional
identity and judgment] confirm what clinical legal educators have
known for decades – that teaching intentionally to the whole person
and helping students to develop as self-aware practitioners who
consciously pause to consider – in a metacognitive way7 – what they
(and pertinent others) are thinking, feeling, assuming, and doing, can
reap priceless practical professional dividends for our graduates. If I
may highlight but five of those advantages:
First: Given the multifaceted nature of professional judgment, the
conscious ability to identify and synthesize the various factors at
play – both legal and non-legal – is critical. Those who have been
explicitly trained to see the importance of making integrative links
between work domains and to consciously self-explore and evaluate
whether there are different or better links to be made, can not only
Professor Alleva
teaching in the
classroom in 1991.
The crowd delivers a standing
ovation for Professor Alleva at the
conclusion of her talk during the law
school homecoming celebration of
her career on September 21, 2018.
SPRING 2019 7