Thanks for
SBAND’s
ProfFound
Support!
By Julia L. Ernst
A panel of law professionals discussed the career path of trial lawyers during a ProfFound session.
During the 2019 SBAND Annual Meeting, the Vogel Lecture
program highlighted an innovative course initiated in 2014 by
the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Law called
Professional Foundations, affectionately known as ProfFound.
The law school extends an enthusiastic and heartfelt thank you
to everyone in SBAND who has helped to make Professional
Foundations such a meaningful experience for its students. As
described below, the success of this course depends in large part on
marvelous volunteers from the legal community, to whom we are
deeply grateful.
Originally conceptualized, designed, and coordinated by Professor
Patti Alleva and Dean Mike McGinniss, this team-taught course
provides first year students with an opportunity to step back from
their doctrine-heavy law school experience and self-reflect on
what type of legal professional each of them endeavors to become.
ProfFound enables students to explore their own personal and
professional values and helps them ensure their lived values align
within both of these spheres, allowing them to maintain integrity in
both their personal and professional lives.
At the heart of Professional Foundations, students explore 12 core
professional qualities the faculty team has determined are central to
being a good lawyer (recognizing, of course, lawyers should strive to
attain many other admirable qualities, as well):
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Adaptability/Dealing with Unpredictability
Confronting Mistakes
Courage
Diligence/Reliability
Empathy/Compassion
Generosity/Public-Mindedness
Honesty/Trustworthiness
Humility/Respectfulness/Courtesy
Integrity under Pressure
Loyalty
Patience/Perseverance/Resilience
Professional Objectivity/Sympathetic Detachment
In numerous class sessions, students engage in hypothetical scenarios
acting as lawyers in challenging situations that position these core
professional qualities in tension with each other. The students work in
small groups coming up with potential solutions to these dilemmas,
which they then discuss with the entire class. Various faculty lead
interactive exercises in sessions on becoming a self-reflective lawyer;
lawyers as both advisors and advocates; special circumstances facing
lawyers who represent businesses, organizations, and governments;
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THE GAVEL
and lawyers in private law firms. The members of the small groups
change every four weeks, enabling students to work closely with a
variety of colleagues addressing these problems.
For example, one discussion presents a scenario in which a junior
associate discovers a senior partner in the law firm has been padding
hours and over-billing clients. The students assume the junior
associate role and discuss with colleagues how each would handle
that situation. These exercises enable students to reflect upon how
they should approach professional quandaries before they occur, so
they are ready to face them in their professional lives.
Another class examines the significance of the law as a profession,
including the special privileges and responsibilities that status entails.
For example, since members of the legal profession – through the
legal education and bar admissions process – limit the practice of
law and determine who is (and is not) authorized to practice law,
this session examines why lawyers have a concomitant responsibility
to ensure access to justice for those who cannot afford normal legal
fees. We also have a responsibility to ensure members of traditionally
excluded or marginalized populations are reflected in the legal
profession. We must cultivate a proactive pipeline enabling them to
enter and succeed in law school and the practice of law.
As another important facet, historically the law was considered to be
one of the three learned professions along with medicine and theology,
in recognition these are helping or healing professions – medicine
healing the body, theology healing the spirit, and law healing society
and relationships among people. The law is also known as a noble
profession – as the bulwark maintaining and enforcing the rule of
law – without which society would descend into tyranny and chaos,
as exemplified throughout history and in some regions of the world
today. Yet, sometimes society does not perceive lawyers in the most
positive light. This session also encourages students to explore various
reasons for these negative perceptions, as well as ways in which
New this year, a ProfFound panel
focused on lawyers' professional
and personal well-being.