PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In the competitive legal environment, having just legal skills is not enough.
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Today’s employers want attorneys with both the legal knowledge, as well as the professional skills and characteristics needed to thrive on day one of practice.
At ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Law, we shape the whole lawyer—one that excels in legal skills while also possessing essential professional competencies. In traditional law school settings, professional development is on the periphery of the academic experience. Here, it is intertwined with and fully integrated into the law curriculum.
Innovative, unique and one of the most robust of its kind among law schools, our mandatory, three-year Professional Development program engages students in meaningful career exploration and development of professional skills and competencies. The courses follow a progression over a student’s law school career, from self-assessments to guided presentations and meetings, to independent work.
By combining a strong legal education with coursework designed to develop and strengthen students' professional skills, ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Law prepares students to be ready and adaptive to a changing and varied legal landscape.
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Our Program in Action
ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Law’s robust program is designed to engage students in individualized and active professional development in pursuit of their goals and a fulfilled and successful career through the achievement of the following competencies:
Academic Skills: Prepares students for success in law school and on the bar exam, raising awareness of the expectations of law school, the bar exam and their future careers.
Career Advancement: Explores the vast array of opportunities for a career in the law or a law-adjacent field through the lens of each student’s purpose and values, while equipping students with the tools necessary to execute on their career goals.
Leadership and Values: Prepares students to become informal and formal leaders with a strong moral and ethical compass, an inclusive perspective and a developed set of leadership competencies.
Personal and Professional Wellbeing: Explores tools and strategies to maintain wellbeing, which is critical to a satisfying and sustainable career in the law and a part of a lawyer’s ethical duty of competence.
Practice Readiness: Helps students acquire the many skills and competencies that are not taught in a traditional law school curriculum but are necessary for a student’s chosen career path.
Professional Development Planning: Readies students to chart their path towards a fulfilling and successful career in the law through self-assessment, values identification, goal setting and planning.
Professional Relationships: Facilitates the development of a strong network of professional relationships that enables students to access education, mentorship, career opportunities, business development and other professional activities.
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