Seeking the St. Thomas Effect: Law School Mission and the Formation of Professional Identity

Jennifer Wright, University of St. Thomas School of Law

Abstract

Law schools have long prided themselves on their ability to train law students to “think like lawyers”. Many law schools and faculty deny that they do or should play any role in the formation of students’ professional and moral identities. Recent events point to the high social costs imposed by lawyers and judges who demonstrate no professional allegiance beyond pleasing the client or employer and maximizing the bottom line. Our legal system and our society as a whole depend upon ethical and professional behavior on the part of our lawyers and judges. Recent studies have challenged law schools’ rejection of their role in professional formation, pointing to the crucial role of legal education in forming the professional identity of lawyers. Law schools must begin to take seriously their duty to intentionally and thoughtfully shape their students’ sense of what it means to be a lawyer and of how their professional identities will align and coexist with their other personal and ethical commitments. In this article, I examine a case study of one law school, the University of St. Thomas School of Law. Using qualitative research methods, I define the particular content of UST Law’s desired “St. Thomas effect”, and lay out a further research program to determine whether this law school is in fact achieving its mission in the formation of its graduates. I offer this effort to define and measure the professional formation goals of one law school as a model for other law schools seeking to engage in mission-based legal education.