Students Presentations of Self

1. Students Presentations of Self In a Pro Bono Brief Advice Clinic, Staffed by Students and Volunteer Attorneys

2. The Three Apprenticeships • Cognitive – well covered through first year Socratic method • Training for Practice • Development of Professional Identity • Professionalism, social responsibility, ethics • Not well covered in American Law Schools. Carnegie Report • We ”become” lawyers – what we do is who we become. Bellow & Moulton • Professional identity will be formed whether we are conscious or not • Engaging in pro bono work can help form the professional identity • Adults develop moral capacity over lifetimes, so law schools should include relevant goals in establishing learning outcomes. Neil Hamilton

3. The Study • Recording of 46 Student-Client Interviews • Transcriptions of Recordings • Analyzed Using Conversation Analysis

4. Conversation Analysis • “the dominant approach to the study of human social interaction across the disciplines of Sociology, Linguistics and Communication.” Tanya Stivers & Jack Sidnell, Introduction to The Handbook of Conversation Analysis 1 (Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers eds., 2013). • Relies on the “close examination of language in interaction.” Applied Conversation Analysis: Intervention and Change in Institutional Talk 1-2 (Charles Antaki ed., 2011). • Does not involve any beginning hypothesis or intervention, but a careful study of the transcripts to see what lessons emerge

5. Lessons from the Transcripts

6. Introductions • Students are self-effacing vis-à-vis attorneys, asserting they are not “allowed” to provide legal advice until checking with attorneys • Students are self-promoting vis-à-vis clients asserting that they (students) will control interview – ask, figure out, • IN 32 of 46 interviews, students begin with such introductions

10. Mistakes in Introductions

15. Clients Control Introduction Three Clients seized control of the introduction, and engaged in “chit chat.” Students responded.

20. The Solicitous but Nervous Student Only one student’s introduction focused on listening to client’s needs. She then shared her own nervousness.

22. The Confident Students Only two students did not emphasize what they could NOT do.

26. Conclusions about Introductions • Individual students developed personal “scripts” • The Clinic did not have a recommended “script” • Most students emphasized they were not “allowed” to give advice • Most students presented themselves as controlling the interview – question, analyze, find out, figure out • Some asserted control over the attorneys – they would “grab” attorneys, “talk to an attorney if I need to” or “I’ll invite them to come back” • One student focused on her role as listener, learning client’s experience and needs

27. Student Informality A few students presented themselves very informally.

31. Empathy A few students clearly expressed empathy or engaged in active listening.

38. Conclusions about Professional Identify Formation

39. Professional Identity Formation • A critical question. . . Is how most effectively to socialize gradate students and practicing professionals into an ethical professional identity that connects technical professional skills with the public purpose of each profession.” Neil Hamilton • All five Carnegie Foundation studies “agree that a fundamental element of professional formation is internalizing a deep responsibility to the person being served.” Hamilton • “Part of professionalism means that each lawyer . . . Agrees to act as a fiduciary where his or her self-interest is over-balanced by devotion to serving the client and the public good in the profession’s area of responsibility: justice.” Hamilton

40. Empathy • In medicine and law empathy centers on cognitive process involving perspective taking and recognition of another’s pain or distress (while preserving objectivity and guarding against compassion fatigue) • Young adults go through developmental stages with respect to integrating and internalized deep responsibility to clients and the legal system • In survey the majority of young adults were focused on becoming independent, deny any general responsibility to others • Lifespan developmental psychologists recognize individual’s sense of self can evolve over lifespan, with self-interest gradually giving way to more other-oriented ways of thought • Students will be at different developmental stages. Hamilton

41. Students’ perspectives vis-à-vis the Clients • Students demonstrated respect and concern for clients by volunteering in the Pro Bono Clinic • Students sought to provide timely answers • But . . . Most students could better express client-centeredness, better communicate that the consultation is about the clients’ needs, concerns • A few students expressed empathy – active listening, naming the feeling, legitimating the feeling, respecting the feeling or appreciating the client’s plight and supporting the client

42. Suggestions • Develop a model script for all to use as an introduction, correctly explaining process and focusing on desire to listen, hear, understand and be client-centered • Teach / mentor students to express empathy – naming the feeling, understanding or legitimating the feeling, respecting the feeling or appreciating the client’s plight, expressing desire to help • Consult with students regarding their feelings of empowerment / disempowerment in their roles in the clinic • Reframe work of clinic as teamwork amongst students and attorneys

43. Thank You! Linda F. Smith University of Utah, S. J. Quinney College of Law