Teaching Through a Spiritual Lens
Teaching Professional Responsibility From a Healing Perspective
(This article was commissioned by the Center for Healing and the Law, and will appear in a forthcoming book on Healing and the Law)
David Hall
If we want future lawyers to embrace a vision of the practice of law that inspires them to operate as healers, then they must be introduced to this idea in law school, and it must be conveyed in a manner that captures their attention and imagination. Ideally this vision and understanding should be conveyed to students from the moment they begin the admissions process and continue until graduation. This vision should be embedded throughout the curriculum and especially in first year courses.
Yet changing law school curricula in a comprehensive manner is an extremely difficult challenge for even the most progressive and innovative teachers and administrators. Change comes slow in law schools, as with other legal institutions, and it tends to be more effective and realistic when it is anchored within a concrete part of the institution or curriculum. The believers and the skeptics need specific examples that can serve as a basis for evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of the new approach. Once the new idea has been employed in a particular setting it can be embraced as a viable pedagogical approach to learning, which with support can spread into other parts of the curriculum and institution. My years as Provost, Dean and Professor of Law have taught me that educational innovation is not easily accepted in the abstract. Though it would be nice to envision the transformation of the practice of law into a healing profession as occurring throughout the law school curricular, I believe that the logical anchor for this transformative process is the course on Professional Responsibility.
There are numerous reasons why Professional Responsibility is the natural home for the development and implementation of this new vision. First and foremost, it is the place where students are exposed to ethical rules, challenges and dilemmas in a systematic and comprehensive manner. Embedded within those rules is a vision of how lawyers should operate in regard to their clients, the profession and the public. Each rule of professional conduct implicitly challenges lawyers to look beyond their individual desires and consider the needs of others. Though those needs are often portrayed in a very narrow legal manner, it is ripe for a larger and deeper discussion. Second, there are very few courses in law school where the concept of “professionalism” is directly addressed and discussed. Though many Professional Responsibility casebooks pay only minimal attention to these definitional concerns, students are often for the first time being invited to examine and critique this foundational idea. Third, this course is one of the few places where our students’ character, integrity and personal values are directly, or at least indirectly, addressed. Most casebooks include a section or chapter on “Admission to the Bar,” where ethical rules are governing the student’s character and fitness to become a member of the bar are examined. Though many professors chose not to enter, this opens the door for a deeper discussion of what values and forces contribute to the development of our student’s character. Professional Responsibility teachers are given a license to directly address these touchy and thorny issues. Finally, in this era of minimal course requirements in the upper level, Professional Responsibility is still a required course which students can’t avoid. If it could be used as a platform upon which to construct a healing vision of the practice of law, then we can certainly advance this approach in a more meaningful manner.
In order for this incorporation of a healing perspective to shape the contours of Professional Responsibility courses, the present casebooks, materials and approaches must be expanded and changed. The primary goal of this chapter is to provide a theoretical framework for teaching this course from a healing perspective. This chapter is one small step toward a more comprehensive project that must be undertaken. Ultimately, various casebooks will have to written so that professors throughout the academy can choose to participate in the creation of this “pedagogy of transformation.”