Professional Being
People rarely take the time to get to know themselves. If one does not know oneself, one can never really know anyone else. Self-reflection refers to the capacity for an individual to employ introspection and the willingness to be able to investigate their drives, desires, expectations, needs, wants, competencies, and more about how a person views one's own purpose and nature. Self refection can be applied to one's professional goals, personal goals, and nearly every situation in which a person encounters in their life.
An attorney who honestly exercises self-reflection is clear about their motives, goals, and how they should handle all aspects of their professional and personal life with respect to these. The self-reflective attorney is completely honest during this introspection. Sometimes this can be scary, but it is important that one understand oneself completely in order for self-reflection to be effective. The self-reflective attorney understands their background, their values, role models, and how these affect their own motivation and interaction with others. The self-reflective attorney also understands how others see them. By knowing oneself one is prepared to take on the challenges of others. The ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu said it best: "Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories." Knowing oneself allows one to better understand one's strengths and weaknesses, to understand others, and how to be most effective in a situation.
A key concept in self-reflection is to foster the development of a professional identity as well as one's own personal identity. A professional identity is basically the way the attorney views their own role with respect to all of the stakeholders in the legal system. In trying to understand one's professional identity one would need to ask oneself who one is or where one stands as a member of the legal profession. In general one should ask oneself "What am I like as a person?" This goes back to the issue of self-reflection discussed above. The next key concept of the development of a professional identity would be to determine what one wants to be like in their professional role. The goal here would be to use self-reflection and one's goals professionally to merge oneself with one's professional goals. Extending the notion of professional...
But, there are also other key concepts in the development of a professional identity.
The self-reflective attorney would need to examine their own ethical -- social values in conjunction with their own core sense of professional identity. Does the attorney only want make a lot of money? Does the attorney want to be helpful to others? These are the issues that self-reflection and the development of a professional identity help define. One must develop an understanding of their professional role/identity as an attorney relative to the courts, judges, the opposition, firm, the legal system, and society as a whole. The professional identity of an attorney extends far beyond interactions and contacts within the legal system or legal framework. One must also develop an understanding of how their role as an attorney is affected by and affects their family, friends, and others. When developing a professional identity the attorney must develop one's own role expectations regarding interactions with all of these. This requires quite a bit of introspection and self-reflection, as well as a periodic revaluation and reexamination of one's personal and professional identity.
Part of the overall professional identity for an attorney is being a representative of one's clients in addition to being an officer of the legal system itself and a private citizen having a special accountability for the quality of justice in society. As a representative of clients, the lawyer takes on several roles. One of these is as an advisor, providing a client with an informed understanding of the client's legal rights, legal obligations, and the implication of these in the particular situation at hand. As an advisor, the attorney may not need to refer to just legal issues at hand, but also may consider the moral, social, economic, and even political factors that may be relevant to the particular situation of the client. In taking on the role of advisor the attorney need not always offer advice unless it is asked by the client; however, giving candid advice is always mandatory. In the role of advisor the attorney should keep in mind that advice given in strictly legal terms may not be useful…
