THE COURAGE TO PRACTICE LAW WITH INTEGRITY PROGRAM
The Courage to Practice Law with Integrity Program (CPLI) of Hamline University School of Law promotes and supports the practice of law as a calling to serve the common good. It is specifically designed for lawyers and law students who understand their work as a calling and seek the satisfaction that comes from the experience of integrity through congruence between their deepest held values and their work as lawyers.
The program starts with the everyday experience of lawyers at work today and asks,“What are you claiming about yourself when you tell someone that you are a lawyer, within the concrete context of your work as a lawyer?” This question invites reflection on the character, virtue and integrity of the lawyer in a way that opens up deep examination of the ethical challenges and troubling experience of many lawyers. Beyond issues of personal satisfaction, however, this approach provides recognition and critical reflection on the way in which lawyers take on the role of the lawyer – the specific way in which they take on their professional identity – and the consequences this has for the integrity not only the individual practitioner in his or her private and public relationships, but also for the important public consequences this has in the world at large.
THE TWO MODES of the CPLI PROGRAM: The two modes of the program are devoted to inviting and supporting dialogue among lawyers around the various dimensions of the question of professional identity, and responsibility in a way that encourages lawyers to collectively engage each other in on-going conversation that supports the integrity of the practitioner in his or her work as a lawyer.
Mode I: “RULES TO ETHICS: The Challenge of Being Professional” – This is a short (half-day, expandable up to full day) CLE course that explores the way in which issues of professional identity, responsibility and integrity are raised but not answered by the Minnesota (or Model) Rules of Professional Conduct and explores the classical meaning of the term “profession,” as applied to law.
Mode II: “CALLED TO THE LAW: Gathering in ‘Talking Circles’ for Reflection and Dialogue about the Work of the Lawyer” - This phase is devoted to building relationships among lawyers through the use of “Talking Circles” for the purpose of promoting dialogue among them to engage in critical reflection on their experience of the content and meaning of their role and work as it bears on the integrity of that experience.
FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact:
Howard J. Vogel, Professor of Law & Program Director
Phone: 651-523-2120, e-mail: hvogel@hamline.edu
Mail: Hamline University School of law
1536 Hewitt Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104-1237
