Determined to be a Professional: Ethical and Well

Abstract

Apart from the qualification, does an undergraduate law degree or Juris Doctor provide legal graduates with the ability to enter the profession as competent, well and ethical professional individuals that have the skills and attitudes to both survive and succeed in the legal profession, and provide the services that their clients and the community expects of them? Central to this question is the issue of the rise of mental distress in law graduates that has been extensively described in many papers in the US and in Australia over the last three decades. This chapter will focus on the potential for self-determination theory (SDT) (as developed by Ryan and Deci and explored in the legal context by Lawrence Krieger and Kennon Sheldon) to explain the problem of law student and lawyer well-being. Followed by an examination of an empirical study of several cohorts of Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice students at the ANU School of Legal Practice in 2012 and 2013 that indicate that we have been able to positively reverse the trends on well-being seen in other studies – i.e. levels of mental distress stayed at lower levels and did not significantly change over the study. These encouraging results correlated with overall higher or stable levels of autonomy, relatedness and competence as well as an increased sense of professional identity, hope and, most significantly, progress towards values. Finally, the chapter will discuss the features of this distinctive curriculum that could be providing these positive results with a view to encouraging further research, adoption and evaluation of these features into our legal education.