Elizabeth Crane
Chair, Professional Identity & Formation Committee
Director of Career & Professional Development
Contact Elizabeth
What is Professional Identity Formation?
Professional Identity Formation (PIF) is the process through which law students develop a sense of their unique professional identity. It is an ongoing process characterized by self-awareness and the understanding, internalization, and demonstration of the values, ethics, and responsibilities fundamental to thriving as a legal professional.
PILLARS at USC Joseph F. Rice School of Law
Building upon skills introduced in the 1L Introduction to the Legal Profession class and in addition to our robust curriculum, the law school offers sequential co-curricular PIF programming throughout a student’s three years in law school, focusing on skill development in areas built on the PILLARS conceptual framework’s five core competencies: Communication & Cultural Citizenry, Innovation & Problem Solving, Resilience, Wellness & Growth Mindset, Financial & Business Acumen, and Leadership & Service. We aim for all students to develop these five core competencies and the skills contained within each competency during their time at South Carolina Law.
PILLARS Conceptual Framework
USC Joseph F. Rice School of Law graduates will practice law in workplaces that demand their ability to relate appropriately to diverse constituencies and manage complex relationships using sophisticated and nuanced interpersonal and communication skills. Skills and attributes that will equip lawyer-leaders to advance relationships through natural evolution and change born of conflict must begin at the law school level.
Lawyers-leaders must be able to guide others through increasingly complex and multi-faceted challenges, using new tools, and adapting to changing systems for productivity and accountability. Analysis of complex information and application of professional judgment will advance their planning and decision-making process as lawyer-leaders become visionaries as they move through their careers.
To take care of others, lawyers-leaders must take care of themselves. The ability to develop a personal value system is fundamental to professional identify formation, as is the ability to understand and develop patterns of ethical behaviors that will sustain physical and emotional well-being and personal effectiveness.
Lawyer- leaders understand their clients’ business issues as well as the “business of practicing law”, either as part of a leadership team for their organizations or as business owners themselves. Care and nurture of the client relationship and understanding the fundamental expectations of client services are fundamental skills for attorney competence. Law students will benefit from exposure at the law school level before they begin more nuanced and applied skill development with their postgraduate employer.
Lawyer-leaders must integrate varied and disparate roles as they balance their commitments to their professional development, their service obligations, their leadership skills, and their obligation to serve the greater good and the needs of the varied stakeholders they represent in a rapidly evolving legal profession.
Signature Professional Identity Formation Initiatives and Programs
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1L Mentoring Program
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Externship Program
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Introduction to the Legal Profession
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Career & Professional Development
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Clinical Legal Education
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Legal Research, Analysis, & Writing
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Professional Foundations Reading Group
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“Attorney in Residence” Program
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Student Success Initiatives
About PILLARS Committee
Since 2021, the USC Joseph F. Rice School of Law’s Professional Identity Formation Design Committee, comprised of faculty, staff and administrators, has assessed and developed professional identity formation initiatives and programming.