Looking back and looking forward on learning in professionalism

• Author: The Honourable Stephen T. Goudge
• Pages: 301-312

301

g September 2009

Lkin back an lkin ar n

learnin in essinalis

THE HONOURABLE STEPHEN T. GOUDGE

I

suspect we all remember the day when we rst told our family

and friends that we were going to law school. Undoubtedly, some of

us were met by the most recent lawyer joke– something about lawyers

and rats, or lawyers and sharks or lawyers and light bulbs. But under-

neath, there was almost always a quiet admiration and pride that we had

decided to become a part of something both important and valued– the

legal profession.

We did not consider it to be a cult, although undoubtedly it had its

ceremonies and rituals and thought of itself as an “in group.” Nor did it

really seem to be a culture, although it clearly had its distinctive customs

and outlooks, and it would give us the label by which we would be iden-

tied from then on: lawyers. Rather, it was a profession– although we

had only the vaguest understanding of what that meant.

Little did we know then that most of us would inevitably spend time

exploring this question, either explicitly or implicitly, either consciously

or subconsciously, attempting to answer in one way or another what it

means for a lawyer to say that he or she is a member of a profession.

The ongoing quest for how best to live one’s professional life as a lawyer

necessarily lasts a lifetime. It is inevitably a journey of lifelong learning.

Lawyers love– indeed, are addicted to – denitions, and profession-

alism is a slippery term. Many alternatives can be conceived. Let me

describe just several.