Experiential training for real-life professional impact: the formation of professional identity in trainee solicitors through a discrete intervention course on ethics and lawyering skills

The apprenticeship model of solicitor training in Ireland is split between time spent in the law firm and time spent in professional education at the Law Society of Ireland. Learning in law is a process of shaping identity and becoming part of a community, and professional socialisation is a key aspect of this professional development. However, many trainees arrive at the vocational training stage with little or no understanding of how their personal morals and ethics will impact on their future roles as lawyers. This article relates to an intervention study in the Law Society of Ireland with trainee solicitors at professional legal education level in the form of a two-month course entitled “Certificate in Legal Ethics and Lawyering Skills”. This intervention embraces an experiential learning approach and a wide view of ethics that moves beyond a defensive rule-based approach and supports trainees in grappling with ethics and negotiating within the more rigid and collectively based moral discourses which are a necessary part of constructing professional identity. The course framework embraced a variety of pedagogic approaches for effective teaching and fostering ethical professional identity such as role-play, small group discussion, video and online discussion forums and mixed method assessment.     

Book reviews

Parties and Party Systems: A Bibliographic Guide to the Literature on Parties and Party Systems in Europe Since 1945 on CD‐ROM. Edited by Stefano Bartolini, Daniele Caramani and Simon Hug. London: Sage Publications, 1998. £99 (stand alone version), £150 (network version). ISBN 0–7619–5924–6 and ‐6002–3.

Changing Party Systems in Western Europe. Edited by David Broughton and Mark Donovan. London: Pinter, 1998. Pp.xix+315, 2 figures, 13 tables, biblio., index. £55 (cloth); £16.99 (paper). ISBN 1–85567–327–4 and ‐328–48.

The Choice for Europe. Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. By Andrew Moravcsik. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998. Pp.xii+514, index. £16.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8014–8509–6.

People and Parliament in the European Union: Participation, Democracy, and Legitimacy. By Jean Blondel, Richard Sinnott and Palle Svensson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp.xvi + 287. £40 (cloth). ISBN 0–19–829308–9.

Legitimacy and the European Union. By David Beetham and Christopher Lord. London: Longman, 1998. Pp.viii +144. £9.99 (paper). ISBN 0–582–30489‐X.

Democracy in Europe: Legitimising Politics in a Non‐State Polity. By Heidrun Abromeit. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1998. Pp.ix + 182, bibliog., index. £25 (cloth). ISBN 1–57181–985–1.

Political Theory and the European Union: Legitimacy, constitutional choice and citizenship. Edited by Albert Weale and Michael Nentwich. London: Routledge, 1998. Pp.xiii + 205. £55 (cloth). ISBN 0–415–17313–2.

Germany, France and the Integration of Europe: A Realist Interpretation. Thomas Pedersen. London: Pinter, 1998. Pp. viii + 221, bibliog., index. £40. ISBN 1–85567–537–4.

Recreating Europe: The European Union's Policy towards Central and Eastern Europe. By Alan Mayhew. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xxi + 403, 2 maps, 7 figures, 37 tables, bibliog., index. £45 (cloth); £15.95 (paper). ISBN 0–521–63086‐X and ‐63897–6.

Enlarging the EU Eastwards. By Heather Grabbe and Kirsty Hughes. London: Pinter for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1998. Pp.x + 130, 1 map, 16 tables, 4 figures, bibliog., index. £27.50 (cloth); £11.99 (paper). ISBN 1–85567–525–0 and ‐526–9.

Divided Europe: The New Domination of the East. By Adam Burgess. London: Pluto Press, 1997. Pp.222, bibliog., index. £40 (cloth); £13.99 (paper). ISBN 0–7453–1262–4 and ‐1257–8.

The European People's Party: Origins and Development. By Thomas Jansen. New York: St Martin's Press; London: Macmillan. 1998. pp.xiv + 206. 2 annexes, bibliog., index. £45. ISBN 0–312–21062–0 and 333–72057–1

The Italian Guillotine. Operation Clean Hands and the Overthrow of the First Republic. By S. H. Burnett and L. Mantovani, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998. Pp.xii + 332, chronology, The Cast of Characters, index. £45 (cloth); £15.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8476–8877–1 and ‐8878‐X.

The French Civil Service. By M. Luc Rouban. Paris: La Documentation Francaise, 1998. Pp.118, bibliog. NP. ISBN 9–782110–038777.