Lawyers, Learning, and Professionalism: Meditations on a Theme

This essay will offer three meditations on the theme of "lawyers, learning and professionalism." First, it lays a foundation by arguing that a commitment to learning is an appropriate and necessary professional value for lawyers. Next, it contends that lawyers need to take this professional value more seriously. It will suggest that lawyers lag behind other professions in learning about learning, and urge more lawyers deliberately do just that. Finally, the essay shares some important lessons about professionalism recently learned through learning experiments with practicing lawyers and law students.