Portraits of a profession

Richmond Law’s Professional Identity Formation class recently stepped outside the classroom and into UR’s Harnett Museum of Art to explore professional identity.

Through the Museums+ initiative, professor Janice Craft collaborated with museum staff to tailor an installation for PIF students. The exhibit was designed to provoke deep, personal inquiry and challenge students to consider not only who they want to be as lawyers, but also who they want to be as people.

“Legal texts, especially in the first year, often train students to think in abstract, detached terms,” Craft said. “The experience of art, on the other hand, is deeply personal. It forces a personal response ... and that opens the door to a kind of self-inquiry that a casebook doesn’t often invite.”

That invitation resonated deeply with Zachary Braswell, L’27.

“In law school, I often find myself focused on performance, precision, and logic,” he said. “The art exhibit, however, asked me to reflect inwardly on my values, experiences, and motivations, and it inspired me to become a lawyer that is not just intellectually skillful, but also emotionally aware.”

For Delayna Major, L’27, the experience underscored the individuality of interpreting art. She and three classmates came away with varying interpretations after analyzing the same image. 

“While I interpreted the piece as a foreshadowing of the challenges of maneuvering through a competitive environment like law school, one of my classmates regarded the piece as a celebration of the value of collaboration in overcoming shared obstacles,” she said. “Although we all underwent a shared experience as first-year law students, ... the unique experiences that molded us as individuals leading to law school and supporting us through the process continue to shape our identities and our perspectives of these shared experiences.”

Having intended only a one-time collaboration through the Museums+ initiative, Craft now envisions more iterations for her future PIF courses.

“It’s important to me to always emphasize the twin themes of agency and accountability in professional identity formation,“ Craft said. “Only the student can decide who they’re going to be as a lawyer, but they’re never making those decisions in a vacuum. They are accountable to others and to the demands and responsibilities of the legal profession.”