Lawyers are facing a professional identity crisis. Our legal education and bar admission systems send us into the legal market prematurely, under-qualified, and ill-prepared to serve today’s clients or fend off tomorrow’s competitors.

We need new frameworks to establish entry-level competence, coupled with new approaches to ensuring our continuing competence and sustainable wellness throughout our careers.

In this talk, Jordan Furlong will describe the legal profession’s monumental challenge, identify the skills and know-how new lawyers must possess, propose better ways to ensure ongoing attorney competence, and urge the adoption of a self-directed model of professional development for the legal profession.