Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Associate Dean of Students and Professionalism, Amy Timmer, talks about Professionalism and the importance of staring your professionalism journey early, even before you start law school.
Dean Timmer is personally and professionally committed to lawyer and law student professionalism. She was appointed by ABA President William Hubbard as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism for the 2014-15 year, and was recently re-appointed for a three-year term. She also is an appointed member of the State Bar of Michigan (SBM) 21st Century Practice Task Force, Modernizing the Regulatory Machinery Committee. She is a founding member, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Best Practices Committee of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium. She serves as a member of the SBM District E Character and Fitness Committee, a Michigan Attorney Discipline Board Hearing Panel, the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, the National Professionalism Consortium, and the SBM Pro Bono Initiative’s Pro Bono Month Working Group. She is a Master and former Board member of the American Inns of Court Mid-Michigan Chapter. Dean Timmer is Chair of the Cooley Faculty Professionalism and Ethics Committee and the Pro Bono Committee.
As you can see she has an amazing breadth of of experiences that have led me to want to have her share her experiences and wisdom with you.
You may be thinking, why professionalism? In this interview Dean Timmer mentioned that from the start of your law school journey you have to know what it means to be a professional and what professionalism means. Professionalism is more than just having a professional degree it surrounds issues of:
- Conduct
- Behavior
- Professional Ethics
- Commitment to the Profession including
- Service to the Profession
- Ethical conduct on all issues
Some of you may be concerned that you have something in your background that you feel might be a barrier for attending law school. Dean Timmer told us that you "do not have to be a perfect person all your life to get into law school." She clarified that "the legal profession and justice system is based on a system of rehabilitation, redemption, acceptance paying your debt to society and being able to be part of the group". So as long as you "admit what you do wrong, pay your debt to society and reform your behaviors, law schools are very willing to have students there." In the end you have to "look at the time that has passed and what you have done ti make changes in your life to make the admission decision."
Second, Dean Timmer talked to us about how you can run your life to be a more professional person. She shared some great tips on how best to start this from the beginning. From examining yourself and your social persona to making sure that in all of the decisions that you make you have your conduct and therefore your character and fitness in mind.
One of the other things that Dean Timmer challenged all of our listeners to do was to write your own code of personal conduct. This is a great way to give yourself a road map for the way that you want to live your personal and professional life.
In the end, Dean Timmer wanted to make sure that all listeners took three things away from our interview:
- Be Reflective
- Develop a love for the legal and judicial system
- Really research the law school that you are thinking of applying to.
Thank you to Dean Timmer for joining us at the Law School Insider this week and I hope that you find her interview inspiring for your own law school journey.
Did you like this interview? Leave a comment below to let me know!
Are you a practicing lawyer? A law student? Would you like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of the Law School Insider? Send me an email at lawschoolinsider@cooley.edu