Professor Philip Lee Helps Students Cultivate and Embrace Their Professional Identity

When Professor Philip Lee discusses the predatory lending that led to the 2008 financial crisis in his 1L Property class, he asks students if they know anyone who had a subprime mortgage. When covering school segregation in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Race and the Law, or Education Law classes, he asks his students if they know anyone who lived through Separate but Equal. He also encourages students to share their lived experiences of educational diversity as they examine affirmative action cases with him.

In these ways and more, Professor Lee is intentional about creating a classroom climate where students feel free to talk about how the law has shaped their lives and the lives of people they care about. While those open exchanges serve many purposes, they are central to students’ professional identity formation.

A few years ago, the American Bar Association revised its Accreditation Standards to require law schools to provide substantial opportunities for students to develop a professional identity. Professional identity formation, in turn, is understood as an ongoing process that begins in law school, enabling students to find their place in the legal profession, improve professional satisfaction and personal wellbeing, and sustain a sense of purpose throughout their careers.

Professor Lee, whose award-winning work as a teacher and scholar bridges education, equity, and the law, considers professional identity a core aspect of teaching and learning at St. John’s Law. “I see the law classroom as a magical space that transforms students into legal advocates through a process that the late American author, theorist, educator, and social critic bell hooks called ‘engaged pedagogy,’” he says. “The transformation involves students embracing their agency to make a real difference in people’s lives. Part of my job as a law professor is to help them realize their potential in this sense.”  

To do that job effectively, Professor Lee draws on formative experiences from his own upbringing in the South. As one of just a few Asian American families in a small town, he and his family endured racial discrimination. After one particularly difficult encounter, his mother told him that he had her permission to fight back against people who hurt others simply because they can. “My mom’s words have stayed with me all these years,” he shares. “They infuse my identity as a lawyer and law professor, and they inspire me to help my students discover their own path to becoming ‘equity warriors’ who pursue justice in ways that are meaningful to them.”

Wellbeing is also part of the process of self-discovery Professor Lee fosters in his St. John’s Law classrooms, and he encourages his students to reflect on what they are grateful for daily. “My students express deep gratitude for things like family, community, and educational opportunity,” he says. “The practice grounds their academic and professional lives in something bigger than themselves. It helps them develop amazing resilience as they face the pressures of life in and beyond the law.” 

Facilitating his students’ growing sense of self and wellbeing is deeply gratifying for Professor Lee. “It’s like dropping a stone into a pond and watching the ripples reach the other side,” he explains. “When we do something to help someone, there are ripple effects that extend far beyond that single action. Some are visible, others are not. But I know they exist. And I know that my work as a law professor—helping students cultivate and embrace their professional identity—produces those effects. It’s wonderful to watch that process unfold."

Editor's Note: The original version of this story appeared in St. John's Law magazine.