The first Professionalism Pledge was administered to over 200 entrance-level Texas Tech School of Law students during law school orientation Aug. 17.
Jennifer Bard, a professor of law and director of health law, said she coordinated the Professionalism Pledge, which she hopes will become an annual event, in hopes the first-year law students would recognize the importance of the journey they were preparing to begin.
"I thought it was a wonderful way of sort of ending up orientation and emphasizing that even though it still looks like you're in school, it really is not just more school," she said. "It really is starting the legal profession."
Leading the oath was Brian Quinn, chief justice of the seventh Court of Appeals and a Tech School of Law graduate.
One first-year law student, Andrew van der Hoeven of Austin, said he was honored to have Quinn lead the pledge.
"I think it is just the idea of professionalism and respect for others and serving others with integrity," he said of the pledge. "Hopefully that is the kind of pledge that any professional will be taking, not just law students."
Mark Gleason, a first-year law student from Waxahachie, said he believes the oath will serve as a reminder of professionalism to students.
"I already felt an obligation (to law school)," he said, "so I mean, I guess it just kind of reinforces it; sort of an outward reminder. Hopefully you're already thinking about it."
Since this was the first Professionalism Pledge at the Tech School of Law, faculty members will be checking in with the students throughout the semester to determine how the pledge is affecting the students.
Bard said she got the idea for the pledge after teaching at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
"That was my first opportunity to see a White-Coat ceremony for the incoming medical students," she said. "It was just very impressive and moving, and it got me to thinking and a few schools are starting to do it."
Tech is one of the first law schools in the nation to initiate the Professionalism Pledge, which will become an annual event. Bard said she wanted the students to realize this was not a warm-up period for becoming a legal professional, rather it is the beginning stages of the legal profession.
"My hope for the students to get out of this is to be able to have the idea, not just today, but all through their law-school career that they are progressing towards becoming professionals and they are progressing towards becoming attorneys," she said. "And so everything they do, treating their colleagues, their work, doing the reading, it's all part of being a legal professional."
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