Rethinking your legal career: how to prepare to lead a successful life as a lawyer, with Professor David Wilkins

3 min read

At IE Law School we offer a range of master’s programs that allow you to adapt your experience to your interests and goals. Our Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master in International Legal Studies (LL.M.) are just two of the programs that we offer and our law faculty has a wide range of expertise and a wealth of experience in the legal world, which they will share with you on your journey to becoming a top professional.

But that’s not all. At IE University, we firmly believe that learning extends beyond textbooks and lectures and that meaningful connections play a pivotal role in shaping one’s professional growth and future success. We complement our programs by hosting a diverse array of experts and thought leaders. It’s all part of our mission to empower our students to gain insights into a wide range of topics that shape the global landscape.

With this in mind, we welcomed renowned Harvard Professor of Law, David Wilkins to IE Law School’s recently established LawAhead Center on the Legal Profession, to lead a masterclass titled “Your Career–Your Responsibility: How to Prepare to Lead a Happy, Healthy and Successful Life as a Lawyer in the Middle Decades of the 21st Century.” We created the LawAhead Center on the Legal Profession with a view to contributing to the ongoing discussion on the relationship between legal careers and health and happiness, and Professor David Wilkins helped us kick off this much-needed conversation.

Knowledge, advice and expertise

Professor David Wilkins is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law and faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. He is also a senior research fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Harvard Law School’s vice dean for global initiatives on the legal profession and a faculty associate of the Harvard University Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.

With over 30 years of work experience as a practicing lawyer and academic, Professor Wilkins is one of the leading voices on the changing face of the legal world. He shared some of his valuable insights to help law students navigate tomorrow’s challenges. We are living in unprecedented times and at IE Law School, we are dedicated to ensuring that our students emerge from their programs as lawyers who are ready to take on the new legal world. A law degree is more than learning how to provide legal services. Instead, we consider a broad spectrum of current issues, including the climate crisis, sustainability, new technologies and economic instability.

Learn more about Professor David Wilkins

This is a really important time for new law students and for lawyers because there is so much change going on within the legal world. – Professor David Wilkins

In a candid discussion, Professor Wilkins shared his view of the role that artificial intelligence will play in the legal sector. He emphasized that it will be a long time—and maybe never—before artificial intelligence and machine learning can replicate human creativity, ingenuity and the ability to create new knowledge. “The challenge for young lawyers is to maximize those qualities that are uniquely human while mastering the technology that will allow them to do their jobs even better,” he explained.

The first thing I’d say to law students is: you want to graduate with some basic level of familiarity with the emerging technologies that are going to reshape our world. – Professor David Wilkins

Cultivating a network for the future

Professor Wilkins emphasized the importance of striking a balance between career and life, highlighting this as a key to wellbeing. He also stressed the importance of building a strong professional network while at IE University as the more human relationships you make, “the better legal career you will have and the better person you will be.”

Professor Wilkins shared his sage advice to IE University LL.M. students as well as students from other MBA programs. There is no doubt that his words of advice will ring true for many years to come as the lawyers of the future progress in their legal careers.

A school of opportunities

At IE Law School, we pride ourselves on offering valuable and unique opportunities to our students to best prepare and educate them for the future. All of our master’s programs at IE Law School go beyond the classroom and encourage students to pursue their own areas of interest. And thanks to our prestigious network of visiting professors, we are able to ensure our students learn from the best, get to grips with the latest technologies and stay ahead of the curve.

Opportunities like these are part of IE Law School’s greater commitment to providing students with the most up-to-date legal education. With the Master of Laws (LL.M.), students can specialize in one of four areas—International Business Law, International Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property and Technology Law, or International Taxation—as part of their preparation to take on our ever-evolving and globalized legal world. Whatever your interests and aspirations, IE Law School has a master’s program that will fit your needs.