A Lesson from the Engineers

Marketplace, a radio program run on many NPR stations, recently discussed how the sour economy was eliminating engineering jobs at a faster rate than many other professionals, with high profile companies looking to offshore their engineers.

Obviously, this sounds very familiar to legal professionals.

Interestingly, the American Society of Civil Engineers read the writing on the wall long enough ago to start revising their Body of Knowledge, which was created in a 1998 policy statement to define prerequisites for licensure and practice.

Last year the ASCE published Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century, Preparing The Civil Engineer for the Future, Second Edition.

The purpose of the book is to acknowledge new professional challenges and identify improvements to the education and licensure process. The book states:

"The manner in which civil engineering is practiced must change. That change is necessitated by such forces as globalization, sustainability requirements, emerging technology, and increased complexity with the corresponding need to identify, define, and solve problems at the boundaries of traditional disciplines."

Again, to those following the legal profession, there is a familiar echo: Globalization. Emerging technology. Problem solving at the boundaries of traditional disciplines.

Of equal importance, the ASCE also includes a telling word choice in one of their stated goals for the book.

" [to] focus on outcomes to the proposed changes in the way civil engineering is taught and learned, including the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for entry into professional practice."

Pretty striking. The American Society of Civil Engineers -- not a group historically known as wild-eyed, knee-jerk, doom sayers -- is 1) stating that the manner in which they practice their profession must change and, 2) suggesting that a change in attitude is a key component to succeeding in the 21st.

As attorneys peer into the coming years, it might not be a bad idea to steal a page from the ASCE's Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century and acknowledge that a change in attitude may be a successful strategy to address the challenges of globalization, emerging technology, and problem solving at the boundaries of traditional disciplines.