The dissertation is devoted to the study of professional consciousness at different stages of a lawyer's career development.
A theoretical and methodological analysis of the problem of professional consciousness, activity and personality of a lawyer was carried out.
It is summarized that the professional consciousness of a lawyer reflects legal validity through legal knowledge, evaluation of law and the practice of its application, legal attitudes and value orientations that regulate behavior in legally significant situations. The professional consciousness of a lawyer as a special form of social consciousness has a subjective and psychological origin. Its basis is the oretical knowledge, subjects' perceptions of law, legal practices, and the history of the development of the legal system.
An important element of professional consciousness is the subjective evaluations that a lawyer gives to the current law reflecting the degree of its development and significance to the norms and existing legal practice. The professional consciousness of a modern lawyer should be considered taking into account the influence of various objective (social) and subjective (psychological) factors that are formed from basic legal concepts. From the point of view of psychology, the personality of a lawyer can be defined as a unique set of mental traits that influence his perception, thinking, feelings and behavior during the performance of professional duties. The integrity of a lawyer's personality is determined by the interrelation of its constituent parts, such as cognitive, emotional, motivational and other aspects. Changes in a lawyer's personality can be caused by various factors, such as professional experience, interaction with colleagues and clients, social environment, etc.
It is shown that the following aspects are distinguished in the professional activity of a lawyer: integration of psychophysiological processes, which combines physical and social aspects; a system of stable professional traits and characteristics that are manifested in the lawyer's internal dialogue with himself; a set of individual and professional strategies for processing external impressions and internal experiences; characteristic features of behavior in a professional environment; a system of plans, interrelationships, orientations and meaningful formations affecting the professional consciousness of a lawyer.
The main types and stages of a lawyer's career development are identified and substantiated.
The main types of career development of a lawyer include: vertical (gradually occupies higher positions in the structural hierarchy), qualification (grows professionally and continues to advance through the ranks of the tariff grid), status (increases his status by receiving bonuses, awards, honorary titles for contribution in the development of law and legal awareness of the population), monetary (with increasing work experience, the specialist receives an increase in the level of monetary remuneration, as well as social benefits and other bonuses).
Taking into account the specifics of the types of career development of a lawyer, the following career stages were distinguished: training (law masters), adaptation (lawyers with up to 5 years of experience), stabilization and growth (lawyers with 10 years of experience) and professional maturity (lawyers with experience more than 10 years).
It is substantiated that the professional consciousness of a lawyer as a whole system that accompanies him at all stages of career growth is conditioned by the interaction of its cognitive, emotional, value and socio-psychological components. Based on this, the following components are distinguished in the structure of a lawyer's professional consciousness at different stages of career development: motivational-value (satisfaction with the profession, motivational-value attitude to legal activity, psychological features of personal values and advantages in the
profession, tolerance and empathy); cognitive-voluntary (peculiarities of memory, attention, localization of responsibility); social-communicative (individual reflection, interpersonal relationships in the professional community).
The motivational and value component in the structure of a lawyer's professional consciousness at different stages of his career development, which is a dynamic formation and changes at different career stages and can affect their professional activity and performance, is highlighted and empirically researched. The main psychological content of this component is to reveal the attitude and satisfaction of lawyers with their professional activities. At the initial stages of career development, the motivational and value component is not sufficiently formed. It changes and improves with increasing experience and professional growth.
