Aric Short is Professor of Law and Director of Professional Identity and Leadership Development at Texas A&M University School of Law. Aric helped create and has taught for ten years an innovative required first year course, Professional Identity. In that class, students explore the interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies that legal employers value—but that law schools typically ignore. Students study competencies such as emotional intelligence, resilience, leadership, ethical decision-making, and well-being, including how to become self-directed at further developing them to serve their future clients. The ABA awarded Aric’s Professional Identity class the E. Smythe Gambrell Professional Award in 2022. Aric also teaches an upper-level course on Leadership and Interpersonal Dynamics.
Aric writes and speaks nationally on topics of professional identity formation and leadership development. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the American Association of Law Schools Leadership Committee and has recently been asked to serve on an advisory committee for the ABA as it develops a program of content on ethics and ethical decision-making, with an emphasis on professional identity formation for lawyers and law students. His current research interests include the intersection of generative artificial intelligence and identity formation for law students and lawyers. Aric has received numerous teaching awards at the law school and university level. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife and two of his three children.