Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership
The Holloran Center's mission is to provide innovative interdisciplinary research, curriculum development, and programs focusing holistically on the formation of both law students and practicing professionals into ethical leaders in their communities.
The Center is at the forefront of a growing national movement focused on greater intentionality in the professional formation of law students. The Standard 303(b) and (c) accreditation changes approved by the ABA House of Delegates on February 14, 2022, are a major step forward for the national social movement.
Our goal is to help every law school take gradual and effective steps to foster each student's growth to develop a professional identity.
Contact
Email
holloranctr@stthomas.edu
Law Student Well-Being Updates
How to Get Started
Get to Know the Holloran Center
Holloran Center professors and fellows provide national leadership on empirical research to assess which pedagogies are most effective to help students with formation of an ethical professional identity.
Since its founding in 2006, the Holloran Center has focused on this mission of helping the next generation of lawyers form professional identities grounded in a deep commitment of service to others.
Holloran Center News
St. Thomas Law's Holloran Center receives gift to establish endowment - National Jurist
What best prepares you for the practice of law? - National Jurist
Keynote Speaker David Grenardo (State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting 2024) - Texas Bar Blog
Review Changes to Standard 303
The Standard 303(b) and (c) accreditation changes approved by the ABA House of Delegates on February 14, 2022, are a major step forward for the national social movement.
Explore Our Tools and Resources
See Our Research and Training
The Holloran Center offers research and training in professional development formation.
Roadmap for Employment
Coach Training
Professional Formation Research
Get to Know the Holloran Center
Holloran Center professors and fellows provide national leadership on empirical research to assess which pedagogies are most effective to help students with formation of an ethical professional identity.
Since its founding in 2006, the Holloran Center has focused on this mission of helping the next generation of lawyers form professional identities grounded in a deep commitment of service to others.
Holloran Center News
St. Thomas Law's Holloran Center receives gift to establish endowment - National Jurist
What best prepares you for the practice of law? - National Jurist
Keynote Speaker David Grenardo (State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting 2024) - Texas Bar Blog
Review Changes to Standard 303
The Standard 303(b) and (c) accreditation changes approved by the ABA House of Delegates on February 14, 2022, are a major step forward for the national social movement.
Explore Our Tools and Resources
See Our Research and Training
The Holloran Center offers research and training in professional development formation.
Roadmap for Employment
Coach Training
Professional Formation Research
A lifetime of service and leadership
Remembering Tom Holloran (1929-2024)
“The School of Law that we know today would not exist without Tom Holloran,” said University of St. Thomas President Rob Vischer. “His stature in the Twin Cities community gave it instant credibility, and his dedication to cultivating meaningful relationships shaped its culture. Tom was a remarkably effective and beloved teacher because he taught the same way he lived: with unmistakable authenticity and integrity. The model of leadership he offered was a great gift to the world.”
Holloran Center Receives Major Gift to Support Professional Formation Among Law Students
The Holloran Center is grateful to have received a major gift from Jake Marvin, former CEO of Marvin Companies, to establish the Steve Tourek and Jake Marvin Scholars Endowment. The fund will be used to engage students in interdisciplinary research and professional identity formation endeavors.
Professional Identity Implementation Blog
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Drawing Pictures as a Professional Identity Formation Tool
By: Barb Glesner Fines, Dean Emerita and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law, UMKC School of Law As a new academic year begins, it’s that “fresh box of crayons” time of year. And so time for artwork to help us in understanding what it means to be a professional. For over two decades, I have begun my Professional Responsibility (PR) class with a drawing exercise in which I ask students to “draw a picture of a professional.”[1] You could use this exercise in any course as we want our students to think about their professional identity formation throughout law school. Over the years, some things have remained constant with the pictures produced from this exercise – for example, briefcases still appear as the most frequent symbol of professionals. Some things have changed. Women began appearing in about 2002 even though I had plenty of female students in my PR classes prior to 2002. Images of wealth and status waxed and waned. This year, after a six-year hiatus from teaching the PR course, I again repeated the experiment to see if new trends and assumptions were emerging. Here is my brief analysis of the new picture of professionals my students are […]
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Silent Struggle: Navigating Eating Disorders in the Legal Profession
By: Stephanie E. Kupferman, Associate Professor of Law, Vermont Law and Graduate School Colette C. Schmidt, Assistant Director of Career Services, Vermont Law and Graduate School ** TRIGGER WARNING: This blog post discusses the importance of good eating habits and toxic diet culture as related to the legal profession. If you are struggling with an eating disorder, please know that you’re not alone. Please refer to the following website: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-help/ and consider these following helplines: ANAD Helpline: 1 (888) 375-7767 Monday-Friday, 9am-9pm CT National Alliance for Eating Disorders Helpline: 1 (866) 662-1235 Monday-Friday, 9am-7pm ET Diabulimia Helpline: 1 (425) 985-3635 YOU: Why do I feel terrible? BODY: Coffee is not a meal. BODY: Eat a vegetable. BODY: Sleep. YOU: Guess we’ll never know. BODY: Oh my God…….. therahealth __________________________________ While becoming an attorney is an undoubtedly fulfilling career, the requisite journey is a grueling process—a process that just doesn’t simply end when you become a barred attorney. From the genesis of a student’s legal career until retirement, the legal profession is, at minimum, unbelievably strenuous, taking its toll on the body and mind. From meeting client expectations to keen attention to detail, long hours, and billable hour requirements, when does an attorney find […]
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Using Reflection to Add a Meaningful Professional Identity Formation Exercise to a Doctrinal 1L Class
By: David A. Grenardo, Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions, University of St. Thomas School of Law It took me thirteen years of teaching to figure out how I could easily incorporate professional identity formation (PIF) for my 1L students into Contracts without taking up class time or sacrificing coverage. I should have thought of it much sooner, but I blame my ineptitude on the concussions I sustained while playing college football. Revised ABA Standard 303(b) requires law schools to provide substantial opportunities to students to develop their professional identities. PIF needs self-reflection. Indeed, the revised ABA Standard includes Interpretation 3-303(5) that acknowledges PIF requires reflection (and growth) over time, and the frequent opportunities for reflection and growth should occur in a variety of places, including law school courses. Moments of stress where a law student acts in the role of an attorney provide the best opportunities for law students to develop their professional identity. In other words, when law students perform as lawyers, such as in clinics, externships, or role-playing in classes, students begin to feel like lawyers and understand better what it means to be a lawyer while […]
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Helping Students Uncover Their Identities as Lawyers
By: Rosa Castello, Associate Dean for Assessment and Accreditation & Professor of Legal Writing, St. John’s Law School Last summer I started reading “Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights” by Kenji Yoshino. I wanted to read the book because I teach a course about perspectives on civil rights, and I thought it would be helpful and interesting. I didn’t think about it in the context of professional identity formation, but I couldn’t help but think about how some of the things Yoshino discussed were intimately connected with forming a professional identity. Through a personal narrative, Yoshino explains two sociology concepts about identity: passing and covering. Relying on work by Erving Goffman, he explains that passing is about the visibility of a trait while covering is about its obtrusiveness. When one attempts to keep a trait invisible from others, that person is “passing.” However, if the trait is visible or known, when the person attempts to downplay the trait then that person is “covering.” When I read this part of the book, I thought about how these concepts come into play in the professional identity formation of our students. Who are our students when they enter law school? Are […]
Learning Outcomes Database
This database contains all of the learning outcomes available on law school webpages. We have identified those law schools with “basic” learning outcomes as well as schools with more robust learning outcomes than required by the language of Standard 302.
Holloran Competency Milestones
The Holloran Center Milestones are stage-development rubrics that describe the stages of development associated with each learning outcome. The Milestones for each learning outcome were developed by national working groups of faculty and staff from different law schools. A few were also developed internally at the Center.
Professional Development Database
This database identifies all the law schools with required first-year courses or programs focused on professional formation categorized by type of course or program. It also includes a searchable set of syllabi from those courses or programs when available.
Research and Training
Roadmap for Employment
Professor Neil Hamilton has developed and published a groundbreaking template for law students to use during all three years of law school in order to be fully prepared to find meaningful employment upon graduation.
Professional Formation Research
See data on topics like professional identity formation, developing fiduciary mindsets, increasing student well-being, and more.
Coach Training
One-on-one coaching is the most effective curriculum to foster a student's growth toward later stages of development on both legal education's foundational learning outcomes and the student's post-graduation goals.
The Thomas Holloran Legacy
The Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions is honored to have Thomas Holloran (1929-2024) as our inspiration and namesake. Holloran, who was a lawyer, a CEO, and a teacher, among other things, exemplified a unique model of servant leadership that combined excellence in business with a talent for mentoring