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Professor Neil Hamilton teaches an ethics class.

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.

Get to know the Holloran Center

  • Get to Know the Holloran Center
  • Student Research and Service Positions
  • Review Changes to Standard 303
  • Explore Our Tools and Resources
  • See Our Research and Training

    • Get to Know the Holloran Center

    Holloran Center faculty 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 the mission of helping the next generation of lawyers form professional identities grounded in a deep commitment of service to others.

    About the Holloran Center

    Student Research and Service Positions

    The Holloran Center offers several student employment opportunities in research and service. Our program, which includes Tourek-Marvin Peer Mentors and Tourek-Marvin, Gherty, and Shea Scholars, is guided by the mission of fostering student leadership and encouraging continuous, lifelong professional growth.

    University of St. Thomas students are encouraged to apply or inquire more about available opportunities.

    Learn More And Apply

    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.

    About Standard 303

    Explore Our Tools and Resources

    See Our Research and Training

    The Holloran Center offers research and training in professional development formation.

    All Research and Training

    Get to Know the Holloran Center

    Holloran Center faculty 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 the mission of helping the next generation of lawyers form professional identities grounded in a deep commitment of service to others.

    About the Holloran Center

    Student Research and Service Positions

    The Holloran Center offers several student employment opportunities in research and service. Our program, which includes Tourek-Marvin Peer Mentors and Tourek-Marvin, Gherty, and Shea Scholars, is guided by the mission of fostering student leadership and encouraging continuous, lifelong professional growth.

    University of St. Thomas students are encouraged to apply or inquire more about available opportunities.

    Learn More And Apply

    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.

    About Standard 303

    Explore Our Tools and Resources

    See Our Research and Training

    The Holloran Center offers research and training in professional development formation.

    All Research and Training

    Professional Identity Formation and Well-Being Resources

    Rule of Law Initiative

    Holloran Center faculty 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 the mission of helping the next generation of lawyers form professional identities grounded in a deep commitment of service to others.

    Professional Identity Implementation Blog

    New Open-Source Textbook: INTERVIEWING & COUNSELING IN THE PROSPECTIVE CLIENT CONSULTATION

    by Barbara Glesner Fines, Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law, Dean Emerita of UMKC School of Law The Holloran Center is pleased to announce a new resource for a key skill for professional identity formation.  Co-Director of the Holloran Center & Bakken Professor of Law Jerry Organ and Rubey M. Hulen Professor of Law, Dean Emerita of UMKC School of Law, and Holloran Center Fellow Barbara Glesner Fines have just published INTERVIEWING & COUNSELING IN THE PROSPECTIVE CLIENT CONSULTATION (eLangdell 2026). Because the text holds a creative commons license, faculty can freely adopt and adapt the text for many different uses. Possible uses include: A primary text in an interviewing and counseling course; A secondary text in a lawyering skills course; A resource to support client interviewing exercises in doctrinal or broader lawyering skills classes; and Training materials to prepare students for clinics, externships, and competitions. Because this is an open-source textbook, the materials are also free to students. The text frames instruction in the context of the initial interview of a prospective client, although the counseling portion of the text goes beyond what many attorneys might actually address in an initial interview. The knowledge and skills addressed in the […]

    • An Old Truth for a New Era: Professional Identity Is Formed in Relationship

      by Erika N. Pont, Associate Director, Fundamentals of Lawyering Program; Coordinator of the Dean’s Fellow Program; Associate Professor of Fundamentals of Lawyering George Washington University Law School I’m writing this on the flight home from the first annual Holloran Center Conference & Awards Dinner. As I reflect on the weekend, I keep returning to something I’ve been learning since I first connected with the Holloran Center in 2019: formation happens in relationships. We often talk about professional identity formation as something that happens inside a person—reflection, judgment, values, purpose. Of course it does. But people are shaped by the people around them too. Mentors matter. Classmates matter. Faculty matter. Communities matter. Much of who we become is formed in conversation with other people. We talked about that frequently this weekend.  But more importantly, I experienced it first hand. In the formal sessions and in the in-between moments, people challenged and supported my ideas, sharpened my thinking, and offered kindness that meant more than they likely knew. More than that, I learned about people’s children, grandchildren, favorite music, travel plans, and beloved pets—all the ordinary details that make up a life. That kind of connection does not weaken serious work. It […]

    • Law School Transfer Data and Professional Identity Formation

      By: Jerry Organ, Bakken Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions, University of St. Thomas School of Law This blog posting updates my blog postings over the last several years regarding what we know about the transfer market, for example 2024 and 2023. With the ABA’s posting of the 2025 Standard 509 Reports, we now have more than a decade of detailed transfer data from which to glean insights about the transfer market among law schools, which has been in decline for most of the last decade. This posting also includes a section on transfer “feeder schools” and some reflections on whether and how law schools might be providing opportunities for professional identity formation for their transfer students. In addition, it speaks briefly to how changes in federal lending might impact the transfer market this summer. Numbers of Transfers and Percentage of Transfers Decline to the Lowest Levels in the Last Decade As shown in Table 1 below, the number of transfer students received by law schools in 2025 decreased nearly 10% from 1194 to 1085, the smallest number of transfers in the last decade as well as the smallest percentage of transfer […]

    • Continuing Strong Employment Outcomes for the Class of 2025

      by Jerry Organ, Bakken Professor of Law and Holloran Center Co-Director I am writing to follow up on my employment outcomes blog for the class of 2024 with an analysis of the employment outcomes for the class of 2025. The ABA will be releasing data on employment outcomes for 2025 graduates of all ABA-accredited law schools in the coming days.  I went and gathered the data from those ABA-accredited law schools that have posted their employment outcomes on their website – comprising 185 of the 191 law schools outside of Puerto Rico.  (Data were not available for Belmont, Emory, North Carolina Central, Northern Illinois, Ohio Northern and Texas Southern as of April 21.) Increase in Percentage of Graduates in Full-Time, Long-Term Bar Passage Required Positions Despite Decrease in Number of Graduates in Such Positions Across these 185 ABA-accredited law schools outside of Puerto Rico, the number of graduates between 2024 and 2025 decreased by 2,266, from 37,662 to 34,928, but the number of graduates in full-time, long-term bar passage required jobs decreased by only 1,716 – from 30,934 to 29,218! As a result, these 185 law schools once again saw the percentage of graduates in full-time, long-term bar passage required […]

    • Free (to Seek Help) at Last: Reflections on Years of Advocating for Law Students and Reforming the Bar Admission Character & Fitness Process

      Janet Stearns, University of Miami School of Law David Jaffe, American University Washington College of Law[1] This month, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (“NCBE”) released the updated version of its Sample Character Report Application.[2] In doing so, NCBE significantly revised the character and fitness application. The application is currently used by about half of U.S. jurisdictions in screening applicants for bar admission. Until this revision, NCBE asked applicants a very problematic question in the screening process: Do you currently have any condition or impairment (including but not limited to, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, or a mental, emotional or nervous disorder or condition) that in any way affects your ability to practice law in a competent, ethical and professional manner? If an applicant responded yes and indicated that they received ongoing treatment or participated in a monitoring or support program, they were then asked to provide names/contact information of treating physicians, hospitals or treatment programs. Concerns about having to respond to these intrusive inquiries into personal medical information, not surprisingly, significantly impeded the willingness of law students to seek needed help and support.[3] NCBE is to be commended for its support of updates to the application. During a three-year process, […]

    See More Blog Posts
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    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.

    Learning Outcomes Database
    The word "competence" is circled on a board.

    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.

    Holloran Competency Milestones
    Pixel art of a laptop showing the scales of justice.

    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.

    Professional Development Database

    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.

    Roadmap for Employment

    Professional Formation Research

    See data on topics like professional identity formation, developing fiduciary mindsets, increasing student well-being, and more.

    See the Research

    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.

    Coach Training

    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.