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.
Holloran Center Celebrates 20th Anniversary
In an Evening of Gratitude on April 24, 2026, the Holloran Center celebrated its 20th anniversary and Prof. Neil Hamilton’s work as its founding director upon his retirement.
This evening gave us an opportunity to pause with gratitude for the Holloran Center’s first 20 years, celebrate the community's many accomplishments in the professional identity formation sphere, and reflect on the work that is to come. It was also an opportunity to honor Prof. Hamilton for his vision, fundraising, leadership, and scholarship.
This milestone is shared by the University of St. Thomas School of Law community and our nationwide pilgrim fellowship. We are grateful for all who have made the work of the Holloran Center possible, and hopeful about what will grow from this shared work in years to come.
Read the Providential Story of the first 20 years of the Holloran Center here.
Get to know the Holloran Center
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Professional Identity Formation and Well-Being Resources
- A Definition of Professional Identity Formation
- Revised Standard 303 Part 1
- Revised Standard 303 Part 2
- Revised Standard 303 Part 3
- Standard 303: A Framework for the Intentional Exploration of Values
- Suffering in Silence (2016)
- It is Okay to Not Be Okay (2022)
- The Phantom Menace to Professional Identity Formation (2023)
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
“Avoiding the Slippery Slope”: Interview with Holloran Fellow Hank Shea
We are pleased to share this interview with Holloran Center Fellow Hank Shea. This was originally published by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession. “I started to ask, How could I still do my job but achieve justice outside the box? During plea negotiations, I started encouraging defendants to pay restitution immediately, not when the court orders it. In cases of public corruption and environmental crimes where the whole community is being harmed, I said, ‘If you really want to do the right thing, do something to restore and heal the entire community.'” You can read the interview here.
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Announcement: Jerry Organ Appointed Interim Dean of School of Law
We are excited to share the news that Holloran Center Co-Director Jerry Organ will serve as Interim Dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law for the 2026-27 Academic Year. In a letter to faculty and staff this week, Professor Organ reiterated his commitment to steward and build on the unique community of care we have here at the School of Law. As one of the founding faculty members of the law school, he has been living out the mission as a servant leader from the school’s inception, and we know he will sustain and foster our goals of love of student, love of neighbor, and love of knowledge. A letter from Provost Eddy Rojas regarding this appointment is included below. Dear School of Law Faculty and Staff, As you know, Dean Dan Kelly has accepted an offer to become the next dean of the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. While we will miss Dan’s leadership and contributions to the University of St. Thomas School of Law, his appointment is also a meaningful recognition of the strength, reputation, and growing national profile of our law school. Over the last several days, I have engaged in […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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.