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 creates the trust and ease in which the best work happens and the sharpest ideas emerge.

What the Holloran Center has built is more than a conference or network. In the language associated with Professors Neil Hamilton and Jerry Organ, it is a community of care: a place where people are challenged and supported all at once. Mostly, it is a place where people can be seen as whole humans, not only as academics.  That is rarer than it should be and especially important now.

In 2023, the Surgeon General warned of a new kind of public health crisis– an “Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” ^[1]  Three years later, many students are coming of age in environments where connection is easier to simulate and harder to practice. They can outsource first drafts to AI, stay socially “connected” online, and move through school needing less from other people. But some important skills are developed only by depending on other people.  Empathy, trust, collaboration, and asking for help are skills.  And like any skills, they atrophy when underused.

Law has always been a deeply relational profession. Clients need people they trust. Colleagues need one another. Mentors shape careers. Reputation grows slowly. Relationships also sustain us when work and life get (inevitably) hard.

Legal education has something to learn from what the Holloran Center has built. As we all know, formation does not happen only through coursework or solitary reflection. It is cultivated through culture, community, and relationships over time.

If we are serious about well-being and professional identity formation, relationship-building deserves intentional design.

That means more than teaching students to “network.” It means helping them practice the ordinary habits on which good relationships actually depend: curiosity, reliability, generosity, vulnerability, collaboration, gratitude, and knowing when to ask for help. It also means building schools and programs where connection is possible and nurtured, not just discussed.

I’m heading home reminded that this work matters. Now, perhaps more than ever, our students need places where they can grow, be challenged, be supported, and be known.

So do we.

^[1] Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The US Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community, 2023, available at chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf (last accessed April 27, 2026).