By Felicia Bennett, Holloran Center Coordinator
The latest issue of the Journal of Legal Education offers a rich collection of articles addressing professional identity formation, leadership, and character development. Developed as a follow-up to the 2025 Leadership and Character in the Law Conference at Wake Forest University School of Law, this issue brings rising and distinguished scholars together to examine an increasingly central question of legal education: How can law schools form the leadership and judgment skills of law students so that they enter the profession with a values-driven approach to their role as both lawyers and citizens?
Readers of the Holloran Center’s blog will be familiar with the themes covered in these articles. Authors explore professional identity formation as a theory, the role and importance of virtues and values, leadership and character formation, the responsibilities of lawyers in times of institutional change, and the challenge that generative AI poses to the development of professional judgment skills.
This is the first of two posts that will highlight the scholarship in Volume 74 of the Journal of Legal Education. Today’s post contains the themes of professional identity formation as a theory and leadership and character development. We present these two themes together because they are at the core of the questions faced by legal education today: what are the human-centered skills and traits that law students need to acquire as they prepare to enter society as leaders, and how do law schools shape curricula and pedagogies to support this formation process?
The next post will cover articles on the topics of legal education during times of institutional change and generative AI and professional formation.
Below you will find article summaries with links to the scholarship and suggested, related reading on the Holloran Center Blog.
The Theory of Professional Identity Formation
Louis D. Bilionis & Neil W. Hamilton, “Professional Identity Formation As Theory and As Practice for the Education of a Lawyer,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article examines the value of professional identity formation as a unifying theory of legal education that ties academic performance and bar passage, meaningful employment, and a client-centered mindset into the same pedagogical package.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
Standard 303 and the Development of Student Professional Identity: A Framework for the Intentional Exploration of the Profession’s Core Values
Character, Values, and Leadership Development
Kenneth Townsend, “Leadership and Character in the Law: An Introduction From Kenneth Townsend,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
Townsend introduces the importance of addressing leadership and character development in the face of internal and external pressures in the legal profession.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
“Avoiding the Slippery Slope”: Interview with Holloran Fellow Hank Shea
Leah Teague, “Fostering Future Difference-Makers: The Integration of Leadership Training in Law Schools,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article highlights the critical responsibility that law schools have for developing character, professionalism, and ethics in students. With lawyers heavily represented in leadership positions across sectors, Teague argues that including training that prepares students to “serve and lead with integrity” is not optional.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
Developing Professional Identity By Aligning Personal Values and Professional Life and Following the Four Steps of Discernment: Using A Distinguished Judge’s Life as a Guide
Elisabeth Rain Kincaid, “Practicing Pietas: Character Development for Lawyers as Citizens,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article draws connections between the trait of patriotism and the Augustinian/Thomist theory of piety, establishing a positive framework for a lawyer as a virtuous and engaged citizen.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
The Centrality of Spiritual Well-Being to Professional Formation
Katya S. Cronin, “Conviction, Character, Courage: The Case for Integrating Values into the Professional Identity Formation of Tomorrow’s Lawyer-Leaders,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article explores the role of leadership in the law and argues for the importance of reworking law school curricula to foster moral growth.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
Value-Centered Lawyering: Reshaping the Law School Curriculum to Promote Well-Being, Quality Client Representation, and a Thriving Legal Field
Timothy W. Floyd, “Moral Virtues, Professional Identity, and Leadership,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article focuses on how the professional identity of lawyers can be framed as the front line of defense for the preservation of a societal commitment to the rule of law. Floyd posits that lawyers are uniquely positioned to serve as ethical leaders, provided they are formed to center values and virtues as part of their professional identity.
- Related Holloran Center reading:
Rule of Law Materials
Mercer Law Review Symposium on Professional Identity and the Multiple Roles of the Lawyer
Benjamin Rigney & Janice Craft, “The Large Impact of Small Groups on the Character-Based Leadership Development of Law Students,” Journal of Legal Education, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Summer 2026).
This article highlights the role of lawyers as change agents and proposes that small-group work can play a vital pedagogical role in the formation of law students as future ethical leaders.