The Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at the University of St. Thomas School of Law will host a Workshop on Professional Identity Formation and the Rule of Law on October 24-25, 2025, at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, MN. The Workshop will begin at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, October 24 and conclude at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 25.

Introduction and Rule of Law Materials

Those involved in legal education in the United States have long assumed that law students, somehow, were implicitly grasping the importance of the rule of law and their special responsibility as lawyers to support the foundational principles associated with the rule of law.

The last several years, however, have shown us that those involved in legal education must engage in greater collective intentionality to make sure law students understand the foundational principles associated with the rule of law and internalize their special responsibility to support the foundational principles associated with the rule of law.

In support of this effort, the Rule of Law Working Group, a joint enterprise of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions and the “Pluralizing” Legal Professional Identity: Democracy, Equity, Justice, and the Law School Curriculum” project led by Eduardo Capulong and funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation, has generated a Rule of Law Learning Outcome for law schools and will be developing a stage development rubric for assessing how students have progressed with respect to the Rule of Law Learning Outcome.

The Rule of Law Working Group has a set of materials available for review on the webpage for the Holloran Center’s Rule of Law Initiative.  Those materials include:

• Introduction, Definition, and Foundational Principles of the Rule of Law
• Supplemental Descriptions of the Foundational Principles
• Rule of Law Learning Outcome
• Two Samples of Teaching/Learning Materials on Components of the Rule of Law Learning Outcome

We anticipate updating the webpage with additional resources as they become available.

Workshop Information and Registration

The Workshop on Professional Identity Formation and the Rule of Law is conceived of as an opportunity to catalyze a new generation of teaching/learning materials to help law students progress on each of the components of the Rule of Law Learning Outcome.

Accordingly, we are inviting faculty and staff members from law schools around the country

• to create new teaching/learning materials (or repurpose existing teaching materials) to engage law students on one or more components of the Rule of Law Learning Outcome, and
• to submit their teaching/learning materials and request to have the opportunity to present/discuss their teaching/learning materials at the Workshop on Professional Identity Formation and the Rule of Law.

We will review all submissions received by September 1, 2025, and by September 15, will extend invitations to the Workshop to those with the most promising sets of teaching/learning materials focused on one or more components of the Rule of Law Learning Outcome.

The exact design of the Workshop is still being developed, but it likely will involve more “workshopping” than “presenting of finished ideas.” The goal will be to have everyone walk away from the Workshop with constructive ideas for refining and improving their teaching/learning materials.

Those chosen to attend the Workshop to present/discuss their teaching/learning materials will have travel and hotel expenses covered. The Workshop will be open for others to attend, observe, learn, and offer their insights/suggestions. There will be no registration fee, but those wishing to attend will need to register and will be responsible for their own travel and hotel expenses (although meals will be provided during the Workshop).  A block of rooms will be reserved at a nearby hotel for Workshop attendees.

The Workshop registration link (which includes a submission portal for those submitting teaching/learning materials) can be found here.

The Holloran Center is grateful to have co-sponsors for this Workshop, including West Academic (which anticipates publishing and distributing the collection of teaching/learning materials) and the Program for Leadership and Character at the Wake Forest University School of Law.