Center for Professional Formation

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The Center’s faculty publishes and presents on the topic of professional identity formation nationwide. The Center also fosters scholarly inquiry into the pedagogy of moral formation by promoting how law professors can learn to teach within both cognitive and affective paradigms. In this effort, the Center has collaborated with individual professors to incorporate ethical formation instruction into their doctrinal teaching. Director Madison co-authored a chapter on the values important to the legal profession in the influential follow-up to the Carnegie Report, Building on Best Practices in Legal Education: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World (2015).

MENTORING PROGRAM

The Center pairs incoming first-year students with practicing legal professionals who embody integrity and strong moral character. Mentors assist students in preparing for the challenges of the legal profession and in developing a moral compass. For the 10 years that this program has been in existence, 1,000 students have been paired with alumni mentors across the nation.

EVENT PROGRAMMING

The Center sponsors presentations and panels on topics related to ethical decision-making, professional identity development, and character formation—all relevant to real-life practice settings.

As Director Ben Madison observed, “We are on the cutting edge of legal education.  The Christian approach to educating lawyers has proved to be a strength in responding to legitimate critiques of legal education’s need to focus not just on intellect but also on the whole person.”   The Carnegie Foundation’s landmark report, Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Practice of Law (2007)  indicted law schools for emphasizing intellectual prowess, without spending appropriate time and resources on developing students as professionals.   “Regent Law’s mission as a law school to develop Christian leaders to change the world has already led our school to encourage the development of an intentional, Christian, and professional approach to law practice,” Madison observed.  Our experience doing so has allowed us to become a leader in the nationwide movement to improve the professional formation of law students.   

Last year the American Bar Association adopted standards that require every law school to provide substantial opportunities to students for the development of a student’s professional identity.   Regent Law started the process of enhancing its focus on the entire person, and to help that student know that being a professional requires both intellect and character.   As a result, we are well ahead of other law schools in meeting the ABA standards.     

The Center’s goal is to produce lawyers who understand the nature and purpose of the legal profession and are committed to the ethical practice of law. To that end, the Center has developed the Mentor Program to foster students’ understanding of what it means to practice law with professional and personal integrity. Our mentors represent a variety of practice and geographical legal communities around the country, but each seeks to support and encourage the Center’s mission of encouraging students’ professional identity formation.

During its 10-year existence, the Center has connected nearly 1,000 students to mentors across the nation. Additionally, the Center has been nominated for the ABA’s Gambrell award.  It is fair to say that Regent Law is a leader in the movement to educate law students beyond intellectual knowledge and to help develop character.

CORE COURSEWORK

Core courses such as “Christian Foundations of Law” introduce students to classic texts on the nature of the law and legal ethics. Additionally, the “Foundations of Practice” course exposes students to potential ethical problems and how to solve such problems that they may face when practicing in various areas of law.   The course also requires students to develop a Discernment Plan, in which they explore—with the help of mentors, faculty, and alumni—the areas of law in which the student is best suited to serve others.

In 2024, Regent Law and the Center for Professional Formation were praised for supporting student success in preLaw Magazine’s write-up on the nation’s “Best Value Law Schools.” In ranking Regent Law as the third best value law school in the nation, it stated, “Regent Law has a required 1L course called Foundations of Practice, which allows students to think about the kinds of lawyers they want to be and sets them up for employment success. In that course, students are exposed to a variety of career paths and paired with mentors to help them take practical steps toward the types of jobs they are seeking.”

PROFESSIONAL FORMATION

All courses, where possible, encourage students to produce a critical reflection paper on value conflicts and ethical dilemmas, encouraging students to go beyond simply “learning the rules” of ethical practice.

CRITICAL REFLECTION

Every class includes an extra period of reflection designed to explore the dynamics of moral formation and ethical legal practice in the context of biblical principles, virtue ethics, and natural law.

The Center for Professional Formation introduced its Fellowship Program in 2024. This program offers students a Fellowship opportunity where they partner with the Center in activities and receive opportunities to visit judges, interact with lawyers from different practice areas, and have a form of student leadership. The Fellows are asked to be a resource for new students and help all students on the path of professional identity development. If you are a current student and would like to join this nonexclusive program, please contact Benjamin Madison via email.

At this time, we have welcomed over 30 Fellows including:

Heidi Carey, Harrison Hunter, Diana McBride, Amber Walliser, Lawson Harsch, Katelyn Miller, Naomi Bach, Kyle Pasquerella, Hailey Harp, Bryce Lienemann, Jessica Overbay, Elizabeth Harper, Ruth Jones, Moriah Gaskill, Peter  Keay, Madison Shupe, Pierce Norman, Alexandria Hayward, Ashley Ogden, Ryan Richardson, Justin Velasco, Callum Okie, Hannah Holmes, Natalie Deniston, Cameron Wall, Elie El-Habr, Tucker Blythe, Dade Steiniger, Dillon Stafford,  Hannah Waters, George Alston, Grace Lilly, and Dylan Barton.