Date: Tuesday, November 18th at 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET/12:00 pm – 1:00 pm CT/11:00 am – 12:00 pm MT/10:00 am – 11:00 am PT
How can law schools cultivate ethical judgment and the capacity for principled leadership among students? How might the Professional Responsibility course provide avenues for exploring broader questions related to lawyer leadership? This AALS webinar explores the relationship between professional responsibility, legal ethics, and leadership formation in legal education and examines how law schools can prepare graduates not only to practice law competently, but to lead with integrity and purpose.
Janice Craft, Director of Professional Identity Formation and Associate Professor of Law, Legal Practice, University of Richmond School of Law
Prior to her role as Director of Professional Identity Formation, Janice served as a staff attorney and later as the Legal Services Director of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to the elimination of gender-based violence in the Commonwealth. Janice helped lead the Alliance’s successful effort to build a non-traditional legal services delivery program that provides underserved survivors of violence access to trauma-informed, pro bono legal representation from private attorneys in their communities. During her tenure, the Alliance’s legal services program realized year-over-year growth in the number of clients served, the number of private attorneys participating in the Alliance’s referral network, and the number and value of pro bono hours donated by private attorneys to Alliance clients. Prior to her work with the Alliance, Janice served as policy director for a Virginia affiliate of a national reproductive rights organization. She clerked for then-Chief Judge Walter S. Felton, Jr. of the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Janice earned her law degree from the William & Mary School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Race, Gender and Social Justice (formerly, William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law). Janice earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Florida, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.
Jane Mitchell, Associate Professor of Law, Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School
Jane Mitchell joined BYU Law School as an Associate Professor of Law in 2025. Her research focuses on the criminal justice system and the cycle of poverty and incarceration. She also writes and teaches about leadership. Her scholarship has appeared in various journals, including the Connecticut Law Review, Kentucky Law Journal, and Santa Clara Law Review.
Before entering academia, Professor Mitchell was the founder and CEO of The Reset Foundation, a nationally acclaimed non-profit dedicated to dismantling the poverty-to-prison pipeline. Based in the Bay Area, Reset provided a humane, restorative alternative-to-prison for young adult men. For her work at Reset, she was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, a Google Impact Challenge winner, and an Echoing Green Fellow.
Earlier in her career, Professor Mitchell practiced corporate law at Kaye Scholer, LLP. She helped found the ROADS Charter High Schools in the Bronx and worked on the Strategy & Accountability team of NYC’s Department of Education. She has taught in jails in San Francisco, Utah County, and NYC’s Rikers Island. Professor Mitchell holds a BA from Stanford University, a JD from Columbia Law School, an EdM from Columbia Teachers College, and a PhD in the learning sciences and leadership from NYU. She is the mother of three boys.
Benjamin Rigney, Associate Director of Leadership and Character in the Law School, Wake Forest University School of Law
Benjamin Rigney is the Associate Director for Leadership and Character in the Law School. Ben earned his B.A. from Carolina University and an M.A.T.S. from Liberty University. Following seminary, Ben earned a Ph.D from Carolina University in leadership studies with a dissertation focused on the leadership development practices of intercollegiate athletic coaches. Upon the completion of his Ph.D., Ben then earned a J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law, where he was able to co-create and teach Richmond Law’s first leadership development class for law students. Dr. Rigney is also a licensed attorney and a member of the Virginia State Bar. His primary work with the Program for Leadership and Character is to help law students develop as effective, virtue-driven leaders.
