Neil W. Hamilton is Holloran Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. He served as Interim Dean in 2012 and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs twice at St. Thomas. From 1980-2001, he served as Trustees Professor of Regulatory Policy at William Mitchell College of Law. He has taught Professional Responsibility and an ethics seminar to law students and professionals for over 30 years.

He is the author of several books, over seventy law journal articles, and over 100 shorter articles as a bi-monthly columnist on professionalism and ethics for the Minnesota Lawyer from 1999-2012. Most recently, Hamilton co-authored Law Student Professional Development and Formation (Cambridge University Press 2022). He is also the author of Roadmap: The Law Student’s Guide to Preparing and Implementing a Successful Plan for Meaningful Employment (ABA Books 2015), which received the American Bar Association’s Gambrell Award for excellence in professionalism.

Among other awards from the practicing bar, the Minnesota State Bar Association gave him its highest honor, the Professional Excellence Award, in 2004. He received the University of St. Thomas Presidential Award for Excellence as a Teacher and Scholar in 2009. And in 2012, Minnesota Lawyer honored him again for outstanding service to the profession and placed him in its Circle of Merit for those who have been honored more than once.

The Holloran Center, which Professor Hamilton directs, focuses on interdisciplinary research, curriculum development, and programs to help the next generation form professional identities with a moral core of responsibility for self and responsibility and service to others. Hamilton’s research and scholarship likewise focuses on the professional formation of new entrants into the ethics of the professions, particularly the legal profession. 

Click here to read Hamilton's scholarship on SSRN.