Jane Mitchell (Brigham Young University, J. Reuben Clark Law School), “That Class Changed My Life”: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Teach Leadership, 65 Santa Clara L. Rev. ____ (2025).

Abstract

Since the country’s founding, the legal profession has served as a springboard for some of society’s greatest leaders. But by and large, lawyers were not trained to lead—until recently. Over the last fifteen years, law schools have become increasingly intentional about leadership development. Leadership programs in law schools have proliferated, as has a growing body of scholarship on lawyer leadership.

Surprisingly, the literature on lawyer-leader development has neglected adult learning theories. This Article addresses that gap and grounds the teaching of leadership in a well-established theoretical tradition. It presents the results of a design-based research study that applies Mezirow’s transformative learning theory to the design and delivery of a leadership seminar taught at Brigham Young University Law School. The study finds that 95% of students enrolled in the second iteration of the course took new, concrete leadership actions as a direct result of their participation in the class. The study identifies core design principles for facilitating transformative learning in law school courses on leadership—with an eye towards helping students become better leaders, not merely learn about leadership.