This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences. For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p Bookings open until 14 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk ABSTRACT Based on an HEA funded pilot study, this presentation focuses on engaging Law Students in the development and preparation of their own Personal Development Plans. The project considers how students see their learning and development needs and the current barriers to developing PDPs. The focus on PDP emphasises its importance as the foundation for integrating into current legal education an understanding of legal professionalism. By enabling students to take responsibility and to actively develop their PDP it is argued that students will come to embody wider values of legal professionalism, notably the promotion of justice.