Clinical legal education stream

Learning in Law Annual Conference 2007 included a clinical legal education stream, organised by the relaunched Clinical Legal Education Assocation (CLEA). The stream included the following papers:

• Model standards for clinical legal education- Sara Chandler (College of Law) and Philip Plowden (Northumbria University) read report below
• Innocence projects: discussion of draft protocols – Julie Price (Cardiff University) and Michael Naughton (University of Bristol) read report below
• Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest lawyer of all? Making the most out of reflection in clinical legal education – Kevin Kerrigan, Georgina Ledvinka and Philip Plowden (Northumbria University) read report below
• Clinicalising the classroom: promoting innovation – Scott Taylor (University of St Thomas, USA) read report below
• Introducing clinics in Olomouc: the application of common law clinical models in a civil law system – Vendula Bryxová and Maxim Tomaszec (Palacky University, Czech Republic) read full paper

Model standards for clinical legal education

This session gave participants an opportunity to discuss the draft revision of CLEO’s model standards for live client clinics, intended to provide a guide to best practice across the clinical legal education sector. The revised standards were finally adopted in June 2007 and can be downloaded as an RTF file (23 pages, 197KB).

Innocence projects: discussion of draft protocols

Innocence projects provide opportunities for students to support the research work of lawyers into cases where a convicted person maintains their innocence. The UK innocence movement is still new, although the concept is well established in the USA and Australia. It is coordinated by the Innocence Network UK (INUK), which refers cases to university innocence projects and undertakes research into the related problem of wrongful convictions.

Following the recent BBC drama The Innocence Project and the Rough Justice programme on the University of Bristol Innocence Project, this session provided an opportunity to discuss the growth and direction of the movement. Julie and Michael led a discussion on model standards for the innocence movement and gave a report on INUK’s national training programme.

Mirror, mirror…reflection in clinical legal education

The model of the reflective practitioner remains at the heart of clinical legal education, however if clinic is to avoid categorisation as merely inculcating technical skills – turning students into the plumbers in Twining’s ‘Pericles and the plumber’ debate – students need to have an opportunity to assess their own development. This paper identified the reality of student reflection – often low level, formulaic and lacking in insight – and asked how law schools can best support the development of reflective skills.

The paper drew on different models of reflection to suggest the developmental stages students need to experience in order to reflect in a manner that supports deep learning. Research conducted in the Student Law Office at Northumbria showed how focused teaching can help to enhance student reflection, while avoiding the imposition of an external (and superficial) ‘reflection checklist’ approach.

Issues associated with the assessment of reflection were also addressed, including the dynamics of the student/supervisor relationship, the need to balance the focus of the assessment between quality of reflection and quality of practice, and the dilemma inherent in awarding grades for reflective work.

Clinicalising the classroom: promoting innovation

Is it worth the effort to clinicalise the traditional classroom? In this session Scott explored how teaching staff can be motivated to create a positive environment for innovation by bringing clinical experience into the mainstream curriculum.

For example, students can be involved in projects on substantive law topics that lead to reports on issues of benefit to poverty law practices or NGOs. Scott described a seminar on Native American law where students researched the legal aspects of the establishment of a credit union, and outlined the work of the Minnesota Justice Foundation, formed by the law schools in the state to promote pro bono and clinical work. The Foundation’s work includes the Legal Scholarship for Equal Justice project, in which students engage in research projects for poverty lawyers.

Last Modified: 9 July 2010