Recognizing that there are limited resources aimed at training clinic supervising lawyers, this article aims to assist new clinic teachers in defining their teaching styles. It also highlights commonly asked questions such as, “how much control over cases should students have?” and, “what is involved in supervising the work of students?”. The author notes that the ideas put forward in this article are not universal truths, but rather are offered as a starting point to assist new clinical teachers in learning how to effectively teach.
The article begins by outlining the history and goals of clinical legal education within the United States. It is noted that the earliest system of legal education in the United States was clinical. These apprenticeship programs were the dominant model of legal education in the early 1800s, with the majority of states requiring a period of apprenticeship. However, by 1860, very few states required apprenticeships. By the early 1900s, the traditional law school approach began to overtake clinical education as the dominant model of educating future legal professionals.
More recently, the importance of clinical legal education has been emphasized once again. For example, in the early 1990s, a study by the American Bar Association called for additional clinical education of law students. It has been suggested that the education and training in legal principles and analysis that students typically receive in traditional law school environments is not enough. One large shortcoming of this traditional law school environment is that it fails to teach graduates how to deal with people – the people who will be at the centre of their cases and careers. As such, this article suggests that clinical legal education is an important component of training future legal professionals.
The mission of clinical legal education is twofold: (1) to educate students in a new way of learning and (2) to provide legal services to the indigent. In addition, the AALS Committee on the Future of the In-House Clinic identified nine goals of clinical legal education that flow from their mission (471):
- Developing modes of planning and analysis for dealing with unstructured situations as opposed to the “predigested world of the appellate case”;
- Providing professional skills instruction in such necessary areas as interviewing, counselling, and fact investigation;
- Teaching means of learning from experience;
- Instructing students in professional responsibility by giving them firsthand exposure to the actual mores of the profession;
- Exposing students to the demands and methods of acting in the role of attorney;
- Providing opportunities for collaborative learning; and
- Imparting the obligation for service to clients, information about how to engage in such representation, and knowledge concerning the impact of the legal system on poor people (471-472).
Clinical education “… is a process of learning how to learn from experience (474).” It has been suggested that the critical, defining element of clinical education is that it is a system of experience-based learning. Learning through experience encourages students to become self-directed learners, which in turn allows them to build, shape, change, and modify their advocacy with each experience. It is posited that by allowing students to become active participants in their own education, through the experience of representing real clients, they will learn most effectively.
This article acknowledges four stages of supervision in clinical legal education, those being (1) planning by the student for the activity; (2) conference between the student and teacher to review the student’s activity plan; (3) performance of the activity by the student while being observed by the teacher; and (4) post-activity analysis and evaluation by the student and teacher.
Stage one is important as it allows students to assume responsibility for the plan they develop. The idea is that only when a student is able to confront their own lack of knowledge will real self-learning begin. In the second stage, several issues are addressed such as the plans contents, how the plan was developed, goals of the activity, and the amount of supervisor control that should go into planning. It is also recommended that this stage contain a walkthrough of the assignment with the teacher’s participation. In the third stage, it is suggested that the teacher becomes an active observer, so long as the student is capable of performing the planned activity without intervention. The teacher is encouraged to take detailed notes in order to provide the best possible feedback to the student. The final stage is integral to developing student self-awareness, which will be critical to self-directed learning and self-reflection throughout their career.
The relationship between student and supervisor is multi-level. The teacher is a role model, trusted co-worker, judge, and, frequently, a friend. As a role model, the supervisor must realize that students are observing and learning from all parts of them all the time. These relationships are important and must be carefully monitored, and sufficient time must be allocated to developing these relationships.
Finally, it is important that the supervisor teach the student both the ideal and the reality of the legal profession. It is important for students to be able to identify that injustice persists in many forms and must be able to develop strategies to deal with the complexities of legal practice.
William P Quigley, “Introduction to Clinical Teaching for the New Clinical Law Professor: A View from the First Floor” (1995) 28:3 Akron L Rev 463.
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