Category: Themes

  • Working Conditions & Competing Priorities

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “[I]n the university setting of course, you want to be supporting the students, and the students’ learning, but at the same time you have responsibilities to the client and to make sure that their file is not being neglected or ignored because of the personal issues of the student… I definitely find there’s—I don’t know…

  • Rewards of Clinic Supervision

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “[N]othing beats that feeling of just seeing the growth in students. From day one, we see students who can’t write properly, don’t know how to even start a letter, how to draft a letter to somebody, don’t know where stamp goes on an envelope that you’re mailing out to a client. There’s so many skills that they learn and to just…

  • Rewards of Clinic Supervision

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “I’ve had students that I’m so proud of and I know that they’ll go on to do amazing things. And they’re already… working at labour law firms and clinics and having major impacts. So one case we worked on we helped support the community of [de-identified], a woman who had experienced racial discrimination and died…

  • Rewards of Clinic Supervision

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “I have been working with a student who came in quite shy and unsure. So, it took a little bit longer working with her. She observed me more than the average student did before getting into doing her own work. She just wasn’t comfortable. Hearings were coming up and she didn’t feel confident in doing…

  • Rewards of Clinic Supervision

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “When you get into practice, you run the risk of becoming cynical because of how violent the legal system is and how rarely you can drive just results through legal means. The students’ enthusiasm and optimism, it helped keep me energized. It helped restoke my hope for justice for our clients and excitement around the work.” (18) 

  • Legal Clinic as Community

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “A few terms ago there was one student who… came into my office and said they thought they were going to withdraw… They were getting through law school but they weren’t like an A student… So, I talked to the student and said, “Listen, this is a place where everyone can do really well and…

  • Grades

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “One of the things I really, really like here is we don’t admit students based on grades. We don’t even ask for their grades… The skill of exam writing… is not helpful in any way, shape, or form when you come to the clinics. Just because you’re a good exam writer does not mean you…

  • Pass/Fail Evaluation

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “We’re a pass/fail course and sometimes that has created some challenges ’cause we feel like some students will be like, “Well, I know I’m passing so I’m gonna put my clinic work off to the side while I focus on my other courses that I’m being graded on.” Again, it’s the mentality that because they’re not getting a grade in…

  • Pedagogy: Providing Feedback

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “The hardest thing for me when I started in this role was providing feedback to students. I really, really struggled because I knew what I thought things should look like and what they should be doing. But I had a really hard time communicating that to my students, because I didn’t want to hurt their…

  • Pedagogy: Individualized Approaches

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “We were providing research and resources for a partner to write an advocacy brief… [I]t turned out that the student was interested in the topic, but from the opposite perspective of the client and had a really hard time writing from their perspective… [He] had really struggled with being a lawyer, getting instructions from a…