Category: Themes

“We’re the secondary, we’re second rung…I have a professor title but I know I’m not really considered a professor amongst professors. And then amongst lawyers, we’re also considered second string. “Oh, you’re not the university. You’re doing the bottom barrel stuff that no one else cares about.” So yeah…I just get no respect [Laughing].” (9) 

Certainly going from one university to another and almost seeing that [neglect and marginalization of clinical legal education] just university wide… [At this university] I’m a faculty member and a professor, I’m much more included… I just came from a faculty holiday party, I’ve never been to a faculty holiday party before because despite being frankly a part time…

“I think there’s a big reality too around the fact [that] we’re not respected as legal educators and we’re not respected as real lawyers so we get shit on on both ends of spectrum where you’re considered lesser than lawyers and lesser than professors.” (16)  

“We have a Venn diagram here that we’re like this is what it means to be a supervising lawyer here so you’re a mentor and a teacher, you’re a lawyer, you’re a team member of a small non-profit and they are all intersecting right so you don’t just get to check in and check out…

“[S]ometimes as a lawyer… we have to pick up and just do the work or find another student who can do the work. They conflict constantly and with no easy solutions… I have my professional regulator which I have to respond to and I owe duties to and control my ability to practice law. But then I also have…

“It’s the balancing of how much responsibility to give the student so they have experience doing something versus how much do you do, do I do. For example, if we’re at a mediation or if we are doing litigation around a trial, frankly, I’d probably be more of the effective advocate just because I’ve done a whole bunch of…

“I have my own case load over and above what the students have, so there is a lot of work that I also have to do on my own. So, to have somebody coming at the door all the time is really difficult. During covid was particularly difficult because then we had the door, Teams, cell phone, emails,…

“Staffing is an issue. Again, there’s only one lawyer in this clinic and the support staff is shared between my clinic and another clinic. I get appointed to an admin person. All of the responsibilities for running the clinic and running the service and managing the actual program for the students is done by 1.2 people and our…