Category: Working Conditions/Treatment

  • Working Conditions & Competing Priorities

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    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…

  • Working Conditions & Emotional Labour

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    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…

  • Emotional Labour

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “[T]he more recent generation of students, I’ve been having to do more emotional labour. They’re more anxious. They’re a little bit- they need a lot of reassurance. That’s something I didn’t notice- I mean when is it? – 10 years ago.” (8) 

  • Law School v. Clinic

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    Gemma Smyth
    in ,

    “I think sometimes there’s a challenge depending on just the faculty as a whole and how supportive the faculty may be of the students in the program… [S]tudents… have to miss class quite a bit for court appearances and we travel in the district… Students undoubtedly will be missing class and sometimes they feel that…

  • Working Conditions & Treatment

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “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) 

  • Working Conditions & Treatment

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    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…

  • Working Conditions & Treatment

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “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)  

  • Workload & Competing Duties

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “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…

  • Workload & Competing Duties

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    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “[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…

  • Workload & Competing Duties

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    by

    Gemma Smyth
    in

    “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…