David F Chavkin, “Am I My Client’s Lawyer: Role Definition and the Clinical Supervisor”

This article is a good example of an early American clinical legal educator’s approach to supervision. The author struggles with the degree to which students should assume autonomy for their work (versus the supervisor), ultimately arguing that students should assume significant autonomy in their work.

Two aspects of student learning maximize student autonomy: (1) an increased sense of responsibility results in a greater investment by the student in the lawyering process, and (2) applying the uncertainty principle to clinical education. The uncertainty principle refers to the idea that measurement disturbs or distorts what we are trying to measure. The presence of the clinical supervisor as an observer distorts the lawyer-client relationship and adversely affects student lawyering identity. The supervisor should ask whether their intervention is reasonable in light of the dual clinical legal education goals of ensuring competent representation by a student and compliance with ethical standards. Maximizing competence and compliance requires designing a training program that provides students with sufficient interpersonal and other skills to competently interact with clients so that interference is not necessary.

David F Chavkin, “Am I My Client’s Lawyer: Role Definition and the Clinical Supervisor” (1998) 51:5 SMU L Rev 1507.