{"title":"Measuring the Impact of Clinic Participation on Law Graduates: A Small Case Study","authors":"Lawrence Donnelly","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v29i2.1272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v29i2.1272","url":null,"abstract":"In an academic environment where there is an increasing emphasis on impact, it is rather surprising that there is a paucity of studies on the effect (if any) of participation in a clinical legal education programme on the career trajectory of law graduates. In this article, after considering the methodologies behind and outcomes of two such studies conducted in North America, the author describes how he devised a survey, which was sent to a group of law students at the University of Galway’s externship-based clinical programme it its pilot year, and analyses the responses. In short, this study – like the other two – suggests that clinic participation has a marked impact on lawyers in terms of enhancing practical legal skills, but a less significant impact when it comes to inspiring graduates to embark upon public interest-oriented legal careers or undertake pro bono work. The article acknowledges that there are myriad factors influencing these choices and that it is foolish to extrapolate excessively from these studies. It concludes by arguing that, no matter these “failings” with respect to the social justice imperative that helps define clinical legal education, the capacity of programmes to equip future lawyers with key skills and to instil in them, at the very least, a cognisance of the shortcomings of the law and legal system means that our work is still eminently worthwhile.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74595653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The 'Flipped' Classroom - A Method for Improving Teaching and Learning Even in Large Classes","authors":"Michael Urban","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1229","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1229","url":null,"abstract":"The Covid-19 pandemic has forced many of us to transform our approach to teaching and learning. Instead of standing in front of a class in the lecture hall or sitting around a table and interactively debating with students, we, as teachers, have found ourselves staring at students (or just their names) through such platforms as Zoom or Teams and overcoming the instances of hesitance or silence by, well, talking more. Sooner or later some, perhaps many, of us recognised this “trap of silence” and in searching for better approaches to online teaching began to use – intentionally or not – the flipped classroom method. In this text, I will share my experience from the spring semester of 2021, in which I used the flipped classroom method in a large group setting (over 150 enrolled students). \u0000In the first part of this text, I will describe the course and implementation of the method. Then I will summarize its advantages and disadvantages and identify questions for further consideration. Throughout the paper, I include the experience of other teachers from the field of law and other disciplines to provide more context for my experience with the flipped classroom.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80479054","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CLEO: Clinical Legal Education Organisation","authors":"L. Blackburn","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1230","url":null,"abstract":"In order to help law clinics navigate the new regulations, a small working group from CLEO have put together this draft guide to the QWE. In developing this guide, we recognise that the new routes to qualification are controversial and we are not endorsing or expressing approval for these routes to qualification. As an organisation, CLEO is committed to developing clinical legal education as a rich and innovative method for teaching law. Legal education, in particular for undergraduates, is about much more than qualifying as a solicitor and indeed many law graduates do not go onto qualify as legal professionals. However, we are aware that many of our members will be offering qualifying work experience, or may be asked by senior management to offer qualifying work experience and we therefore want to develop guidance for our members to assist with navigating the new regulations. This guidance is to assist university law clinics only, when encountering a student’s claim for QWE.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"43 1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77308393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do We Want a Human First, and a Lawyer Second? Developing Law Student Empathy Through Clinical Legal Education","authors":"Amy Lawton, Kathryn Saban, Sadie Whittam","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1227","url":null,"abstract":"In the UK, the legal profession is increasingly acknowledging the importance of emotional intelligence and empathy in legal practice. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that soft skills such as empathy can be taught, and that these skills should be incorporated in legal education. This study uses the Basic Empathy Scale to examine whether law student participation in law clinic and tax clinic modules had any effect on students’ self-reported empathy levels. It is submitted that, in general, the students who worked in clinic experienced a statistically significant positive shift in their empathy levels. However, a few students who worked in clinic also experienced a decrease in their empathy levels, and the possible reasons for this are explored. In addition, this paper considers the impact of gender on students’ self-reported empathy levels.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"75 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85780162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Grounding Inside/Out Professional Identity Formation by Developing Wholehearted Lawyers with Therapeutic Intent","authors":"J. Whelan","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v29i1.1228","url":null,"abstract":"Professional identity formation of law students ideally encompasses both development of the necessary attributes of lawyers as well as a robust philosophy to inform the character of their engagement with the justice system throughout their career. Susan Brooks’ Wholehearted Lawyering teaching principles and practices provide a sound basis for developing the complex core personal, interpersonal, and relational skills necessary for law students and lawyers to maximise constructive interactions within the legal system. Vulnerability Theory and Therapeutic Jurisprudence too, provide sound principles to guide students’ and lawyers’ purposeful engagement with the legal system, particularly to facilitate greater access to justice through resilience-building and therapeutic contributions and impacts. This article proposes an Inside/Out pedagogy that develops students’ awareness of these necessary personal and interpersonal attributes (the Inside) and that provides a framework for purposive engagement grounded in improving access to justice (the Out). This pedagogy systematically embeds both Brooks’ Wholehearted Lawyering scholarship to develop students’ core professional attributes, and principles drawn from Vulnerability Theory and Therapeutic Jurisprudence to stimulate students to crystallise their own purpose as lawyers. The article then examines the development and application of this pedagogy in an Australian legal clinic established in 2020 at Western Sydney University in New South Wales, Australia.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"172 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75177712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Law Schools as Legal Aid Providers in Kenya: Challenges and Lessons Learnt from Practice","authors":"Asha Mikinyango, Judith Nguru","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1185","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1185","url":null,"abstract":"Legal aid is the provision of free or subsidized legal services to mainly poor and vulnerable people who cannot afford advocate fees. The right to legal aid is well rooted in the international, regional human rights treaty framework to which Kenya party. The provision of legal aid addresses the concerns of the poor and vulnerable by focusing on challenges that foil access to justice. In recognition of this, the Government of Kenya promulgated the Legal Aid Act, 2016 establishing the National Legal Aid Service to provide legal aid services to needy, marginalized, and vulnerable persons. This was a very important move, propelling the Government to prioritize legal aid provision as a right as well as a necessity for promotion of rule of law and access to justice. However, it is imperative to understand that the duty does not squarely fall on the State alone. There is need for non-state actors’ support from private entities like law firms, NGOs, Law schools and any other qualified legal personnel. Without a doubt, several non-state actors are actively offering free or subsidized legal aid and the purpose of this paper is to look at the lessons faced by a non-state actor from the experience of the authors organizing and running events to offer free legal aid. This includes expounding on challenges faced such as constrained funding, language barrier, illiteracy, and ignorance of legal rights. The punchline here is that there is room for all stakeholder to come together and forge a way forward for an improved legal aid framework in Kenya. \u0000Keywords: Law schools, Legal aid clinics, Legal aid, Free legal services, Kenya, access to justice, rule of law.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81262211","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Role Of Law Clinics in the Fight Against Statelessness by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Unhcr) in Nigeria","authors":"Maryam Idris Abdulkadir","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1182","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1182","url":null,"abstract":"Statelessness has become a global phenomenon. Statelessness simply means that a person does not belong to any country in the world. It means that a person does not have a nationality or any means to prove his or her nationality. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has embarked on a fight against Statelessness. The UNHCR have estimated that 10 million people in the world are stateless, one million of which are located in West Africa, although no figure has been estimated yet in Nigeria. However, because of numerous factors, the UNHCR has brought the fight against statelessness to Nigeria. They have mapped out their strategies in a National Action Plan (NAP) in 2018, and among such strategies are awareness and sensitization. They are of the belief that Nigerians are not aware of the concept of Statelessness. To test their assertion, empirical research was conducted for this paper via a questionnaire. One of the major consequences of statelessness is that stateless persons are deprived from enjoying their basic fundamental human rights like the right to freedom of movement, civil and political rights and the right to access of certain services which include access to health care and access to justice. More so, the Universal declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has a right to a nationality, which means the very notion of being stateless runs contrary to this universal basic right. This paper submits that derivation of fundamental rights especially access to justice is a social justice issue that could be handled through public interest lawyering. These two- Social Justice and Public Interest Lawyering- form part of the Clinical Legal Education (CLE) curriculum, therefore a nexus is immediately formed between CLE and the fight against statelessness. From the results of the research conducted in this paper, it is recommended that the service component of CLE, which is the Law Clinics, can assist the UNHCR in the fight against statelessness in Nigeria by actualising some of their strategies contained in the NAP which include but not limited to; sensitization and awareness. The UNHCR also raised a red flag on lack of data on this issue; again, this paper recommends that law clinicians can be their foot soldiers and aid in gathering the necessary data through client interviews and outreach activities. Lastly, the benefits of this partnership between the law clinics and UNHCR to the law clinicians was also outlined, as it will be of extreme benefit to them and it would lead to the achievement of the ultimate outcome and objective of CLE . \u0000Keywords: Statelessness, Nationality, Identity, Access to Justice, Human Rights, Law Clinics, Social Justice, Public Interest.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75853539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"India’s Law School Legal Aid Clinics: The Gaps Between Aspiration and Practice","authors":"K. Rajashree, S. Bhardwaj","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1183","url":null,"abstract":"The law schools legal aid activities conducted through its clinics has come a long way in India especially since its inception in the early 1970’s. Its evolution has been gradual, intermittent and varied. Although The Bar Council of India (BCI) has mandated, establishing legal aid clinics as a pre-requisite for granting the necessary permissions before law schools start functioning, there are limited ideas of its purpose and objectives. An inherent lack of understanding its importance in terms of teaching, learning and research, the legal aid practices are largely left to the discretion of the individual law schools and interpretations of the individual faculty members. Combined with ideas heavily borrowed from the law schools in the US and individual experiences of the faculty members, legal aid practices in India are diversified. In the backdrop of this, the author intends to explore and map the aspiration of legal aid through an analysis of the key policy documents of legal education since India’s independence through an ontological framework. The ontology maps the aspirations of the legal aid clinics that was intended through these documents. Additionally, a case study of two important institutions have been taken as the case in point in order to verify whether the practices match such aspirations. Thereby, putting forth arguments that are critical for understanding the gaps between the aspiration and the state of reality. \u0000Key words: Legal aid Clinics, Law schools, Clinical, Legal education, Social justice","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87565429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Clinical Legal Education as an Effective Tool for Improving the Accessibility of Protective Injunctions for Victims of Domestic Abuse: A Case Study Example of the Models of Support Available at Northumbria University","authors":"A. Speed","doi":"10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v28i2.1184","url":null,"abstract":"Protective injunctions are at the forefront of the family justice system’s response to protecting victims of domestic abuse. The accessibility of orders, however, has been compromised by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which has reduced the availability of public funding for victims of domestic abuse and led to an increase in victims representing themselves in such proceedings. Research indicates that without legal support, a victim’s prospects of securing protection can be adversely affected, demonstrating a need for pro bono assistance for those who cannot afford to pay privately for legal services. Whilst the provision of pro bono support in areas of unmet need is a principal aim of clinical legal education, research shows that few clinical programs in England and Wales offer specialist services for victims of domestic abuse. This paper therefore considers the role that clinical legal education can play in improving the accessibility of protective injunctions. Part one sets out a review of recent reforms within the family justice system and analyses how they have created an increased demand for pro bono legal support for victims of domestic abuse. Part two examines the clinical landscape and the potential benefits to students of providing support to victims. By drawing on the case study of the Student Law Office at Northumbria University, part three sets out the various models of clinical legal education that may be utilised to support victims of domestic abuse. The benefits and limitations of each option for students and victims will also be considered. The paper is a helpful point of reference for clinicians and family law practitioners working in partnership with law school clinics who are considering offering support in this area.","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89046742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trauma-Informed Lawyering In The Student Legal Clinic Setting: Increasing Competence In Trauma Informed Practice","authors":"Gemma E. Smyth, Dusty J. Johnstone, Jillian Rogin","doi":"10.19164/IJCLE.V28I1.1130","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19164/IJCLE.V28I1.1130","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p>.</jats:p>","PeriodicalId":31794,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Clinical Legal Education","volume":"1 1","pages":"149-194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87095202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}