Clinical Law Programs
About the Clinic
Clinical Goals
In the Clinic, students are introduced to basic lawyering skills. Participation in the Clinic's supervised practice environment, students analyze the values, roles, systems of justice, ethical standards, and technical processes in the legal institutions they encounter. Students develop problem-solving skills that require them to synthesize components of their legal education. They gain confidence as they make the transition from law student to practicing lawyer.
The fundamental goals of the Clinic are to instill in law students the habits of competent and ethical legal problem solvers, and to stimulate a strong commitment of professional responsibility for clients, community, and the institutions of law. To this end, the students receive training on the initial client interview process, client counseling, case evaluation and planning, fact development through investigation and formal discovery, negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, legal research, legal drafting, applied substantive and procedural law, case management, law office management, applied professional ethics, and trial advocacy.
Clinical law is the study of the practice of law. It does not occur without the study of legal doctrine, but is to be distinguished from the study of legal doctrine. The subject matter of clinical legal studies is legal practice. Teaching a course in clinical law involves understanding, critiquing, shaping, influencing, and leading future practitioners of law.
In no small measure, the message of clinical education is its methodology. Just as the teaching methodology of Socratic dialogue, in the hands of a master teacher, is central to training in legal analysis, the clinical method, in the hands of a competent teacher, is central to training in legal practice. Successful use of the clinical method means its distinct attributes must be conscientiously cultivated.
A law school's clinic is a working law office. It is a law office subject to greater public scrutiny than a private law office. It should be a model of the state of the art of legal practice because it is responsible for advancing the state of legal practice. The style, method, and compassion of its clinic are central to a law school's image and mission. A law school's choice of clientele, measured in terms of who it represents and who it refuses to represent, and the manner of its representation of clients contribute to its image in the community. A clinic is a law school's law office, and the quality of its practice is of paramount importance.
Problem-solving in the Clinic is a collaborative effort between student, client, and faculty. The commitment in a clinic setting is to represent the best interests of the client. Students in a clinical environment encounter various client problems, yet their experience is shared.
In the clinical setting, a student's intellectual, analytical, and behavioral skills are challenged. Professional behavior in the role of a lawyer is critical. It is not sufficient to be smart enough to perform on the day of an exam. A student's moral values are challenged, and the role of values in functioning as a lawyer is explored.
In clinical methodology students are required to assume responsibility for others as well as themselves. Student responsiveness to confidence and trust is critical to success. Problem-solving skills beyond the ability to analyze a court fashioned solution become important. Problem-solving skills are often holistic and frequently creative.
Students must interact with people outside the confines of the law school community. They test the knowledge, skills, and theories of practice learned against the realities of daily practice. Appreciation and understanding of the realities of practice become part of the student's academic training.
Clinical students are required to integrate the knowledge, skills, and legal process learned in the law school classroom. They must develop and create facts. They generate their own action deadlines and set their own priorities. The message of competent, ethical practice is in the clinical method: actual client representation in a carefully controlled law office environment.
