Interdisciplinary (IDT) law clinics can provide vibrant learning experience for students. The models and practice structures are endless. IDT clinics in transaction law, for example, may bring together any combination of graduate students from the law, urban planning, public policy, engineering, and business. An entrepreneurial clinic may bring together students from social work, business, and law to invigorate the nonprofit sector of a city. Medical-legal partnership clinics are rich with examples of law students working with medical, nursing, pharmacy, and other allied health students, at both graduate and undergraduate levels, in providing holistic patient care.
Led by clinicians from Detroit and Chicago currently directing IDT clinics, this gathering is for anyone who wants to discuss the how, what, why, and when of interdisciplinary work. We will share our current practice models – their structure and philosophy. We will also share some of our successes and the challenges we have encountered along the way; lessons that may prove useful to any clinician pondering the possibility of introducing an interdisciplinary component to their current clinic curriculum. How will IDT further enrich your students’ experiences? We will share the many nuggets of learning that students have shared in feedback to their IDT experiences.
We are excited to welcome anyone interested in sharing ideas for what they have created in their own schools when it comes to IDT clinic models, the challenges they have faced, and their own lessons learned. We also welcome those just thinking about the possibility of IDT in their clinics to come to discuss their ideas and questions to feel supported to venture in this direction. We all had to start somewhere, why not here? We look forward to a rich discussion where perils and pitfalls are examined and creativity is encouraged.