Building Bridges: How Cross-Clinic Programming Maximizes Learning and Community

Go Back

Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Laurel A & B

Floor: Fourth Floor

Clinical programs are often a collection of siloed individual legal services clinics with the dual purpose of providing excellent legal services to low-income or marginalized clients and educating law students who will take up that torch after graduating. But programs that bring students from multiple clinics together can create transformative learning opportunities. Such “collective” or “joint” programs serve as fertile ground for a shared exploration of essential lawyering skills and other topics that permeate across clinics, including systemic racism, access to justice, vicarious trauma, self-care, lawyering skills, and the role of lawyers in society. Collective programs also build a strong sense of community among students who bond over their shared clinic experience and will enter the legal profession together. Moreover, collective programming can spark collaboration with our clinical colleagues, fostering camaraderie as we work alongside people we respect and enjoy, while also enhancing efficiency in our respective work and responsibilities. Despite these benefits, organizing a collective program has its institutional, logistical, and pedagogical challenges. In this session, participants will hear from clinicians at several law schools (Northeastern, Harvard, Suffolk, and Wisconsin) about their experience with collective and/or joint programming including lessons learned from design and implementation. By sharing insights and strategies, we hope to inspire new collaborations and innovative approaches that enhance student learning, strengthen professional bonds, and ultimately improve access to justice for the communities we serve.