The Status of Clinical Educators - Today and Beyond
Claudia Angelos, New York University Law School
Elizabeth B. Cooper, Fordham University School of Law
Robert D. Dinerstein, American University, Washington College of Law
Katherine R. Kruse, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law
Robert R. Kuehn, Washington University School of Law
David Anthony Santacroce, The University of Michigan Law School
Ann C. Shalleck, American University, Washington College of Law
Ian S. Weinstein, Fordham University School of Law
This session has two parts. In the first Robert Kuehn and David Santacroce will lead a discussion about what the CSALE data tells us about where clinical education is in terms of demographics and status. Then, in light of this data, the group of clinical educators who have been involved in the current ongoing revision of the Accreditation Standards will generate a discussion of how changes in accreditation present threats to the development of clinical education. The results of the CSALE survey also provide important insights into: overall clinical program designs and operations; the design and methods of live-client clinics; the design and methods of field placement programs; and the characteristics of clinicians teaching in live-client clinics and field placement programs. By understanding the various forms and methods being used, clinicians will be better able to situate their own clinics and programs within the various national approaches and trends. The session also will provide important information about the characteristics, rights, and duties of clinicians at different law schools, allowing attendees to consider the need for changes at their own institutions or the need for changes within the academy as a whole. The session will then highlight critical developments in the ongoing comprehensive review of accreditation standards that could have consequences for the design and methods of clinics, the status of clinical educators who design and teach these programs, and the role of clinical education with the academy. Proposed changes in the basic regulatory framework are critical to the clinical community and to legal education as a whole. This session will provide an opportunity to have a deeper and more far-ranging discussion than is available in other contexts.
New Directions in Domestic Violence: Technical Assistance Project, and a Human Rights Perspective
Beverly Balos, University of Minnesota Law School
Margaret Drew, The University of Alabama School of Law
Leigh Goodmark, University of Baltimore School of Law
Caroline Bettinger-Lopez, University of Miami School of Law
This affinity session consists of two parts. The first part is designed to acquaint the clinical teaching community with the Battered Women's Justice Project Legal Clinic Technical Assistance Project to provide technical assistance to law schools and law faculty to develop and expand clinical opportunities that focus on serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The session will include descriptions of alternative clinical models, including public education projects, legal support for self-represented parties, unbundled legal services, and full legal representation. Funding and resource challenges also will be discussed. Technical assistance available includes customized consultation and support for strategic planning, project and curriculum development, grant review for Office of Violence Against Women grant applications, peer-to-peer networking, and resource sharing. The second part will focus on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) decision in Lenahan v. United States, the case brought by Jessica (Gonzales) Lenahan following her defeat in the United States Supreme Court (Castle Rock v. Gonzales). The IACHR found that "the systematic failure of the United States to offer a coordinated and effective response to protect Jessica Lenahan and her daughters from domestic violence, constituted an act of discrimination." This idea that the right to be free from domestic violence constitutes a human right provides a historic opportunity to think about ways in which the state should be held accountable for its failure to protect women subjected to abuse, and can serve as a bridge between clinical professors working in domestic violence and international law and human rights clinics. The affinity group will discuss ways that the clinical community can help to shape the law and policy agenda to implement this groundbreaking decision.
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Therapeutic Jurisprudence/Collaborative Law/Restorative Justice
Barbara A. Babb, University of Baltimore School of Law
Gloria H. Danziger, University of Baltimore School of Law
Bernard P. Perlmutter, University of Miami School of Law
Christina A. Zawisza, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
This affinity group will discuss three vectors of the Collaborative Law Movement: Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Collaborative Law, and Restorative Justice. The questions that will be explored include the role these vectors play in clinical legal education; whether they are appropriate for a stand-alone clinic, e. g. a Collaborative Law Clinic; whether they are appropriate as an add-on to an existing clinic, e. g. a Child Advocacy Clinic; or whether they are simply tools or approaches to aid in on-going clinic work. The group will also discuss the group’s desire for continued communication after the conference.
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Collaborating to Create an Online Digital Library of Videos and Problem Sets for Legal Education
Bridgette A. Carr, The University of Michigan Law School
Michele R. Pistone, Villanova University School of Law
The affinity group will gather to discuss a revolutionary project designed to use online digital technology to create and disseminate videos and related problem sets about law, practical skills and professional values and about how to effectively teach practical lawyering skills and professional values. At last year's AALS joint curriculum section-clinical section conference there was a lot of discussion by non-clinical teachers about a lack of professional training and resources for those interested in bringing skills training into their classrooms.
Online technologies can remedy that void. Let’s share with everyone what we do best.
Members of this affinity group will work together to plan and create a series of short, engaging videos and related problem sets on the topics of our choice – the topics we know best. We will also talk about a related series designed to train law professors on ways to incorporate practical skills and professional values in a law school classroom. Imagine a future in which all law professors incorporated skills and values training in their classrooms – from contracts, to immigration, to advanced income tax. That’s the future we will start to create.
We all know that clinical faculty members are among the most skilled in the academy on teaching practical skills and professional values. Let’s use online digital technology to get our talents out there and accessible to all students and faculty, at any time, from anywhere. Do you want to part of this future? If so, join our affinity group, where we will begin to plan, assign and move ahead on this revolutionary project.
Consumer Law Affinity Group
Genevieve Fajardo, St. Mary's University of San Antonio School of Law
Marcella B. Silverman, Fordham University School of Law
This affinity group will discuss issues of interest among clinical faculty whose clinics focus on or include the practice of consumer law. We anticipate covering the following during this meeting: a sharing of syllabi for the seminar component of the clinical course; methods for teaching attorney fees and fee shifting; legislative advocacy and empirical projects, including supervising students, securing partners, design of projects; and an introduction to the ALICE Project, which will include a short presentation by Judith Fox, Notre Dame Law School.
Consumer Law Affinity Group Takeaways: Takeaway 1 l Takeaway 2 l Takeaway 3 l Takeaway 4
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Clinic Administrators Affinity Group Meeting - Case Management from the Cloud: Clio Presentation from a Current User
A. J. Bellido de Luna, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Lisa M. Holden, University of Tennessee College of Law
Peter Holland, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
George Psiharis, Channel Programs Manager, Clio, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
The topic of case management always garners great interest at every Clinical Conference. Some law schools around the country are investigating and testing a Cloud-based case management software system, specifically Clio. There have been a number of requests by Clinic Offices to learn more about this relatively new online web-based software system. The Affinity Group Session will begin with a short presentation by a Clio representative of how the Clio software system is used in the legal education environment, followed by Clinics users describing their experience with this product. The session will culminate in a group discussion and Q&A .
Expanding the Right to Counsel to Bail Hearings: Preparing Students To Meet Their Ethical Duty as a Public Citizen
Douglas L. Colbert, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
Dominique Nong, Northwestern University School of Law
The Access to Justice Clinic at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law secured a tremendous victory in the Maryland Court of Appeals when the high court unanimously held that individuals charged with criminal offenses have a statutory right to counsel at initial bail hearings. For almost 15 years, countless clinic students have represented individual clients and led the law reform effort to extend indigent defendants' right to counsel at their initial stage of a criminal proceeding. Professor Colbert intends to share the different legal strategies students employed to meet their ethical obligations "as public citizens having special responsibility for the quality of justice." (Model Rules of Professional Conduct). Dominique Nong, Bluhm Legal Clinic's Kenneth & Harle Montgomery Clinical Fellow, will discuss issues she has encountered in creating a similar clinic focused on reducing the Cook County jail population. The session focuses on how clinical faculty can incorporate law reform as a central piece of preparing students to fulfill their pro bono responsibilities as members of the profession.
Medical Legal Partnerships Affinity Group
Wendi J. Adelson, Florida State University College of Law
Lisa R. Bliss, Georgia State University College of Law
Michael Campbell, Villanova University School of Law
Cathryn Miller-Wilson, Villanova University School of Law
This affinity group meeting will discuss how to make Medical Legal Partnerships truly interdisciplinary partnerships, not just referral services. In addition, the group will discuss how to best incorporate interdisciplinary education into the clinical course component of the MLP.