The Clinic’s Role in Building Resilience: Preparing Students for Failure

Go Back

Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: N/A

Floor: N/A

Poverty lawyering in this time requires tenacity, grit, and perseverance, especially among lawyers who serve the growing number of undocumented individuals. While clinics continue to do the important work of teaching about cross-cultural lawyering and lawyering across difference, teaching resilience in this climate requires more than pedagogical approaches that acknowledge the structural and systemic challenges inherent to our legal system. It requires a radically honest, direct, and ongoing conversation about failure and loss. Students heading into the fields of immigration, housing, family and criminal defense, disability rights, etc. must leave law school prepared to fight an uphill battle and voice unpopular arguments in the courtroom. This concurrent session is designed to explore how clinical educators can encourage, create, and lead conversations which will prepare our students for the challenging realities of public interest practice and, in turn, create stronger, more resilient future lawyers. We will explore methods of confronting the inevitable loss for lawyers and clients in the face of genuine injustice while still inspiring and encouraging students to take on this crucial work.