The
“new normal” has been characterized by lower enrollment, diminished law school
resources, and reduced employment opportunities both before and after
graduation. Also, law school
constituencies clamor for more “practice-ready” graduates. This combination of factors has affected
externship and clinic faculties in different ways. The traditional in-house clinic model is vulnerable
as a result of declining enrollments and rapidly shrinking budgets. Field
placement courses are often under-resourced and undervalued as a part of the
curriculum. Rather than allow this
environment of decreased resources and increased demands to foster competition
and isolation of the externship and clinic faculty, this session will focus on
current and potential opportunities for collaboration and creativity.
This
session explores ideas for collaboration between in-house clinics and field placement
programs to address these challenges while
simultaneously developing in our students’ different skills sets
and perspectives of legal practice. We will share data and provide an
infographic/ visual map of some of the various programs that employ collaboration.
We will also engage participants in a critical analysis of the different
institutional and substantive issues that have arisen that encourage or
discourage collaboration between law clinic and externship programs and
faculty.