Works in Progress Group #21 Family Law Reentry & Clinical Pedagogy

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Session Type: Works-in-Progress

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The Use of Technology in Clinical Education: Lessons Learned and Best Practices

For years, online learning and online legal services delivery have been fringe topics in clinical legal education based on the assumption that in-person interactions are always better. In the blink of an eye, however, the COVID-19 pandemic thrust all clinicians head-first into online teaching and the online practice of law.

To help us understand the various approaches clinicians took to address this new reality, we launched an online survey. We asked clinicians about their comfort levels with law practice technology; the tools, devices, and programs they utilized during the pandemic; how they integrated technology into their programs; and the impact of technology on their teaching and practices. We received 121 responses from clinicians in 31 states and Puerto Rico. While the vast majority of respondents reported teaching fully online using mostly synchronous models, others used hybrid approaches, and a few remained fully in-person. Respondents reported relatively high levels of comfort with technology but report mixed results in terms of the overall impact of technology on their teaching and practices.

Professors Herrera's and Bonin's article will contextualize clinical operations within the legal technology framework, present key data from our survey, and make recommendations for best practices. Part I offers a general landscape of clinic technology usage pre-pandemic. Part II will present survey results to describe how clinical teaching leveraged technology during the pandemic. Part III will recommend best practices for law practice management and educational technology in clinical education. Here, we will explore clinical pedagogy, legal ethics, and data security considerations.

When the New Jim Crow and Jane Crow Intersect: Analyzing Right to Counsel Limitations in the Dependency System for Mothers Who Are Incarcerated

While obstacles to access to counsel in dependency cases exist for all parents who are indigent, mothers who are incarcerated face additional challenges that highlight how having lawyers may not be enough to protect their parental rights. Like public defenders in the criminal legal system, parent’s counsel are overworked, are underpaid, and represent mothers navigating the carceral system while also defending their parental rights. Lawyers represent mothers who are incarcerated contend against the image that they are “criminals” and “bad mothers.”

Neither the new Jim Crow nor Jane Crow is new, but both have been devastating to families. With the disproportionate rise in the rate of incarceration for women—new Jim Crow—children face increased exposure to the child welfare system—Jane Crow. Almost 80% of women in jails and over 60% of women in state prisons are mothers of minor children. Although some of these children are cared for through private custody arrangements during their mothers’ imprisonment, many children enter the foster care system.

Lawyers are supposed to be a source of information, advocacy, and support for mothers navigating that system. While attorneys may provide some relief to mothers who are incarcerated, they are unable to alleviate all the barriers these mothers’ face while trying to protect their rights to their children. The right to counsel cannot save a seemingly rigged process. Professor Laroche examines this issue.