Engaging Students in Organizational Representation

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Session Type: AALS Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

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The “new normal” and notions of
developing “practice-ready” law graduates may increase the demand for offerings in clinics dealing with
organizational clients whether in litigation, transactional or corporate
matters. These clients present a unique teaching opportunity as well as
challenges. Clinicians and students have the opportunity to focus on
professional responsibility, decision making, and client-centeredness in
contexts that are hard to replicate in clinics representing individual clients.  While these are valuable opportunities,
representing organizations challenges clinical teachers and students in many
ways. For example, students may be presented with challenges in  developing a case narrative and empathizing
with the client.
Many existing clinics, including environmental clinics,
have been representing organizational clients since their founding. Some of
these organizational clients are established ones and others may have formed
solely for the particular issue for which it has sought representation.  
This concurrent panel will explore how we teach important
lawyering skills in the context of relationships that exist when lawyers
represent organizational clients and special issues and challenges that arise
in a clinic setting with such representation, including the following
questions:
§Who
is the client?
§How
are litigation decisions made by and with organizational clients?
§How
to engage the students when individual narratives of hardship and
injustice    may be absent?
§How
can students learn to understand community narratives of hardship and
injustice?
§How
do you interview the client?
§How
does the client organization’s collaboration model impact representation?