Fortifying Experiential Education and Ourselves Through Leadership in the Clinical Community

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

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A hallmark of the clinical teaching community remains its cooperative approach to advocating for clinical legal educators and clinical legal education as fundamental to the training of lawyers. Examples of the ways in which the clinical community comes together abound include: organizationally through the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) and the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education; collaboratively through engagement with other academy-focused constituencies in groups like the Society for American Law Teachers (SALT); with a focus on scholarship through the Clinical Law Review; internationally through organizations such as the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE); and through more directed grassroots initiatives such regional/focus-specific clinical conferences. Clinicians also serve the larger legal academy by organizing conferences in their doctrinal area of specialty, consulting on the curricular design and development of other clinical programs, and undertaking leadership positions in other parts of AALS or the ABA, for example. It goes without saying that the individual clinician’s commitment to work that benefits the broader clinical teaching community is critical to the community’s well-being. However, the ways that community leadership roles can enhance the professional and personal growth of the individual clinician are less commonly considered. This session will broadly consider the many opportunities for leadership within the clinical teaching community throughout all stages of a clinical teaching career. The presenters will call upon their own varied leadership experiences to offer practical perspectives on both the associated positives and the common challenges. Guided by brainstorming exercises, group discussion, and a leadership pathways mapping tool, participants will emerge from the session with a more holistic understanding of the various pathways to service in the national clinical community and the broader legal academy, a greater eagerness to pursue one or more leadership roles, and initial plans for that pursuit.