An Ever-Evolving Mission: Coming Together to Function as One

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Location: N/A

Room: Franciscan B

Floor: Ballroom Level

Most law schools were founded with a particular mission, framed at the school’s inception and designed to address various needs within the school community, state, nation, or world. Since the majority of our law schools have been in existence for at least half a century, it is our obligation to ensure that their missions are still relevant. Legal education programs work in silos that represent how its particular clinics meet the needs of the community. Our students are becoming lawyers at a very critical time when we have an obligation to not only educate, but to instill within them the idea that in the context of the law and clinical legal education, there is only one community made of up of various people from all walks of life. To introduce, prepare, and provide our students with the best possible experience in preparation for the actual practice of law, it is our obligation to provide them with as many opportunities as possible.
In this session, we will discuss collaborative models of education, including cross-clinic collaboration between in-house clinics and other educational programs at our universities and community organizations. We will discuss the importance of consortiums amongst law schools within each state to provide students with experiences that are not available at their own clinical program. This model allows students to take advantage of programs offered at other institutions while gaining a more global view of everyday life in addition to the standard principles involved in the traditional practice of law.