Some of our students fall short in regard to conduct, appearance, or oral and written communication. We fear harm to our clients, our law schools’ reputation, relationships with others on whom we rely, even the atmosphere in the clinic office. We are concerned about a future of ineffective advocacy by the students. What can clinical faculty do?
Professional conduct standards can be dictated or demonstrated, teased out from bad examples or inspired by good examples, arrived at by trial and error or left to emerge from the student’s personal character. In addition to these avenues, we are hopeful that student learning about professional behavior can benefit from a deeper understanding of their motivations. Does the student really respect others? Has he reckoned with his own anxiety? Attendees will leave the session with better understanding of their own standards for professional behavior, impediments law students face in meeting professional standards, and tools for helping law students meet those standards.
In this session, we will explore selected examples of student conduct, underlying issues and ways to teach about our concerns, beginning with a short, humorous video that Professor Mullen created. Professor Mullen will offer a perspective from an in-house clinic, as these concerns are stressed in orientation and raised again in case-specific contexts. Professor Katz will offer a perspective from externship, where conduct standards and how to teach them are primarily in the purview of the field supervisor, but can also be addressed in seminar, journaling, and tutorial. Participants will join in discussing challenges and solutions from their own experience.