Part-time students, who largely attend law school in the evening, are often unable to enroll in clinics offered during the day, resulting in a gap in access to experiential learning opportunities. This discussion will explore one model of a direct-client clinic, designed to operate in the evening, that balances the unique situational factors presented by teaching evening clinics while serving the needs of client communities.
First, the discussion will unpack the situational factors presented by an evening clinic and how learning goals and teaching modalities might shift based on those factors. For example, part-time students are typically employed (often full-time) and unavailable during normal business hours, rendering many traditional clinic dockets impracticable. Additionally, some evening students are employed by the federal or state government, raising potential conflicts issues. At the same time, evening clinics afford part-time students access not only to critical experiential learning, but also to the profession at large, by offering practical experience, applied legal writing samples, and networking opportunities.
The presenters will share their access-to-justice evening clinic design, which allowed students to have direct-client experience while accounting for those situational factors. Students engaged in partnerships with local legal aid organizations to offer advice and brief services to family law litigants, provided limited representation on discrete issues like motions for alternative service of process, and developed access-to-justice and self-help tools with the local bar association and legal services providers. The presenters will also discuss the scaffolding of seminar classes around those experiences and targeted rounds to center the diverse experiences of students around unifying themes.
Finally, attendees will be invited to share, and brainstorm, other kinds of projects that provide students meaningful experiential learning opportunities, meet the situational factors of teaching evening clinic, and serve client communities.