In an era marked by increasing social and legal complexities, we need holistic and collaborative approaches to effectively represent clients experiencing poverty. In this session, a team of presenters comprising attorneys and faculty from Seton Hall Law’s Center for Social Justice and Seton Hall University's Master of Social Work program will explore how law schools and social work programs can collaborate to address the challenges faced by our clients. The presenters will examine the ethical issues emerging out of these collaborative efforts, and the added value to clinical education and opportunities for student involvement. The session will provide a framework for a clinical program that is interested in establishing an internship and other projects with a school of social work and will delve into creative approaches to achieving this goal even with limited resources. The presenters will provide forms and templates to assist in establishing such a program and will discuss areas in which social work interns assist most effectively, including client services and organizing courses for both clients and law students on issues such as stress management.
Through this workshop, we aspire to:
(1) raise awareness of the social, ethical, medical, and legal challenges we face in the defense of clients experiencing poverty, with a focus on challenges for noncitizens;
(2) highlight the value of building collaborative relationships between social workers and legal professionals;
(3) discuss the logistics of establishing an internship with a school of social work; and
(4) share challenges and lessons learned through the experience of operating within an interdisciplinary framework for representing individuals with lower incomes.