Reflecting on Successes and Identifying Roadblocks to Robust Cross-Clinic Collaborations

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

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For years the clinical community has spoken about the need, if not the desire, to de-silo clinical education. The academy encourages cross clinic collaboration; clinicians are often energized by the possibilities; and the unique benefits, to clients, students and teachers can be seen in the many amazing cross-clinic projects that have and are taking place nationally. And yet these collaborations are still not commonplace. As clinicians, who believe in and teach collaboration, we must ask ourselves why is this the case. With the involvement of those present, we will collectively examine how to develop successful clinic collaborations to advance social justice, as well as why cross-clinical collaboration is not occurring on a wider scale. Identifying these inhibitors is especially important as cross-clinic collaboration can be a source of sustenance in our professional lives, in addition to being a benefit to our students and our clients. During our session, we will explain and demonstrate how to model and teach the secrets of great cross-clinic teamwork based on Sue Bryant’s influential article, Collaboration in Law Practice: A Satisfying and Productive Process for a Diverse Profession, as well as more recent findings business school scholars have made in better understanding successful collaborations in complex contexts. We will also present on CUNY’s CED Clinic and Mediation Clinic and Fordham’s Tax Clinic and Legislative and Policy Advocacy Clinic collaborations, in particular. We will share our models, the elements of our success, and lessons learned. We will also identify some institutional roadblocks to our models, including the importance of being mindful of status within the legal academy. We will break into small “teams” to work through two hypotheticals designed to identify barriers and mechanisms to support to cross-clinic collaboration. We will end the session sharing large group take-aways to support more cross-clinic collaboration.