As law schools seek to expand clinic offerings, how might clinical programs effectively leverage the talents and interests of non-clinical faculty?
Seeking to expand clinical opportunities for students, many clinical programs have collaborated with non-clinical faculty in a variety of ways. The possibilities for collaboration include co-teaching clinics with non-clinical faculty, to collaborating on particular matters, to pairing doctrinal classes with clinic labs or mini-clinics to better integrate theory and practice. The benefits can be substantial: increased clinical and service opportunities for students, better integration of clinical and non-clinical faculty, and more meaningful integration of theory and practice within traditional doctrinal courses.
What role can and should clinical faculty play in these collaborations? How can clinical programs best support non-clinical faculty given our typically demanding and pressured work? What role can talented alumni play in offering mini-clinics? Are there any drawbacks to clinical programs? For example, is it important to preserve clinical pedagogy and if so, how do we insure that non-clinical faculty use traditional clinic methods?
The participants include both clinical and non-clinical faculty engaged in developing such collaborations. In this session, we will discuss (1) ways that participants might develop similar programs/courses/collaborative opportunities at their institutions, (2) the benefits of this work, and (3) the practical challenges presented and possible solutions.