Harmonizing the Ethical and Legal Responsibilities of Lawyers and Social Workers in Clinical Practice

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

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Social workers; social work faculty; and social work students play an immensely important role in clinical education. Fortunately, an increasing number of clinics incorporate social workers and social workers-in training into their representation. Social workers’ participation in legal clinics provide clients with valuable holistic services, counseling, and guidance during often stressful legal situations. They enrich the education of a clinic’s law students by helping emerging lawyers see the “whole client” in a social context and they contribute to a fuller discussion of social policy and best practices. This collaboration fits squarely in this year’s conference theme; social work theory and practice mitigate stress during uncertainty and encourage reflection and mindfulness. However, there are risks associated with in-house social workers in legal practice. State laws; professional standards; and training during graduate education govern the legal and ethical responsibilities that social workers have to clients and can be inconsistent with a lawyer’s responsibilities. Of particular concern is social workers’ mandatory reporting duties, which are universal in all 50 states. Social workers serving any clinic client may, during their interaction with that client, suspect abuse of a vulnerable person. This might be abuse of the client, particularly for clinics that serve youth or the elderly or those with disabilities, or abuse by the client. In either case, it is likely that the lawyer’s responsibility to the client and the client’s wishes preclude reporting. There is also a risk that treatment of a clinic client could leave open the possibility that treatment notes are discoverable by the court or opposing counsel. Legal services offices and clinics have attempted to deal with this dilemma by designating social workers as agents of the attorney, but this may not be protective under ambiguous state laws, and clinics’ legal staff and students often are left in the uncomfortable position of having to assess whether to refer a client to their in house social workers based on whether these risks are present. This often means withholding social work services from those who need it most. This session is intended for participants who hope to incorporate social workers into clinic practice and would like strategies to deal with potentially conflicting ethical and legal responsibilities of social workers and lawyers. The session will explore approaches to collaboration that address conflicting responsibilities and standards. Participants will leave with an understanding of the potential conflicts; collaboratively developed strategies to comply with mandatory reporting laws while maintaining the highest level of zealous representation; and strategies for discussing these issues with students from both disciplines in seminar and supervision contexts. There will be particular attention to pedagogical approaches to cross-disciplinary teaching and seminar discussions.