Philosophy of Clinics

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Clinical Legal Education

The beauty of Clinical Legal Education as a pedagogic technique focuses onthe learner and the process of learning, and compels the law teacher to look

at educational psychology to evaluate different methods of teaching. This, itis hoped in turn, will make an impact on the entire range of subjects and thesystem of examination in the law curriculum.

1. WHAT IS CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION AN INTRODUCTIONClinical legal education is not a term of art; it can mean different things todifferent people. It has been defined as:"A learning environment where students identify, research andapply knowledge in a setting which replicates, at least in part, theworld where it is practiced. It almost inevitably means that thestudent takes on some aspect of a case and conducts this as it

would be conducted in the real world."However, for present purposes I want to narrow the focus for discussion. Thisis because in a broad sense replicating what goes on in the real world formspart of much law school teaching and always has done so. It could include awide variety of activity including, for example:-

(a) Simulations Students can learn from a variety of simulationsof what happens in legal practice. For Example, moot courts arecommon place. They have traditionally formed part of law schoolactivity and introduce students to the intricacies of advocacy, at leastbefore appealla te cours. More ambitiously, use can be made of mock

trials, sometimes involving professional actors in order to convey thedifficulties of, for example, introducing evidence and establishing factsin what may be the rapidly changing environment of a first instancetribunal.(b) Negotiation Exercises whereby opposing groups of studentslearning the art of negotiation, rather than trial court litigation, bybeing given realistic case files and asked to resolve them in aseconomic and fair manner as possible.(c) Client Interviewing Exercises - a national competitionsponsored by Kerala Law Academy was organized in which students of

Jamia Millia Islamia also participated and the team was declared

winner. Such types of competitions are organized throughout India.(d) Transaction exercises between groups of students such asbuying or selling property or with individual students in drafting of will,legal writing. Although of exceptional value in teaching law, thesesimulations can lack the complexity of real client work, and the roleplay must not create the same demands that exist upon legalpractitioners.(e) Placements Students can be sent out to work with practicinglawyers for short periods to encounter real problems, clients andcourts. They are then expected to bring back their experience to thelaw school and reflect upon it, using it to inform the remainder of their

time spent in the academic establishment. On the one hand, althoughplacements require the academic institutions to have good relationswith law firms and practitioners, they are relatively easy to set up.

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They are particularly attractive to some law schools because that theycan be arranged at little cost. On the other hand, the student'sexperience can vary greatly, and it is especially difficult for teachers tomonitor what has happened in order to make use of it, and provideeffective feedback. It is difficult to assess the student's progress.Although these placements and simulations have been included by

some commentators as examples of clinical legal education, here Iwish to confine my discussion to a narrower activity. By clinicaleducation I refer only to student involvement with real clients in anenvironment supervised and controlled directly by the law school. Thepractical experience forms part of, and are integrated within, theeducation provided by the law school.

2. 1FORMS OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATIONClinical legal education may take a variety of forms. Selecting the mostappropriate type of program to establish will depend on a number of factors,including the degree of support for clinical legal education within the lawschool administration. Also important are state policies on legal education,

rules concerning the legal representation of individuals, and the needs of thecommunity where the clinic will operate.Legal clinics are often defined by where they are physically located.University-based clinics are housed at a university law faculty. The teachersin the clinic are professors at the university, and the students usually receiveacademic credit for their work with the clinic. Clients come to the universityto see their student-lawyers. Community-based clinics often operate out ofan NGO. The teachers are actual practitioners who supervise law studentsfrom one or more law faculties as they work with their clients. In many cases,law schools offer such clinics as externships, in which professors also

perform a supervisory role to ensure that students have a meaningfuleducational experience.Some clinics are known as live-client clinics, meaning that the studentsrepresent real clients. Others are simulation clinics, which mean that thestudents work on fact patterns that are based on real cases, but they do notrepresent actual clients.Clinical legal education emerged out of recognition that while a traditionalacademic curriculum could teach legal principles, it took practical experienceto know how to apply those principles correctly and with confidence. It offersstudents the opportunity to experience the realities of legal practice and thecontext in which laws develop within the structured laboratory of legal

education.3. CLINICAL LEGL EDUCATION IN CONTEMPORARY TIMESEntering the workforce as a new lawyer can be a daunting prospect for anylaw graduate in any country. From societys perspective, it can be risky forsociety to place responsibility for protecting the rule of law in the hands ofuntrained lawyers. Although law school education immerses students in legalprinciples, laws, codes, and regulations, applying this knowledge correctlyand confidently requires an entirely different set of skills from those requiredto excel in classes and examinations.Clinical legal education is an interactive method of teaching law students thelegal skills they will need in order to become competent, conscientious, and

ethical lawyers. Most consider clinical legal education to have two mainpurposes. One primary goal is to teach practice skills and professional

1 Agenda in First Meeting of the Budapest Universitys Child Rights Pilot Project at p. 12

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responsibility to law students by having them generally represent real clientunder the watchful eye of professors who supervise the students work. Theother main goal is to provide legal services to meet the needs of the poorand underrepresented. In the process of addressing those needs, studentsmust consider the practical, ethical, social, and moral considerationsconcerning law and the legal process. The relative significance of these

objectives will depend on the country and the environment in which theclinical legal education program operates.Clinical legal education is different from the traditional method of legaleducation. In traditional law school teaching methodology, professors lecturelaw students about legal principles, laws, codes, and regulations. In legalclinics, students usually represent real clients while being supervised byprofessors who generally are or have been practitioners themselves. Theseinstructors teach the students practice skills such as how to conductinterviews, counsel clients, conduct negotiations, and advocate ethically onbehalf of their clients.Participation in legal clinics helps students learn about law through

application, practice, and reflection. Clinic students learn how to listen to andcommunicate effectively with clients, witnesses, experts, adversaries,prosecutors, judges, and other players in the legal process. Their researchand writing skills are enhanced, and students develop critical thinking skillsand a contextual understanding of the legal process.Clinic teachers prepare the students for working with real clients in a varietyof ways. Typically, there is a classroom component in which interactiveteaching methods are used to teach the students core skills includinginterviewing, client counseling, case analysis, negotiation, legal analysis andwriting, oral advocacy, and professional responsibility. The classroom

component may also focus on the substantive area of law that is the subjectof the client representation. A disability rights clinic, for example, might havea classroom component that includes several sessions devoted to learningabout the rules and regulations applicable to people seeking governmentassistance.In addition to the classroom component, students have many opportunitiesto consult with their supervising professor in order to prepare for realinterviews, engage in case analysis, anticipate problem areas, andbrainstorm possible remedies. When students engage in actual advocacy onbehalf of a real client, their supervisor is available to provide expertise.Feedback is an essential part of the learning process.

Clinical courses are process based, examining the processes ofinterviewing and counseling, negotiation, drafting, public policy, advocacy,fact investigation, deposition questioning strategies and techniques, and trialstrategies and techniques.In Clinical course clinical instructors supervise students as associates ratherthan as lead counsel on a variety of public interest cases. Clinical supervisorsand students study and simulate in the classroom. Casework in thedeposition discovery course, for instance, is largely limited to preparing andconducting specified depositions. This helps to focus the students attentionon general process principles rather than simply on case-specificpredicaments, alongside these innovations in case supervision methodology,

the Clinical Program continues to recognize that simulation has significanteducational value. It provides students with the repetition and feedback theyneed to cement the concepts and techniques to which they have been

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exposed. It also allows faculty to introduce students to problems that cannotfeasibly be undertaken in actual cases, such as those involved in variouskinds of financing transactions (e.g., high-yield bond financing andcommercial bank financing).

The common thread running through all the courses, whether litigation ortransactional, live client or simulation, is that students examine common

problems in process areas that are important and in which competence istypically not acquired simply through practice experience for example, itsunlikely that instructional time would be devoted to how to complete a noticeof Deposition properly. While that may be an important skill, it is one thatmost litigators quickly acquire in practice.Instead, precious law school instructional time is devoted to broaderprinciples of lawyering that practitioners rarely have the time to examinesystematically. Two short examples illustrate how clinical courses focus ongeneral principles and sills that students can apply across varioussubstantive law settings to help solve legal problems. A discussion on factinvestigation in a litigation course does not focus solely on what evidence to

look for in a given cases. Instead, the discussion begins with generalprinciples for identifying potential evidence, and then students are given achance to apply those principles as they attempt to identify potentialevidence in a specific-actual or simulated-case. Similarly, a discussion ofnegotiation desirable outcomes and common methods of overcoming thosebarriers. Students then have an opportunity to apply those concepts as theydevelop strategies for a specific negotiation exercise.Students are taught to construct the most persuasive and coherentarguments that both support their clients version of disputed events andundermine their opponents version. These conceptual approaches are

designed to provide them wit argument construction skills that they canapply when trying cases in any substantive area, from a simple auto accidentcase to a federal antitrust action. Of course, a well-constructed argumentmust also be communicated effectively to a judge or jury at all stages oftrial, from opening statement to final summation. So, students are also givenrepeated opportunities to learn and practice trial techniques. By the end ofthe semester, they have a chance to practice what they have learned in amock jury trial, with community volunteers playing the role of jurors andwitnesses. Students apply the argument construction and evidencepresentation skills learned, to real cases. The Legal Aid Faculty of Law, JamiaMillia Islamia matches indigent clients with student-lawyers. Most of these

cases involve employment matters, either claims for unemploymentinsurance benefits or for unpaid wages.Student interview clients & witnesses, perform legal research and using thesame concepts and skills, construct persuasive arguments, examine andcross-examine witnesses, and make closing arguments before theadministrative law judge who decides the case. Student experiences thesatisfaction and sense of accomplishment tat come from using their hard-acquired legal skills t help someone in need. In a college n one case, studentlawyers successfully secured back wages for an in-home care giver who hadworked for months at well below minimum wage.Clinical legal education may be simply described as learning through

practice, application, and reflection. It is quite different from the traditionallegal education. The lecture and seminar method in the law schools to teachthe students, does not meet the clinical demands. The aim and object of

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clinical legal education is to expose the law student in practice and toprovide analytical, management and problem solving skills. In fact theclinical legal education is a bridge which connects between theory andpractice. What is learnt through books is easily forgettable but not what islearnt through practical experience.Clinical Legal education emphasizes on the student- centered education

rather than teacher-based learning. It is the student who actively finds thelearning and not the teacher putting the learning on the passive student. Thepurpose of Clinical Legal Education is not only make a student a perfectlawyer as a marketable commodity and also expose him to the socialrealities, responsibilities, professional ethics, which is known as social-centered education and value education.It is submitted that clinical legal education is essential to thestudent community and helpful to them in the following ways:

To develop the professional skills and practical application of law.

To develop research, analytical and communicative skills.

To provide necessary experience and exposure to handle the casesindependently with the self reliance.

To bring the law students closer to the people who arc in need of theirprofessional assistance

To focus on social, moral and ethical values to a promising lawyerwhich are necessary in finding social reasoning in judicial decisions.

To motivate the law students by creating a sense of responsibility toserve the community

4. CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION REVISITEDThat question was: should a law school try to teach students in a legal clinicwhere they have to deal with problems faced by real clients? The use of the

word clinic prompts the analogy of trainee doctors meeting real patients intheir medical clinics. It is difficult to conceive of a doctor qualifying withoutever examining a living body, or of scientists completing their educationwithout setting up practical test- but his has been the norm in universitylegal education. Why should this be so? In this article do two things: first, Ireflect upon new factors as well as the old considerations which affect theanswer to the question of whether clinical education should have a place inlaw school teaching; and secondly, I explain why that question is of growingimportance not only in the India but also in other countries. The subjectshould be of particular interest in countries, such as Japan, wherefundamental reconsideration is taking place of how lawyers are to be trainedand for what purposes. Although clinical legal education is only one way inwhich theory and practice can be brought together, it encapsulates many ofthe issues in the reform debate. Views expresses on this subject maydetermine not only the future character of university legal education, butalso the nature and scope of the legal profession itself. Clinical LegalEducation thus constitutes a case study of many of the major issues in legaleducation.

When a student joins law college, its on his mind that he would learnsomething about what powers the police had, and the procedure bywhich the prosecutions which eh reads about in local paper took place.

He thinks that he would gain some knowledge of the range of criminallaws which protected person and property. However, criminal law,studied for only a very short time, it is pre-occupied with the fine

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distinctions between mental states which affect decisions at the apexof the pyramid of criminal justice system. It had little to say abouteveryday experience of the criminal process. Its focus on the finepoints which sometimes distinguished murder from the lesser chargeof manslaughter and it is not what is on the mind of the student. Theword police is hardly mentioned, and their powers are never

examined. The criminal justice process and especially what happenedas a matter of routine in the lower courts at the base of the pyramid isignored. How a crime is proven, who decides whether or not toprosecute, where the trial takes place and what pressures there wereto plead guilty are never discussed. Studying law like this seemsaltogether very artificial. Dissatisfaction with academic law thus beganin legal career.

Contract law is also discussed by means of abstract theoretical rulesapplied to futile conceptual problems which have no counterpart in theworld of reality. Students know that climbing a greasy pole in return fora reward which was withdrawn just before the climber reached the top,or shouting a bargain across a noisy river, were not what lawyers werereally concerned about. But I was left with very little indication of whatthe mass of lawyers actually did. Instead I was indoctrinated into thepresumptions of classical contract law. These include the unstatednotion that if there is a breach of contract then the automatic remedyis to take legal action. This dangerous fallacy has hindered many aninexperienced lawyers relationship with prospective business clients.Enforcement of the law once the action had proven successful was alsotaken for granted. In fact there is no discussion of civil procedure at all a falling of Indian law school which is continuing.

Finally, the common concerns voiced by people whether about theirexperience of the civil law system as consumers or as debtors areignored. As trainees, students join a company law firms. The studentsfeel whatever limited company law they had learned at the vocationalstage of training is irrelevant to the work that is being done there.In the evenings I assuaged my social conscience by working in a LawCentre offering free legal advice in the East End of London. SocialSecurity, immigration, labour, consumer law and a host of other areas,as it seemed not subject fit to be studied at the college in India,through the students from these colleges are ready to becomepractitioners. This most of the time increases dissatisfaction with the

education and training which a student had received in law colleges.This means there are certain inherent flaws in the legal educationalsystem which is not able to impart the real legal education in thestudents.One of the debated in India is whether the law schools should becomemere involved with clinical legal education. And it is thought that it isone which many law schools will have to face again as we enter thisnext millennium.

5. 2CONSTITUIONAL AND LEGAL STATUS OF CLINICAL LEGALEDUCATION

The Law Commission of India in its 184" report felt that legal education is afundamental to the very foundation of judicial system. It also felt that clinical

2Jaya Kumar, Y.F., Clinical Legal Education and Law Schools in India Some Problems in India, DelhiLaw Review (2007)5 at page 36-40

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legal education should be made compulsory which will be an excellentsupplement to the legal aid. The Indian constitution aims at securing, social,economic and political justice. Article 39-A is the direct and expressprovision of legal aid, which reads as:Equal Justice and Free Legal Aid: the State shall secure that theoperation of the legal system promotes justice, on the basis of equal

opportunity, and shall in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitablelegislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities forsecuring justice are not denied to any citizen by reasons of economic orother disabilities.

The National commission to review the working of the constitutionrecommends that the following new article should be added to theconstitution making, legal aid as a fundamental right:Article 30-A: Access to courts and Tribunals and speedy justice 1) Everyone has a right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the-application of law decided in a fair public hearing before an independentcourt or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or

forum.2) the right to access to courts shall be deemed to include the right toreasonably speedy and effective justice in all matters before the courts,tribunals or other fora and the State shall1ake all reasonable steps toachieve the said object.Article 30-B: Equal justice and free legal aid: the State shall secure thatthe operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equalopportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitablelegislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities forsecuring justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other

disabilities.In Center for Legal Research V. State ofKerala3, it has been suggestedthat in order to achieve the objective of Article 39A, the State mustencourage and support the participation of voluntary organizations andsocial action groups in operating the legal programme. Therefore, the Statecannot avoid from its constitutional obligation to provide legal services toindigent litigants who are facing financial and administrative difficulties.8TheGovernment should set up a suitors fund" to meet the cost of defending apoor or indigent.In State ofMaharashtra v. Manubhai Pragaji vashi4, the SupremeCourt held that Article 21 read with Article 39-A mandated or cast a duty on

the State to extend the grant-in-aid scheme to all Government recognizedprivate Law Colleges according to the criteria applicable to the regulardegree colleges. The purpose of giving grants to law colleges is to enablethose colleges to function effectively and in a meaningful manner and turnout sufficient number of well trained or properly trained law graduates.

To implement the scheme for legal aid in India, the Legal Services AuthoritiesAct was passed in 1987. The Act aims at providing a protective umbrella tothe weaker sections of the society, against all injustices and giving itadequate funds. The National Legal Services Authorities set-up under theAct, provides for the constitution of Legal Services Authorities at thenational, the state and the district levels. These authorities are to provide

free and competent legal services with the aim of securing equal justice to

3 AIR 1986 SC 21954 1995 Indlaw SC 1146

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the weaker sections of the society. The Act has introduced a scheme fordeputing a Legal Aid Counsel in every court of Magistrate in the country forproviding free legal aid assistance to poor prisoners. The Code of CriminalProcedure, 1973 under Section 304 provides for legal aid to an accused whois not represented by a pleader in trial before the court of session, providedthat he has no sufficient means to engage a lawyer. The code requires that

the court shall assign a pleader for his defense at the expense of the State.Section 304(2) of the Code, empowers the High Courts to make rules if') thisconnection. The State government is also authorized, by notification, toextend the legal aid to an accused in any case of trial before any other court.6. 5SUMMARY TO CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION

Provide professional skills instructions in areas such as interviewing,counseling, and fact investigation.

Teach methods of learning from experience.

Instruct students in professional responsibility by exposing themdirectly to the ethics of the profession.

Expose students to the demands and methods of acting in the role ofattorney.

Provide opportunities for collaborative learning.

Impart the obligation of service to clients, information about how toengage in such representation, and knowledge about the impact of thelegal system on poor people.

Provide opportunities to examine the impact of doctrine in real life andprovide a laboratory where students and faculty study particular areasof law.

Expose our law teachers to wider experience in lawyering skills andlegal practice, which is fundamental to their development.

5 Syllabus of Nigerian Universitys, New York, Budapest, Abuja

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HISTORY OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION

1. THE JOURNEY OF LEGAL EDUCATION FROM THE CROSSROADSTO MODERNIZATION

Prior to the introduction of five year law course, most of the students whoperformed well in their Intermediate Education aspired to study medicine,engineering, computers, business management and accounting. Law as aprofession and legal education as a discipline was not a popular choice of the

students. Unlike India, the situation prevalent in England, America and inmany other developed countries is convincingly different. The admissions tolaw schools in these parts of the world are highly competitive. The end resultis that the 'creams' among students opt for law by choice and not as the lastresort and thus richly contribute their shares to the society as lawyers,

judges, para-legals and academicians. Though, five year law schools aredoing their bit to bring about a change; but more effectively the perspectiveof prospective law students can be changed by a healthy pre-legal educationat the school level.2. 6THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN LAW SCHOOL AND THE FIRST

WAVE OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATIONThe first wave of clinical legal education in the United States began in theearly part of the twentieth century, shortly after the casebook methodemerged in the late 1890's as a popular route to preparing for a career inlaw. The casebook method's emphases on appellate judicial decisions andthe Socratic method as the means to teach the skill of legal analysis were adeparture from the three prevailing methods of American legal education inthe nineteenth century: the applied skills training method inherent in theapprenticeship system; the general education approach of the prevailingEuropean legal educational model, which was adopted by some colleges anduniversities in the United States; and an analytical and systematized

approach to the law as interconnected rational principles, taught primarilythrough lectures at proprietary law schools. The single focus on legalanalysis in the casebook method became "the objective" and "the structure"of early legal education in the United States and represented early legaleducators' "narrow view of legal education." Even though the casebookmethod was growing to become the dominant pedagogy in law schools,there were critics of this method from the start.While the casebook method was gaining wide acceptance, law students atseveral law schools in the late 1890's and early 1900's established volunteer,non-credit "legal dispensaries" or legal aid bureaus to provide hands-onopportunities to learn and practice lawyering skills and legal analysis, and

also to serve a social justice mission by providing legal assistance to those

6 New Yorks State Judicial Institutes Colloquium on Developing Collaboration among Courts,Law School Clinical Prog. and the practicing Barat p.3

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unable to hire attorneys. As early as 1917, one commentator - William Rowe- published a law review article advocating law school based clinical legaleducation as the best way to train law students to become competentlawyers. Prior to writing this groundbreaking law review article, Rowe wasthe proponent of a resolution adopted by the New York State Bar Associationin 1916 that provided: "every law school shall make earnest clinical work,

through legal aid societies or other agencies, a part of its curriculum for itsfull course."In his 1917 article, Rowe discussed law student volunteer affiliations withlegal aid efforts, and he argued that these arrangements should beformalized and transformed into a feature of the law school curriculum withfaculty involvement. The law schools, he observed, were lagging behindmedicine, architecture, engineering, and other disciplines in providing suchclinical experiences to students. Most law schools offered only a two-yearcourse of instruction at the time that Rowe was writing, and heforeshadowed some efforts to integrate clinical education throughout astudent's law school experience when he wrote: "One year of the clinic is not

enough. Indeed, eventually, the clinic may be made a principal medium ofinstruction in all years for all subjects. That will be the natural and logicaldevelopment." Rowe advocated a system of clinical legal education in whichstudents would take their clinic cases "to the classroom of the professordealing with the subject under which the case logically falls. The clinic thusbecomes a 'case book' - not, however, of dead letters descriptive of pastcontroversies, but always of living issues in the throbbing life of the day, thelife the student is now living."

The type of clinical legal education that Rowe promoted most closelyresembles a modern externship or perhaps hybrid clinic, in which students

are placed with an off-site legal aid office, prosecutor, or public defender,combined with "general classroom work, with 'demonstrations' of currentclinical problems, as well as individual instruction and guidance in each casein hand." Rowe also anticipated that the clinic would be overseen by afaculty member "fully prepared to devote himself permanently to the work,[and] who can, with his assistants, agreeably to all concerned, associatehimself, if necessary for temporary purposes, as counsel or otherwise, withany lawyer whose office or business may become connected with the clinic."In 1921, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching funded astudy on legal education, commonly called the "Reed Report" after itsnonlawyer author, Alfred Z. Reed. The Reed Report identified three

components necessary to prepare students for the practice of law: generaleducation, theoretical knowledge of the law, and practical skills training. Theemphasis on legal analysis in the casebook method fulfilled only one of thesethree objectives by providing students with a theoretical knowledge of thelaw. To satisfy the requirement of a general education component, the ReedReport called for at least two years of pre-law college training - a proposalthe ABA promoted, starting in 1921. At that time, not a single state requireda university-based law school degree as a precondition for admission to thebar, proprietary law schools were still prevalent, and apprenticeships stillprovided the basic legal training for many entering the legal profession. Inthe midst of this highly unregulated climate forentry to the legal profession,

the Reed Report's recommendation of practical skills training was notvigorously pursued by law schools.

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In the wake of Rowe's early efforts to integrate clinical education into the lawschool curriculum, and the Reed Report's call for practical skills training, JohnBradway and Jerome Frank pioneered the cause of clinical legal educationmethodology in the 1920's through the 1940's, advocating an in-house clinicas an essential component of sound legal education. Yet, despite the effortsof Bradway and Frank, only a handful of law schools instituted in-house

clinical courses through the first half of the 1900's.The dearth of clinical legal education programs in the first half of thetwentieth century reflects several conditions that law schools faced in thatera. First, law schools were distinguishing themselves from apprenticeships,and clinical legal education efforts to create "model law offices" as part oflaw school education did not further this market differentiation. Second, lawschools of this era were terribly under funded and clinical legal educationcourses with intensive faculty supervision were not as economical as largeclasses employing the casebook Socratic method. Third, law school teachersof this era disagreed about the value and feasibility - of teaching lawyeringskills other than legal analysis. For example, a 1944 Report of the

Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Curriculum Committee, primarilyauthored by Karl Llewellyn, noted that the "current case-instruction issomehow failing to do the job of producing reliable professional competenceon the by-product side in half or more of our end product, our graduates."Fourth, the period from the 1920's to the 1940's was marked by ABA andAALS efforts to create and raise standards for law schools, and none of thesestandards focused on encouraging or requiring clinical legal educationexperiences. These four factors combined not only to limit the number ofclinical programs but also to stunt the growth of clinical pedagogy by limitingthe number of law faculty teaching clinical courses.

By 1951, the value of "legal aid clinics" affiliated with or operated by lawschools had become "one of the current controversies in legaleducation . . . ." Robert Storey, then theDean of Southern Methodist University School of Law, summed up the feelingof some legal educators when he lauded the "clinical method" for exposing"the student to actual problems confronting him with actual people who arein actual trouble" and for furthering "equality of justice" by helping to set up"an adequate system of legal aid offices." Yet, in spite of Dean Storey andothers who promoted clinical legal education in the 1950's, clinical legaleducation was in a holding pattern.In the 1950's, there was no single vision of clinical legal education and the

concept of a law school "legal aid clinic" encompassed any "law schoolsponsored program for law student work on legal aid cases." A 1951 study ofclinical programs identified twenty-eight clinics run by law schools,independent legal societies, or public defender offices. At five schools, aclinical legal education experience was mandated, but most schools offeredclinics as electives or extra curricular activities. The work assigned tostudents varied among programs, but typically included client and witnessinterviews, drafting pleadings, and preparation of legal documents. Someprograms gave students the opportunity to negotiate matters with clients'creditors, and at least nine law school clinics provided opportunities for trialsand other court appearances. Most clinics attempted to have students work

on cases from beginning to end. Student supervision was cited as a "majorproblem," and the task of supervision was often delegated to experiencedstudents, who supervised less experienced students. At ten of the twenty-

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eight law schools with some form of clinical program in 1951, students didnot earn any academic credit for their work. At four schools, clinic credit wasavailable as part of a student's credits for a general course on legal practice.At the remaining fourteen schools, students only earned between one andthree hours of credit for clinic work.By the end of the 1950's, thirty-five law schools reported "some form of legal

aid clinic." In thirteen of these law schools, legal aid clinics were locatedinside the schools. In a few law schools, all or most law students wererequired to do some legal aid work. In fifteen law schools, students were ableto earn limited academic credit for clinic work. In only five law schools,supervising faculty were able to receive teaching credit for their clinicalcourses.Although the number of clinical legal education programs increased slightlyfrom the late1940's to the early 1950's, the late 1950's ended on a note of relativestagnation for the nascent clinical legal education movement. There wereseveral different models of clinical programs, and no generally accepted

definition or description. Schools defined "clinical" programs to include bothcredit-earning and non-credit-earning real-life experiences for law studentseither in programs located within the law school or offsite at legal aid orpublic defender offices. The level of faculty involvement and supervisionvaried greatly, and clinical experiences existed on the fringes of the lawschool curriculum.

The limited growth of clinical programs during this decade may reflect thefact that clinical instruction was only one of several experiments under wayto address perceived deficiencies of the casebook method. Some of the other"experiments" included simulated trial practice courses, legal research and

writing courses, drafting courses, and subject matter seminars based onsimulated problems. Notwithstanding these "experiments" many of whichare now standard fare in virtually all law schools the 1960's witnessedcontinued complaints by law students and some law faculty about largeclasses, the dominance of the casebook method, and the lack of writingopportunities. Of all the curricular experiments since the introduction of thecasebook method in the late nineteenth century, "the concept of clinicallegal education was to prove the most important." In fact, clinical legaleducation is "so often called the most significant change in how law wastaught since the invention of the case method that it now sounds trite."3. 7THE MATURING OF THE MODERN LAW SCHOOL AND THE

SECOND WAVE OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATIONDuring the second wave of clinical legal education - a period spanning fromthe 1960's through the late 1990's - clinical legal education solidified andexpanded its foothold in the academy. The factors that contributed to thistransformation included demands for social relevance in law school, thedevelopment of clinical teaching methodology, the emergence of externalfunding to start and expand clinical programs, and an increase in the numberof faculty capable of and interested in teaching clinical courses. Perhaps themost powerful of these factors was the zeitgeist of the 60's, which produced"student demands for relevance." In reflecting on the growth and direction ofclinical legal education, Professor Dean Hill Rivkin has noted: "It was the

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societal legacy of the sixties . . . that most shaped clinical legal education.The fervor of the sixties penetrated law schools quite passionately."4. 8HISTORY OF CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: INDIANPERSPECTIVEClinical legal education emerged out of recognition that while a traditionalacademic curriculum could teach legal principles, it took practical experience

to know how to apply those principles correctly and with confidence. Thelegal clinic concept was first discussed at the turn of the twentieth centuryby two professors as a variant of the medical clinic model. Russian professorAlexander I. Lyublinsky in 1901, quoting an article in a German journal, andAmerican professor William Rowe, in a 1917 article, each wrote about theconcept of a legal clinic. Both professors associated it with the medicalprofessions tradition of requiring medical students to train in functioningclinics ministering to real patients under the supervision of experiencedphysicians.

This call for a clinical component to legal education was not an attempt toreplicate the apprenticeship system that already existed in many countries,

in which students worked outside the law school under the supervision of anexperienced practitioner. Instead, it was a call for a new type of educationthat would offer students the opportunity to experience the realities of legalpractice and the context in which laws develop, within the structuredlaboratory of legal education.Although some legal clinics were operating in the United States in the earlyto mid-twentieth century, the clinical legal education concept did not takehold in U.S. law schools on a large scale until the 1960s. Law schools inRussia and Central and Eastern Europe seriously began to consider clinicallegal education in the 1990s. One reason for the development of clinical

legal education in the 1960s was the general societal focus at that time oncivil rights and an antipoverty agenda. Law students were demanding arelevant legal education, one that would give them the opportunity tolearn how to address the unmet legal needs of poor people in thecommunities in which they were studying law. The Ford Foundation saw thevalue of clinical legal education and funded clinics in their initial phasesthrough the Council on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility(CLEPR). CLEPR grants enabled legal clinics to flourish, and once lawfaculties, students, and administrators saw the virtues of clinical legaleducation, law schools began to fund them from their general budgets.Over the past three decades, law clinics in U.S. law schools have evolved

from an elective component within a handful of curricula into an integral partof legal education. Most U.S. law schools have clinics, clinical law professorsgenerally have some kind of long-term status within the law school, andstudents earn academic credit for their participation.Parallel to these developments, clinical law school programs have developedin South Africa, the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth countries.Countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa have also developed clinicalprograms designed to meet their societies dual needs for improved legalrepresentation of those who cannot afford to pay for legal services and formore practically oriented legal education. For example, in South Africa in1983, there were only two university legal aid clinics; by 1992, sixteen of the

twenty-one law schools had legal aid clinics. Meanwhile, in Central andEastern Europe and Russia, the clinical movement has spread from several

8 Agenda in First Meeting of the Budapest Universitys Child Rights Pilot Project at p. 11

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experimental programs in the mid-1990s to more than sixty law schools in2001.Clinical legal education is so well entrenched in some countries that thereare associations of clinical teachers which meet on a regular basis to discussmany of the issues this chapter raises. In the United States there is theclinical section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the

Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA), and the Society of American LawTeachers (SALT). In the United Kingdom there is the Clinical Legal EducationOrganization (CLEO), and in South Africa the Association of University LegalAid Institutions. In addition, the Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE)was started in 1996 to promote socially relevant legal education by formingan internationally active network for the exchange of information and ideason justice education. The inaugural GAJE international conference was held inIndia in December 1999, with the second conference scheduled forDecember 2001 in South Africa.Clinical Legal Education took off in the 1960s as a response to the social andpolitical movements of the time and the perceived irrelevance of traditional

legal education. It featured service to poor clients and lay advocatesinterested in attacking poverty and racism. It represented first and foremosta commitment to social justice and the law. But learning legal skills has alsobeen an important dimension of clinics, defined clinical education as alawyer-client experience under law school supervision for credit. As theclinical movement matured, skills training increasingly became the primaryemphasis. At the same time, many clinicians gained faculty status and wereaccepted into the academy. These developments have created a tensionbetween teaching skills, serving clients and remaining faithful to a vision ofsocial justice.

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LEGAL CLINCS AND CLINICAL PROGRAMMES

1. INTRODUCTIONClinics remained focused on poverty law issues and formulated increasinglysophisticated educational regimes to accompany live client representation.Balancing the twin missions of service and education, the clinical movementbecame an institutionalized component of legal education. Today, there islittle dispute about the merits of clinical legal education. By addressinghuman rights and social justice concerns, law clinics and NGOs may helpupgrade the quality of the legal profession in general. Dismay at theprofession's low ethical and professional standards drove many top law

graduates into teaching or business in the past. The clinics and expandingNGO opportunities can improve legal training and encourage high-calibergraduates to practice law.2. THE THEORY BEHIND CLINICAL COURSE

The theory behind clinical course is that although taking depositions isperhaps the most important and difficult task performed by civil litigators,lawyers typically receive little or no training before being required to take adeposition. And, unlike many civil litigation clinics that touch on discovery ata general level, the course focuses in detail on particular questioning skillsthat help a lawyer take effective depositions. For example, students learntechniques for eliciting helpful admissions from a witness, different ways to

undermine harmful evidence, and how to respond when a witness answers Idont know or I dont remember to an important question.In addition to specific questioning skills, the course also focuses on how toprepare to take a deposition effectively. Building on concepts taught inlawyering skills course, students discuss methods for identifying evidencethey hope to elicit during a deposition, and then focus on how to organize alist of potential evidence into a deposition outline. Students also reviewdocuments collected from clients and produced by other parties and learnhow to use various litigation support software to organize the documents andretrieve them during deposition preparation. Students in every major part ofthe lawsuit, including theory development, identification and selection of

plaintiffs for the class action, and formal discovery have weekly contact withskilled practitioners and community activists from whom they learn thesubstantive laws at issue, the procedural dimensions and strategic dynamics

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of complex litigation, and the evolving roles of lawyers working in the publicinterest.3. MISSION/OBJECTIVE OF THE CLINICS

The mission of the clinics is threefold:TO train law students in pragmatic lawyering skills by combining work onreal cases with classroom learning;

TO contribute in a significant and meaningful way to safety of people andthe quality of life in country; andTO develop a future generation of excellent lawyers.

Students work during the summer as full time law clerks, carrying outthe clinics work. Rather than serving as sole counsel on matters undertakenby the stude3nts, the clinic uses a borrowing model that allows students towork jointly with attorneys from other organizations on significant, oftengroundbreaking cases. This approach provides students the opportunity towork on more sophisticated, complex cases with exposure to some of thenations most important lawsuits and projects and allows the clinic toaccomplish more than it could on its own. In turn, the clinic supplements the

often meager resources of nonprofit environmental organizations is theirdisputes with better funded defendants. The clinic provides a uniqueopportunity to teach problem solving skills and strategic thinking. Becausethe clients and problems are real, students are exposed to the dynamic,uncertain nature of actual lawyering in the context of complicated matters.4. OBJECTIVES OF THE CLINICAL PROGRAM

The Clinical Program should offer students course credit for direct legalexperience with clients, practicing lawyers, and judges in a supervisedsetting. Participation in this program differs from paid legal work available tostudents, both in the level of supervision provided, as well as the

requirement of attendance at classes in conjunction with the placement.Instructors monitor the quality of the clinical experience and ensure that theclinics are integrated with the other parts of the law school curriculum.Clinics expose students to diverse legal assignments at each placement, witha level of responsibility not typically available to students. The educationalvalue of this program depends on appropriate organization and supervisionby law school faculty, individual instructors, and field supervisors.Clinical program should be designed to serve the followingobjectives:1. Develop professional skills such as problem solving, legal analysis and

research, factual investigation, written and oral advocacy, creative

problem solving, professionalism, and dispute resolution. By practicingunder supervision with real clients or judges, students learn to: (a)counsel and communicate effectively with clients, opposing counsel,and the court; (b) identify factual and legal issues through research,formulate relevant legal theories, and pursue appropriate strategies;(c) draft effective memoranda, pleadings, transactional documents,and correspondence; (d) comply with court rules and procedures; (e)confront and resolve ethical problems; (f) learn to organize andmanage their legal work and balance competing priorities; and (g)resolve disputes effectively.

2. Help students learn the workings of courts and legal organizations and

expose students to the legal profession. Through this exposure, theclinical program also gives students the opportunity to participate inactivities designed to improve the legal profession.

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3. Enhance students' learning of a particular area of law and providestudents real world experience that enables them to participatemore effectively in law school classes.

4. Offer students on-the-job training, particularly in research and writing,which complements their overall program of law school coursework.

5. Provide students with field experiences that support research projects.

6. Permit students to begin making contacts in the profession, enhancingtheir ability to obtain employment and find potential role models andmentors.

7. Reduce students' uncertainties about their ability to function aslawyers.

8. Provide students the opportunity to become aware of meaningfulcareer alternatives, particularly in public interest and governmentsettings.

9. Provide students the opportunity to assess the effectiveness of ourlegal processes firsthand, which in turn enhances their ability to offerrealistic and thoughtful criticism and suggestions for reform.

10. Stimulate scholarship about clinical legal education among facultymembers.

5. ESTABLISHING A LEGAL CLINIC5.1 Whose support do you need to start your legal clinic?Depending on the country in which you might establish the legal clinic, therewill be differing issues regarding the approvals necessary in order toestablish a legal clinic. In some places, approval of ministry officials isrequired; in most places, university support is necessary. Although it is oftenhelpful to have the support of the judiciary and practicing lawyers in yourcommunity, this is not always possible, at least at the inception of the clinic.

If the university or legal profession is not supportive, marshaling student andcommunity support will be key issues for success. Legal clinics frequentlybegin with the support of a few members of the faculty who are willing todonate time, enthusiastic students, and a base of clients in need.5.2 What are the financial issues to consider when starting aclinic?Clinical legal education is often more expensive than traditional legaleducation. While a traditional law professor may be able to teach 150students in one class section, the clinic student/teacher ratio is muchsmaller, often comprising less than 10 students per instructor, because ofthe time-intensive and individualized nature of clinical teaching methods.

Clinics also take up more physical space within the law school, requiringinterview space, conference and student work space, office space forprofessors, and space for computers and related technology.A key issue is how the clinical instructors will be paid. Sometimes they arenot paid at all and must teach in the clinics in addition to their regularteaching duties. In law schools, the regular teaching workload of clinicalteachers is adjusted in order to allow them to teach in the clinic. In others,clinical teachers are paid a supplemental salary from foundation grants.Other paid positions required by a clinic might include part-time practicinglawyers working as supervisors and an administrative assistant to run theclinic office. Sometimes students are hired to be part-time office managers.

Foundation grants may be available for some new clinics to cover a portionof these costs, but often a clinic must be able to show that it will besustainable into the future once the grant period terminates.

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5.3 What will be the subject matter of the clinic?When choosing the subject matter of a clinic, the following issues should betaken into consideration:

the availability of instructors to set up and teach in the new clinical lawprogram.

the areas of law in which the best teachers specialize.

the most common legal issues affecting the poor in the community. the kinds of cases that will allow students the greatest range of

practice .

the legal subjects that students been exposed to in their substantiveclasses

5.4 Who will teach in the clinic?Clinic teaching is different from academic law teaching in that it involvesknowledge about the practice of law, not just theory. Sometimes clinicteachers or supervisors are practitioners who have never taught before. Insuch situations, teacher training in the interactive methods and pedagogy of

clinical teaching are crucial to the effective operation of the clinic. On theother hand, clinic teachers may be professors who have never worked on areal case. Under such circumstances, the clinic instructor may be paired witha practitioner who agrees to work with the clinic. In any event, thebackground of the teacher who is chosen to teach in the clinic will greatlyinfluence the choice of the type of clinic and its subject matter.5.5 Putting it all togetherClinical legal education is a dynamic and interactive way of teaching lawstudents the methodology for good practice, the critical thinking required toanalyze all legal matters, the ethical issues essential to act professionally,and the spirit of public service needed to represent the underrepresented.

Barbarafrom the scenario at the outset of this chapterentered law schoolbelieving that she would practice in the private sector. She may still pursuethis path, but she will do so with much more confidence in her skill and herability to think creatively and critically. She knows that her exposure torepresenting the poor is something she will never forget. She suspects thatshe will use the sensitivity she developed in some way, even if it is as avolunteer member of the board of directors of an NGO.Anna always wanted to represent the underserved, and the clinic experiencehas confirmed that this is where she will be most satisfied in her work as alawyer. The clinic has made her realize she is capable of being an effective,competent lawyer. She is excited that she will soon be graduating and canbegin to use these skills as a practicing lawyer.6. WORK OF A LAW SCHOOL CLINICFour AssumptionsWe make four basic assumptions before setting out these ten steps,assuming that many readers may be starting a law school clinic for the firsttime in their region or country. They are the following:1. Definition of a clinic. I use the following definition of a law school

clinic, and failure to include one or more of the components of thisdefinition would radically affect the design and methods that follow. Afully operational clinic is made up of five key components:

i. The clinic is part of the law school curriculum, and it offersacademic credit for student participation in handling cases orprojects as well as in a seminar that is taught either before orduring the handling of cases or projects;

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This paper takes no position on the issue, recognizing that suchdecisions are as much a function of facts and remedies as the ideals ofthe designers of the clinic.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CLINICS

1. INTRODUCTIONAll clinical models does not necessarily have the same objectives, but thereare some things that all forms of clinical experience are potentially good at:

enabling students to understand experientially how the law works inpractice (especially as clinic problems will often cut acrossconventional law school subject boundaries).

enhancing knowledge and understanding of a particular area of law.

facilitating and empowering students to take a more active andreflective role in their learning.

providing a realistic context in which students can practice theirgeneral transferable and applied communication skills.

integrating professional (and perhaps personal) ethics and values intothe law .school curriculum.

integrating learning and assessment2. OBJECTS OF LIVE CLIENT CLINICS

provide students with 'on-the-job' training in a way that complementstheir overall programme of learning.

Provide students with direct experience of (as appropriate) the role ofadvice agencies, law centres and the legal profession in deliveringlegal services, and a range of 'access to justice' issues.

offera service to the community and provide a means of meetingunmet legal need

Where the clinic is part of the formal curriculum, these generic aims shouldbe translated into a set of learning objectives or formal outcomes against

which students can be assessed. Remember that effective learningobjectives and outcomes should:

speak to the learner

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be clear and specific

match the assessment requirements of the moduleLearning outcomes in particular are behavioural and performance basedstatements. They tend therefore to be written with a high degree ofspecificity. The development of outcomes statements can be a useful way ofidentifying key knowledge attributes and behaviours that are to be learned

and assessed. At the same time, however, concerns have been expressedabout the reductionist tendencies and behavioural assumptions of outcomes-based approaches, particularly in that they tend to emphasise product at theexpense of process and may be of limited value in clarifying learning andassessment of complex and high inference behaviours.If you choose to go down an outcomes path, outcome statements are bestconstructed by:1. Selecting a verbfor performing the task. This involves determining

whether it is the most appropriate verb to describe what students mustbe able to do (generic words like 'know' and 'understand' are bestavoided, unless you intend to incorporate a clear statement of thestandard to be achieved).

2. Identifying the objectof the learning3. Specifying the conditionsunder which or the context inwhich the task

is to be performed.Thus, for example, a learning outcome might be to critically evaluate (verb)your ability to give accurate advice (object) in a client interview (context).3. OTHER VALUABLE OBJECTS

to help students decide whether a career in practice, or a particulararea of practice, is for them.

to enhance students' self confidence, and in particular to reduce

uncertainty about their ability to work as a lawyer. to stimulate reflection and scholarship on (clinical) legal education

among participating, and perhaps even nonparticipating, faculty.4. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES OF CLINICS

The educational objectives of clinical legal education are often described asteaching lawyering skills (such as interviewing, counseling, and negotiation)and written and oral advocacy and analytical skills (such as problem solving,decision making, hypothesis formulation, and testing). These skills are oftenneglected in the traditional law school curriculum. The educational objectivescontribute to the overall goal of preparing law students to becomecompetent and ethical advocates. Clinical legal education achieves theseobjectives through the type of cases handled and the choice of curriculum,teaching methods, supervision techniques, and evaluation and feedbackprovided.4.1 Types of cases.The area of law or types of cases on which a clinic

chooses to focus will be influenced by a variety of factors, includingcommunity needs, expertise of the clinical teacher, laws about whatkind of cases students can handle, and the educational value of certaintypes of cases. For example, in a community facing environmentalthreats, the clinic might choose to work on environmental issues. In anarea where there is high unemployment, labor issues or social benefits

might be the subject matter of the clinic. If the background of theclinical teacher is in criminal law, the clinic may focus on criminal lawissues.

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Some clinics choose to work on very simple legal matters, so thatstudents can easily learn the law and start to handle the matterswithout substantial supervision. Other clinics choose lengthier, morecomplex legal matters, but fewer of them, to expose the students tomany legal skills during the course of one case.

4.2 Clinic curriculum - Most law faculties that have a legal clinic require

the clinic students to participate in a certain amount of classroom timeeach week in which they learn the practical skills involved in being alawyer. Classes usually focus on development of the following skills:

legal analysis

drafting of legal documents

interviewing

client counseling

case analysis

negotiation

examination of witnesses

oral advocacyThe clinic seminar generally focuses on those skills that the student willutilize in their work in the clinic, as well as in their legal practice aftergraduation.While all clinics focus on the substance of the law applicable to the subjectmatter of the clinic, each may do so in different ways. In a civil law clinic, forexample, students may be exposed to a variety of subject matter in theirclinic cases, such as family, disability, housing, and consumer matters. Theclinic instructor may choose not to devote time to substance in the weeklyseminar, but rather teach the law as it arises in each particular case.Some clinics incorporate materials on the substance of the law applicable to

the subject area of the clinic as part of the classroom component. Otherclinics require that the students complete some prerequisite courses beforethey can enroll in the clinic. For example, at the Jagiellonian UniversityFaculty of Law, students who want to enroll in its Human Rights Clinic arerequired to take a yearlong seminar on human rights and refugee law priorto participating in the clinic. Although not all students who take the seminarenroll in the clinic, those who do are already knowledgeable about refugeelaw and the European Convention on Human Rights.What is most important is that the individual instructor devise a classroomcomponent with opportunities to learn the basic skills and analytical thinking

necessary to provide quality legal services.

4.3 Methodology of clinical legal education teachingThe most fundamental characteristic of clinical legal education is themethodology of teaching. The teaching method requires students to confrontproblem situations very similar to those that lawyers confront in practice,handle such problems in the role of a lawyer, interact with others in attemptsto identify and solve the problems, and receive intensive critical review oftheir performances. Clinical legal education is primarily an interactivemethod of teaching, in which the students learn by doing. This learningprocess is sometimes described as by the following sequence: plan, do,

reflect.

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Clinical teachers use a variety of methodological approaches to stress thelawyering skills they see as fundamental. Most university-based law schoolclinics are structured around teaching techniques such as the following:

use of written materials

classroom discussions of case-specific fact patterns

games

brainstorming techniques to analyze the good and bad facts of thecase

classroom role-playing exercises based on real cases

use of videotaping to enable the students to watch others andthemselves perform particular skill

individual counseling and training of students by faculty andpractitioner supervisor(s)

provision of direct legal services to clients: advising, draftingdocuments for, and representing clients in court proceedings, includingadministrative hearings and/or trials

For example, interviewing is one of the most important skills to teachstudents in a legal clinic. It is a skill they will use in the clinic and throughouttheir careers, whatever their area of specialization. In addition to thetraditional lecture method, the teaching methodologies that might be utilizedto teach interviewing include the following:4.4 Use of written materials - Students may be given written materials

describing the goals of interviewing and the potential obstacles toeffective interviewing, to be read prior to coming to class.

4.5 Classroom discussion. In class, students might discuss the goals andobstacles, as well as techniques they can use to reach their goals. Useof a case-specific fact pattern will enable the students to understand

better how to prepare for an interview.4.6 Brainstorming. Rather than tell the students what they should have

learned about interviewing from the game described in the previousbox, the instructor could use the brainstorming technique instead,asking the students to say what they think are the goals ofinterviewing. The instructor could write all of the students responseson a flip chart or blackboard, then go through the information on thechart with the students and decide which are the most importantgoals. The instructor would add goals that had not been mentioned oremphasize those that had not been discussed sufficiently. The

students could also brainstorm obstacles to a good interview, such asclient fears about dealing with a lawyer, revealing secrets, or handlingthe cost of representation.

4.7 Role-playing.The instructor could distribute a hypothetical factpattern to half of the students, and give the other half a brief synopsisof the law that applies to that fact pattern. The students who receivedthe fact pattern play the client. The other students play the lawyer. Inturn, each student who is assigned to be the lawyer interviews astudent client in front of the class. The student is then evaluated orcritiqued on interviewing techniques by the instructor and otherstudents, including the student client. In this way, the students can

learn by doing, and when they are not doing, the other studentslearn by observing. The students also experience what it is like to be aclient, and how it feels to be interviewed.

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4.8 Videotape. One method of teaching lawyering skills is the use ofvideotaped role-playing of a client interview in the classroom. Aftershowing the video, instructors lead the students in critiquing a flawedinterview. They can also ask the students to demonstrate a better one,perhaps videotaping it so that it can be critiqued together with the firstvideo afterward. Finally, teachers can accomplish similar goals without

a video, simply asking students to simulate interviews in pairs andrelying on memory or notes to critique them afterward.

4.9 Small groups.The student who is preparing for a real client interviewcan tell the instructor or supervisor what questions he or she plans toask the client. The instructor might also role-play with the student, topractice how the interview will be conducted.

4.10 Real client interview.The instructor or supervisor can observe theinterview, taking notes, and then meet with the student after theinterview to analyze it and give feedback. For a description of otherteaching techniques that might be useful in a clinic setting.

5. SUPERVISION

One of the most important elements of clinical legal education is supervision.Sometimes the supervisor will be a professor, and sometimes the supervisorwill be a practicing lawyer who does not teach full-time. In either case, lawfaculties should be concerned about ensuring proper supervision of studentswho are representing real clients. The importance of supervision is that itensures that the student is working effectively, efficiently, and ethically onbehalf of a client. It gives the student and supervisor opportunities tointeract directly with each other to discuss the case, prepare for specifictasks, analyze student questions, and stimulate critical thinking. Asupervisors task is to help students to learn by doing, thereby acquiring the

knowledge and skills necessary to become capable and effective lawyers.Clinical law teachers often state that the student is practicing on mylicense, and therefore they view supervision as essential to their own ethicaland professional responsibility to the client. In many cases, laws or rules onstudent practice make this connection explicit. Sometimes the supervisionstyle is directive, which means that the clinician provides detailedinformation to students about what they should do on a case and is alwayspresent when the student performs any task. Other clinicians take anondirective approach, focusing instead on being available and teachingessential skills but allowing students to make many of their own decisions.Professor Peter Hoffman, in his article The Stages of the Clinical Supervisory

Relationship, maintains that students pass though several predictablestages while engaging in this process. The supervisors challenge is tomaximize the opportunities during this progression in order to make thestudents learning experience as efficient and beneficial as possible, but theform of supervision evolves from directive to nondirective as the studentmoves from one stage to another. Thus, in the beginning stage, thestudent has a working knowledge of the law but does not know how to applyit (similar to Barbara in the initial case study in this chapter). The clinicalteacher is didactic and directive and concerned with the studentsknowledge and performance of specific tasks, orientation to the supervisoryrelationship, and reduction of their anxiety about representing real clients.

The teacher will give instructions to the student, explain the rationale foreach instruction, and make decisions about particular courses of action.Barbara, the student described in the opening situation, would meet with her

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supervisor prior to the interview, alone or with Anna, to discuss the goals ofthe initial client interview, what questions to ask, how to ask the questions,and how to be an empathetic listener. In addition, they might role-play aportion of the interview. They would meet again after the interview todiscuss the facts of the case, possible ways of framing the case, and the lawthat may apply.

During the middle stage the student becomes more capable of makingdecisions about cases. The student knows how to ask for help. The approachto the case is more collaborative, with the student and teacher defining thelegal problem to be solved, developing procedures for solving the problem,evaluating the effectiveness of the solution and implementing it. Theteacher stimulates and guides the student, who begins to make his or herown decisions.In the final stage the student develops skills and an understanding of thelegal process and his or her responsibility (similar to Anna in the initial casestudy). The student is able to make decisions independently. The supervisormay disagree with the students decision, but as long as reasonable minds

might differ, the students decision will be respected. The supervisors role isthat of confirmer and guider; a safeguard against serious error.Whether directive or nondirective, the key is that the clinician is available toconsult with the student, observe the students interaction with clients andothers, and provide feedback and ask questions, all of which will help thestudents analyze the case. This supervision can take place in the classroom,in small groups, in one-on-one meetings, or in interactions with clients,witnesses, opposing counsel, or court. The task of the clinical instructor is tosupervise closely enough to provide guidance when the case requires and tomonitor the students work sufficiently to prevent harm to the clients

interest.6. STEPS IN THE CLINICAL SUPERVISORY PROCESS6.1 Planning.The faculty member discusses with the student how the

student is thinking about the case and the actions that the studentwants to take in the case.

6.2 Student performance.The student takes action in the case (forexample, interviews a client or conducts a hearing). This performanceis often observed by the supervisor. Most student practice rules requirethat a supervisor be present for court appearances.

6.3 Evaluation/critique.The supervisor and student review the actionstaken, assess those actions in light of the consequences that have

occurred, and identify what has been learned in the process.

7. EVALUATION AND FEEDBACKAnother key element of clinical legal education is that theinstructor/supervisor takes time to give feedback to the student oneverything that the student does in the clinic. The feedback is meant to beconstructive, to enable the student to understand what he or she did, whysomething different should have been done, the rationale for the differencein approach, and ideas on how to do it differently. The feedback is alwaystwo-way; the instructor/supervisor will listen to the students perspective andtry whenever possible to affirm the students thinking about the case.

During the evaluation and critique process, a students performance issubject to intensive and rigorous review. With the instructor/supervisor andother students, the student under review will analyze critically every step of

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the planning, decision making, and action. This can be done by replayingvideotapes or audiotapes of the performance, or by reviewing notes andmemoranda made during the performance or while engaged in a lawyeringactivity for an actual case. This type of review can be used to analyze anyexperience, such as a meeting with a client, a negotiation with anotherlawyer, a conference with a state official, a trial, or the closure of a case, in

order to draw from the experience the lessons learned that it can provide.Barbara, from the opening case study, would meet with her supervisor afterthe initial interview. Her supervisor would have information on the interviewfrom hearing or reading Barbaras self-assessment about it, from havingobserved it, or from watching a videotape of it. The supervisor wouldrespond to Barbaras self-assessment with specific comments. If the clinicianhad the opportunity to observe the interview live or on videotape, he couldgive Barbara specific examples of questions she asked, the clients answersand how Barbara responded or should have responded, facts that Barbarashould have elicited, or other feedback that would help Barbara developstronger interviewing skills.

With Anna, the clinician would discuss the ethical issues raised by theinterview, how Anna dealt with those issues during and after the interview,and what options are available to her in dealing with this potential client.Feedback is a critical part of supervision in that it is the technique thatenables students to learn from their mistakes, think in ways that may notcome naturally or be obvious to them, and develop their confidence andeffectiveness as a lawyer.

TYPES OF CLINIC

1. INTRODUCTIONOver the years, several clinical legal education models have emerged,reflecting a variety of settings and emphases. Clinic can take a great variety

of forms. The big question is whether you go for a simulated or (so-called)live client model - we look at the pros and cons of each.

To meet the demands of the Indian Constitution, and the Legal ServicesAuthorities Act, and the Bar council of India, an endeavor is made to ridgethe gap between the theory and practice and to provide a remedy to thesocial problems, by Universities, Law Colleges, Bar Associations, LegalService Authorities, Courts and NGO's who are setting up legal aid clinics.

These clinics may be classified as:-A. Simulated clinics

The term 'simulation clinic' is used to describe any learning environment thatsets out to simulate (some aspects of) the experience of live practice. I

suggest that a proper simulation clinic is more than 'just' a module usingskills-based teaching and learning. In particular, it tends to go beyond theuse of discrete exercises to involve a significant element of experiential and

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problem-based learning through the use of extensive case simulations. Theaim of a good simulation is to create realistic and adequately complexproblems through which students can get a feel of practice, both in terms ofdeveloping technical knowledge and skills and experiencing the valueconflict and uncertainty that often accompanies professional work.

The main strengths of simulation clinics are that they are generally simpler

to set up, rather less resource hungry and time intensive, certainly whencompared with in-house live client clinics, and, some would say, provide amore managed and perhaps predictable learning environment for students.B. LIVE CLIENT CLINICSIf you are looking to develop a live client approach then you need to decidewhat kind of clinic you want. There are three key sets of variables toconsider:

full practice or limited representation?

general advice and assistance or specialist/pro bono/public interestorientation?

in-house or externship?In answering each of these questions it is likely that a key determinant willbe the breadth of supervision and other resources that you have available.But it is not just a pragmatic decision. Consider carefully what your valuesand objectives are in setting up a clinic, and thendecide which model bestserves those objectives.C. IN-HOUSE OR EXTERNSHIPExternships, also rather confusingly called internships, are clinicalprogrammes designed to be delivered in conjunction with and often underthe supervision of an outside agency - usually a law centre or such like.Students work on real cases outside the law school with practitioners who

supervise their work, often based at NGOs. A professor from the law schoolprovides supervision to ensure that the students have a meaningfuleducational experience.Although each of these models has unique characteristics, they all sharecertain features, including the following:

use of interactive teaching methodology

focus on developing skills such as interviewing, counseling,negotiating, and oral advocacy

emphasis on ethical dimensions of legal practice

close supervision by a clinical instructor who has experience as a

practitioner extensive evaluation and feedback

work on real or simulated cases

a fostered spirit of public serviceD. UNIVERSITY-BASED OR IN-HOUSE CLINIC

The clinic is physically located at the law school. The law school offers two in-house clinics: the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and the Women'sEmployment Rights Clinic. Each of these clinics operates on school premises,with participating students performing the bulk of their work in the clinicoffices, under the supervision of full-time faculty.E. COMMUNITY-BASED CLINIC

The clinic is physically located within the community served.F. FIELD PLACEMENT CLINICS

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The law school offers a number of field placement clinics, supervised by lawschool faculty, where participating students work at outside firms,companies, agencies, or organizations.G. JUDICIAL EXTERNSHIP PROGRAMStudents work in selected courts under the supervision of a judge orresearch attorney.

H. LAW COLLEGE ANNEXED CLINICSClinics that provide an opportunity to law students to gain experience onvariety of problems which include labour matters, such as wrongfuldismissal, unemployment, insurance, compensation; Consumer Lawproblems, such as Hire purchase, defective goods, unscrupulous debtcollection; Housing problems, relating to ownership and rent control; Familyproblems, such as maintenance, succession, inheritance, woman's rights,children's rights, aspects of HIV and Aids etc.,

The college annexed law clinics have an advantage of an association with anuniversity and the supervision of the Faculty of the college, which gives an

opportunity to the students to practice in different areas of law including theemerging areas such as environmental raw, IPR, ADR and Cyber laws.Students also have an opportunity to consult experts of the various fields oflaw.2. COMMON FEATURES OF THE CLINICS

(a)use of interactive teaching methodology(b) focus on developing skills such as interviewing, counseling,

negotiating, and oral advocacy.(c) emphasis on ethical dimensions of legal practice.(d) close supervision by a clinical instructor who has experience as a

practitioner.(e) extensive evaluation and feedback.(f) Work on real or simulated cases.(g) a fostered spirit of public service.The highly respected and often-cited MacCrate Report of the American BarAssociation, Published in 1992, describes the skills and values of acompetent and responsible lawyer as developing along a continuum. Thiscontinuum begins prior to Law School, reaches its most formative andintensive stage during the legal education experience at the Law School, andcontinues throughout a lawyers professional career. Clinical legal educationcan make a significant contribution during this continuum, as it provides law

students with the necessary practical skills to become competent andconscientious lawyers from a societal perspective and from the experience ofother jurisdictions, legal clinics serve a second purpose by meeting the legalneeds of the poor and under represented particularly in a developing countrysuch as Nigeria where the standard of living is still very low.3. DEGREE OF REPRESENTATION

Just how much of the representation do you want your students to beinvolved in?

full representation - students normally manage the entiretransaction or piece of litigation, as they would in a law firm.

partial representation - students normally fulfill only part of thelawyering role, for example they give initial advice and representationbefore referring the case on to another agency, or they provide

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primarily case preparation and advocacy services (for example, for theFree Representation Unit).

a 'cause lawyering' orientation where the emphasis is as much oncampaigning or education as it is on 'conventional' legal representationof a class or individual.

the 'street law' model can be seen as a specialized extension of the

cause lawyering outlook, where law students are directly engaged inproviding 'rights' education or supporting projects in conflict resolutionor legislative reform for specific groups or communities. Street law waspioneered in the US and South Africa, and has expanded into a globalnetwork.

How far do you want to limit the kinds of cases that the clinic deals with? Ageneralist clinic may aim to replicate 'high street' practice by taking on awide range of matters (although many of these will not undertakeconveyancing or criminal representation, so as not to impact on the 'breadand butter' work of the local profession). Others will set out to specialize -this may be in either contentious or non-contentious work. Many Americanlaw schools have gone down the path of specialization, but usually within thesetting of a school that offers a number of clinic programmes.

BENEFITS OF THE CLINICS

1. TO STUDENTS1.1 Learning by Experience The main advantage of clinical education

is that, compared to traditional teaching methods, it involves adifferent approach to the learning of law: it encompasses experimentallearning, or "learning by doing". Instead of learning by means oftraditional lectures where students are often expected to be spongesreactively soaking up information students are much more proactiveparticipants in the learning process. It is their initiative whichdetermines the scope of the client's process; and they plan and workfor its solutions. Such students are much more likely to learn if theyrecognize that their success is determined by their own efforts ratherthan external factors e.g. how good the lecturer is, or what questionshave previously been asked in the examination.

In addition, if there is a clear purpose to what is being learned it is morelikely to have an effect? It is not so much what has been learned, but whatcan be done with what has been learned. That is, it is applying the

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knowledge that is the key, not the learning of it. Clinical education clearlygives opportunities for the knowledge to be applied, but it also goes beyondthis and calls for reflection and self examination. It gives students theopportunity to explain why they are taking certain actions and they are ableto discuss and reconsider their actions. Legal practitioners themselves rarelyhave the time or opportunity to do this.

Students, by contrast, can examine the legal and social issues in somedepth, and they can form the basis for looking at the lawyer's role and atlegal ethics within a practical context. The result is that what is learned is farmore likely to remain with the student than the knowledge crammed for anextremely artificial examination paper. The contrast between experientiallearning and the traditional information transmission model of legaleducation can be stark. Treating students as merely empty vessels intowhich legal information can be poured- apparently without end providesthem with only a small art of what they need in order to understand thenature and processes of law, and to operate

Philosophy of Clinics

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