Conference on Clinical Legal Education

May 6–10, 2000
Albuquerque, New Mexico

We live in a world in which cultures overlap, intersect, blend and clash. We are engaged in a profession that possesses its own cultural norms and practices. We, ourselves, are holders and transmitters of culture. The teaching and the practice of law raise issues of culture on many levels. The culture of law and the culture of our institutions impact us. Our own culture, the culture of our students and our clients influence our work. Moreover, the culture of law and the culture of our institutions impact us. Yet, how we manage cultural issues can be largely invisible to many of us. This Conference is designed to bring cultural issues to the forefront of our consciousness as we consider the impact culture has on how we teach, supervise and interact with our students; in short, the many ways we interact with the diverse clients and communities we serve as clinicians. This explicit introduction of culture to our conversations and discussions about our work raises issues we must be prepared to address. For instance, how do we view culture and its relationship to lawyering? What skills and values must we impart to our students to prepare them to practice amid a multiplicity of cultures? How do we as clinicians acquire competency in this area?

Both in the broad context of international relations, as well as in the individual context of the lawyer-client relationship, cultural differences can enrich or confuse relations. Cultural differences can be viewed as barriers and obstacles to be avoided or viewed as easily bridged and therefore non-existent. Both views lead to the omission of culture from the conversation on improving the practice of law. The Conference plenaries are designed to focus our attention on consideration of culture in relation to teaching, supervision and lawyering in a variety of ways. The first plenary is intended to stimulate internal reflection on what culture encompasses to inform and aid our dialogue as well as to broaden and challenge our perspective of culture. The second plenary demonstrates the impact culture, both professional culture and culture of the individual, has on voice, word, and story - the lawyer's most critical communicative tools. Plenary three will raise the international aspects of culture not only in the practice of law, but also in regard to the approach to culture in clinics outside the United States by a First Nations clinician. The final two plenaries address cultural issues as they arise in the context of clinical practice, supervision and the unique culture we have developed among ourselves as clinicians.

The plenaries will be complemented by concurrent sessions that are designed to provide deeper consideration of issues raised in the plenary sessions. These sessions address the impact of culture on clinical practice and provide practical approaches to help make culture more visible in order to improve our teaching, the supervision of students and lawyering for clients. Concurrent sessions will broaden the discussion with such topics as the culture of our institutions, race and culture, culture and language, critical community lawyering and cross-cultural communications. Small groups will be instrumental to continued discussion on the topics and issues raised in the plenaries, as well as to consider and share approaches to the cultural issues faced by students, supervisors, and clients.