Conference on Clinical Legal Education

May 18–22, 2002
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The Role of Clients in Transforming the Non-Clinical Curriculum: Integrating “Clients” Into the Classroom

Kim Diana Connolly, University of South Carolina
connolly@law.law.sc.edu
803/777-6880
Gabrielle Davis, University of Toledo
gdavis3@pop3.utoledo.edu
419/ 530-4236

Selected Methodologies

This document summarizes some methodologies for integrating clients (or the concept of clients) into non-clinical classes. As will be discussed during this concurrent session at the 2002 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, clinical and other approaches can be used to introduce clients and client issues into the non-clinical curriculum. Note that these approaches have relative strengths and weaknesses, and some may work better depending on the instructor, students and situation.

If this subject interests you, the Integration Committee of the AALS Clinical Section invites you to join us as we continue our work toward integrating clinical methods into other settings, and encouraging non-clinical colleagues to experiment with clinical methodology.

Methodologies presented below include: Classroom Presentations by Clinic Students; Clinical and Non-Clinical Faculty Teams; Integrated Transactional Practice Program; Simulation-Based Workshops and Seminars; Long-Term Experiential Programs; Live-Court or other Advocacy-in-Action Observations; Literature and/or Movies and Television; Actual Clients/Witnesses as Guest Speakers; and, Mock Interviews and Other Interactions.

1. Classroom Presentations by Clinic Students

Clinic students regularly handle cases involving issues that other students grapple with in their traditional, non-clinical courses. A housing case, for instance, might turn on whether the parties entered into a lease or a land installment contract. That issue might also be a timely subject in a first year Property class. Clinic students can put the “substance” into “substantive law” by presenting relevant clinic cases to students in non-clinical classes. Classroom presentations by clinic students not only bring “substantive law” to life, but they help students learn from each other and also get non-clinical students interested in clinics. Making presentations about a client issue generally without revealing client confidences also helps teach the clinical students in a practical setting about confidentiality and attorney-client relationship.

2. Clinical and Non-Clinical Faculty Teams

A law school might assimilate clinical teaching with substantive course subjects by adding clinical components to traditional, non-clinical courses. For instance, a student enrolled in a non-clinical Family Law course might earn an additional credit by handling a divorce, dissolution, or stepparent adoption under the supervision of a clinical professor. A student enrolled in a non-clinical Corporations course might earn an additional credit by incorporating a non-profit organization under the supervision of a clinical professor. Even if the assimilation did not rise to the level of actual client representation, including clinical faculty and a simulation component could add significantly to the learning experience. Finally, simply inviting faculty trained in clinical pedagogy to team-teach a non-clinical course often results in integration of clinical methodologies into that class.

3. Integrated Transactional Practice Program

Eleanor W. Myers describes the Integrated Transactional Practice (“ITP”) program at Temple University Law School in, Teaching Good and Teaching Well: Integrating Values with Theory and Practice, 47 J. Legal Educ. 401 (1997). ITP combines Trusts and Estates, Professional Responsibility, and transactional skills (interviewing, negotiating, counseling, and drafting) in an integrated two-semester sequence. ITP centers on six realistic client files involving one family that unfold, and which students develop, as the course progresses. Each client file includes all information (internal memoranda, client correspondence, and historical documents) that would be found in any real-life client file. Full-time faculty present substantive course material in a traditional classroom format; adjunct faculty teach the skills component in small group sections; and third-year students, hired as teaching assistants, play client roles. Students earn three credits for Trusts and Estates and two credits for Professional Responsibility for the sequence. Other schools and instructors have offered similar options.

4. Simulation-Based Workshops and Seminars

Samuel R. Gross describes his experience teaching a simulation-based evidence workshop in his article, Clinical Realism: Simulated Hearings Based on Actual Events in Students’ Lives, 40 J. Legal Educ. 321 (1990). Gross structures simulations around actual events in his students’ lives. After interviewing students at the beginning of the semester, Gross identifies an event that could have formed the basis of an issue in a plausible lawsuit. In class, each student plays the role of a witness in a simulated, videotaped hearing, while others in the class act as direct examiner, cross-examiner, judge and jurors. The whole class reviews the exercise after the simulation and then later, after viewing the videotape. The exercise gives students an opportunity to examine evidentiary issues from all litigation perspectives, including the experience of testifying as a witness in a realistic courtroom setting. Although Gross’s method is used in a clinical course, it might be adapted for use in a non-clinical setting. A similar approach is used by Professor Connolly in her Environmental Advocacy Seminar at the University of South Carolina, in which student teams represent simulated “clients” in a scaled-down version of an actual current environmental controversy in South Carolina. Student teams (usually including a non-law student affiliated with the University-wide School of the Environment) “represent” their client in an administrative hearing, a legislative hearing, and a litigation planning session, preparing documents and participating in mock hearings and sessions during the semester. Other professors report using former clinic situations as launching-pads for designing a simulation for later classroom use.

5. Long-Term Experiential Programs

James E. Moliterno describes his vision of a long-term experiential program, based in substantive law, which combines ethics, skills, and substantive law in, On the Future of Integration Between Skills and Ethics Teaching: Clinical Legal Education in the Year 2010, 46 J. Legal Educ. 67 (1996). Moliterno envisions developing a series of simulations involving specific work environments where substantive law issues play out in practice. Simulations might include: experiential in-house corporate counsel settings in a Corporations course; plaintiff’s personal injury and insurance defense offices in Torts or Products Liability; government agency settings in Administrative Law or Environmental Law; the Federal Reserve or the International Monetary Fund in International Finance Law; the United Nations in Public International Law; legal aid or state human services offices in a child welfare or juvenile law course; prosecutor and public defender offices in Criminal Law and Procedure. The simulations would be capped with a three or four semester skills-and-ethics course, combined with a coordinated variety of simulations that would be an integrated part of ten or more substantive law courses.

6. Live-Court or other Advocacy-in-Action Observations

Non-clinical faculty might consider giving students an out-of-class assignment that requires them to observe a live-court or other legal proceeding related to the non-clinical subject matter of the course. For instance, a Criminal Law instructor might require her students to observe an arraignment; a Constitutional Law instructor might require her students to view a sentencing hearing; a Property Law instructor might require her students to observe a housing court proceeding; a Family Law instructor might require her students to view a divorce hearing, an Administrative Law instructor might require her students to attend an ALJ proceeding or meeting of an administrative body, or a Legislation instructor might require her students to watch a legislative hearing or floor activity. The instructors might require their students to write a journal or short essay about their experience, paying particular attention to the effect of the substantive law upon the parties to the court or other legal proceeding.

7. Literature and/or Movies and Television

Non-clinical instructors might introduce literature and/or movie and television clips into their traditional courses to demonstrate how clients experience a particular aspect of the law or legal system under consideration. For instance, a Civil Procedure teacher might use a clip from the television show ER in which Dr. Corday undergoes a deposition; an Environmental Law instructor might use a clip from Erin Brokovitch to demonstrate how violations of environmental laws can effect whole communities; or a Constitutional Law professor might assign To Kill a Mockingbird to explore civil rights issues.

8. Actual Clients/Witnesses as Guest Speakers

Non-clinical faculty (or clinical faculty teaching non-clinical courses) might be encouraged to invite former clinic (or other) clients (or witnesses) to speak to their classes about relevant experiences with the legal system. This is likely to be more successful with certain types of clients, and issues of confidentiality and informed consent would need to be paid particular attention.

9. Mock Interviews and Other Interactions

In order to demonstrate the elements of a tort or particular crime, Torts and Criminal Law instructors might prepare in-class assignments in which students conduct mock interviews of clients played by students, colleagues, or others. Such criminal mock interviews and other sessions could be designed to elicit enough information to determine whether a viable claim or criminal charge exists. Similarly, Estate Planning instructors might design an in-class assignment in which students interview “prospective clients” and then draft an appropriate will or trust agreement to meet the “clients’” specific needs. A similar approach could be taken for other substantive classes. This could either be a one-shot appearance, or the same “clients” could appear multiple times throughout the semester as their “case” progressed in sequence with class coverage.