Law Commons^™

Developing A Teacher Training Program For New Clinical Teachers, Wallace J. Mlyniec

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Where to Begin? Training New Teachers in the Art of Clinical Pedagogy, an article published in the Spring, 2012, issue of the Clinical Law Review, gave a full description of Georgetown’s course in clinical pedagogy. That article set forth some of the critical questions new teachers must ask and answer by describing the goals, content, and execution of the course.

This article describes hows, whens, and whys of the program, focusing on how our faculty, over a period of many years, created and revised the curriculum for the Pedagogy course. It also describes the choices we made as we …

Where To Begin? Training New Teachers In The Art Of Clinical Pedagogy, Wallace J. Mlyniec

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Legal educators and the legal academy have long made the mistaken assumption that new teachers have an intuitive grasp of teaching methodology based on their experiences as students, and that therefore they can begin and continue teaching throughout their careers without any understanding of teaching methodology. Clinical teachers in particular face unique pedagogical challenges relating to class goals, supervisory methods, feedback, and grading. These challenges are magnified by the existence of clients and by the need to engage with students regarding the ethics of legal practice and cultural difference.

This article attempts to set forth some of the critical questions …

Cultivating Justice For The Working Poor: Clinical Representation Of Unemployment Claimants, Colleen F. Shanahan

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The combination of current economic conditions and recent changes in the United States’ welfare system makes representation of unemployment insurance claimants by clinic students a timely learning opportunity. While unemployment insurance claimants often share similarities with student attorneys, they are unable to access justice as easily as student attorneys, and as a result, face the risk of severe poverty. Clinical representation of unemployment claimants is a rich opportunity for students to experience making a difference for a client, and to understand the issues of poverty and justice that these clients experience along the way. These cases reveal that larger lessons …

How Judicial Hostility Toward Environmental Claims And Intimidation Tactics By Lawyers Have Formed The Perfect Storm Against Environmental Clinics: What's The Big Deal About Students And Chickens Anyway?, Hope M. Babcock

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Since 1976, when the first environmental clinic was started at the University of Oregon’s law school, clinics have proliferated. Today, approximately one out of five law schools has an environmental clinic. With respect to clinics in general, the Association of American Law Schools Directory of Law Teachers lists “nearly 1400 full-time faculty teaching clinical courses.” Yet far from being an uncontroverted part of the academic landscape, clinics—particularly environmental clinics—have endured political blowback from challenging the environmentally destructive behavior of major economic interests. The effectiveness of environmental clinics is no greater than established environmental organizations—perhaps less effective given the length of …

Constructing A Clinic, Philip G. Schrag

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The author addresses some basic structural questions that the clinic's supervisor or supervisors might think about when beginning to design or renovate a program. These include the goals of the proposed clinic; the number and qualifications of its teaching and support staff; the desired relationships among staff members; the subject matter of the clinic's cases; the duration of the clinic, the amount of course credit that students should receive for taking it, and the caseload per student; the grading system; the relationships between the students and the tribunals or other fora in which they will be practicing; how the clinic …