Legal Clinic - Benefits

Benefits

Ultimately, it has to be acknowledged, that praxis needs theory as a necessary tool, but also that theory becomes useless, if it is not close to, or if it is disconnected from, praxis. —Anton Edler von Gapp, Erörtörung der Begriffe (Olomouc, 1828)

Why should (a student) be forced to learn the law exclusively in the laborious and difficult manner? Must he be denied the privilege, which the students of medicine, chemistry and the other sciences enjoy, of learning at the outset of his study from treatises what other original investigators have discovered? Like the student of the different sciences, the law student must learn how to make original investigations for himself, and diagnose, so to speak, the principles of law from the cases in actual litigation. But no reason can be given why he must learn the whole science of the law by his own investigations in the undigested mass of raw material in the shape of adjudicated cases. No medical school can pretend to give a complete course of instruction at the present day, without introducing into its curriculum a comprehensive course of clinics. Nor does the professor of physics or chemistry teach these sciences exclusively by the use of the text-books and pictorial representations of the various experiments as was once the practice. But the instructors of these sciences have not discarded the treatise; they have only supplemented the use of the treatise with the resort to the laboratory and operating room.

—Steve Sheppard

, The history of Legal Education in the United States (2007)

• Learning by experience – Instead of learning by means of traditional lectures, the students are much more pro-active participants in the learning process – they are "learning by doing". Their initiative determines the scope of the client's problem, they plan and work for its solution. Such students are much more likely to learn if they recognise that their success is determined by their own efforts rather than external factors (e.g. how good the lecturer is, or what questions have previously been asked on the exam paper). The key is applying the knowledge, not just learning it. It also calls for reflection and self-examination. Legal practitioners themselves rarely have the time or opportunity to do this. Students, by contrast, can examine the legal and social issues in some depth, and they can form the basis for looking at the lawyer's role and at legal ethics within a practical context. The result is that what is learned is far more likely to remain with the student that the knowledge crammed for an extremely artificial examination paper.
• Acquisition of skills – Clinical education embraces a skills-based approach. This means paying as much attention to the processes associated with legal practice – e. g. the structure of a letter, the interview with the client, face to face negotiation – as to the legal content of the rules forming the background to the work done. The skills include:
  • Research skill
  • Communication skills
  • Interviewing
  • Counselling
  • Drafting
  • Negotiating
  • Problem solving
  • Interpersonal and organisational skills
• Student motivation and development – Students who work in a legal clinic are enthusiastic about their experience. They are self-motivated and often highly committed to the work. They are more responsible for what they do and how they do it. In theory, the teacher’s role becomes more facilitative – helping students discover solutions for themselves. According to Lewis many students share disenchantment with the classical law school. To an extent involvement in clinical work can help reduce such feelings, and can invigorate future study. It can cause students to think again about what law school offers and what direction their future career could take.
• Professional ethics and responsibility – The study of ethics and the professional responsibility and conduct of lawyers has been markedly absent from law schools in contrast to medical schools. However, there has been a growth of interest in this area in recent years, and it is a subject that, arguably, is better dealt with in a clinical context where the often abstract notions can be given a practical context.the crucible of the clinic allows moral issues to be debated more openly than within the confines of the traditional curriculum.
• Involvement with the local community – Not only University's students but also its staff can be cut off from the local community. A law clinic can help reduce this isolation by making the law school more relevant to that community. Most obviously, the most disadvantaged members of society may gain some means of redress. But in addition the young student may be faced with the problems of those from a different generation and background. This experience can add to their understanding of the position of others in society, and can increase their maturity and sense of responsibility.