Cultivating Skills in Clinical Legal Education: Development of Practice Through Legitimate Peripheral Participation

• In Event: 63.036 - Workplace Learning in the Professions

Abstract

Law school clinic programs provide opportunities to gain practical skills while serving low-income individuals. This approach is associated in literature with numerous educational outcomes (Joy 2012; Maresh, 1997; Pipkin, 1976), but few are empirically demonstrated. Using a mixed methods approach, we empirically investigate what skills legal clinics promote, as well as what clinical experiences students associate with their skill building. Qualitative results point to a broad range of skills, including advocacy, legal writing, research, and communication, as well as client interfacing skills—which several students emphasized above all others. Survey analyses complement qualitative findings, such that regarding the areas in which clinic participants rated themselves as more skilled than their peers, four of the five were related to client interactions.

Authors

• Katie Shoemaker, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Amy P Fulton, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor