scholarly journals Measuring Law Students’ Attitudes Towards and Experiences of Clinical Legal Education at The University of Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-100
Author(s):  
Claudia Man-yiu Tam
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Public Interest Law ◽  
Passive Learning ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
The University

As law schools in Hong Kong begin to integrate experiential learning into their educational models, clinical legal education (CLE) has symbiotically gained traction as an effective way for students to apply their legal knowledge in a skills-based and client-centered environment. This empirical study is the first of its kind to evaluate the impacts of CLE at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) over the past ten years, by analyzing the survey responses provided by 125 law students regarding their attitudes towards and experiences of CLE. The article traces the birth and development of CLE at HKU, turning first to its theoretical basis to make the case for its importance, and placing emphasis on the ability of CLE’s teaching-service pedagogy to alleviate the public interest law deficit and supplement passive learning as an engaging instructional method in the Hong Kong context. The survey results are then discussed in light of the doctrinal analysis to illustrate that clinic and non-clinic students alike are generally satisfied that HKU’s CLE program has achieved its skills, cognitive, and civic aims, and notably, that clinic students had a statistically significant higher intention to participate in pro bono work after graduation than non-clinic students or students engaged in volunteering.         

scholarly journals Improving Access to Justice Through Compulsory Student Work at University Law Clinics

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 327
Author(s):  
Dave Holness
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Criminal Matters ◽  
The University ◽  
Civil Justice System

In this paper an analysis is offered of compulsory so-called "live client" clinical legal education as part of the LLB as a means of improving access to justice for the indigent. This study first explores the factors which motivate which the establishment of a year’s compulsory community service during the LLB studies, and making clinical legal education compulsory. The motivation includes inducing law students and graduates to aid in the achievement of access to justice. The research then focuses on what the value of community service is in higher education generally. In the South African civil justice system many ordinary people cannot afford to use the courts because of the expense involved, or because they are ignorant of their rights.  This is particularly the case in civil as opposed to criminal matters, as legal aid is more frequently focused on criminal than on civil matters in this country. This paper will consider the role which senior law students may play in rendering pro bono work as part of clinical legal education in their LLB studies. In this regard particular focus will be made on the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the only university offering law studies in greater Durban. As for pro bono work by students during their LLB, consideration could be given to making clinical legal education a compulsory part of such students' curricula. Possible compulsory community service for law graduates (ie post-LLB) as envisaged in the proposed Legal Practice Bill falls beyond the ambit of this paper.

scholarly journals Disability Human Rights Clinics as a model for teaching Participatory International Human Rights Lawyering

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-52
Author(s):  
Yvette Maker ◽  
Jana Offergeld ◽  
Anna Arstein-Kerslake
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Scholarly Output ◽  
The University ◽  
New Generation

The Disability Human Rights Clinic (DHRC) was established at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne, in 2015.  Its supervisors and students conduct legislative and policy reform projects as well as strategic litigation. The DHRC was created by Anna Arstein-Kerslake to address a significant lack of resources in community-based organisations to undertake in-depth legal analysis. It uses an innovative model of clinical legal education to harness the skills of law students to fill that gap and to expose a new generation of lawyers to the emerging field of disability human rights law. In this article, we draw on our experiences running the DHRC to argue that the model it establishes can create significant scholarly output in the human rights field, direct engagement with the community, and rich doctrinal and experiential learning for students.

Co-creating with BAME students in legal education

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-91
Author(s):  
Fatmata Daramy ◽  
Morag Duffin ◽  
Ibrahim Ilyas ◽  
David Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Institutional Racism ◽  
Student Body ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Employer Engagement ◽  
The University

This article explores the challenges of addressing inequitable outcomes and experiences for BAME Law students. It considers the specific challenges BAME students face in entering a profession that is highly competitive, and which has traditionally lacked diversity. It details the approach that The University of Law, as a specialist legal educational institution, has taken to work and co-create with its student body to reduce these inequitable outcomes and experiences, as well as to improve a wider sense of belonging between students, their educational institution and the legal sector. It takes, as a case study, The University of Law's BAME Student Advocate scheme, which was established in the spring of 2020, and spotlights a few key projects delivered by the BAME Advocates: an employer engagement project, a Ramadan project and a project on raising awareness of institutional racism through the Stephen Lawrence case.

scholarly journals A comparative study into legal education and graduate employability skills in law students through pro bono law clinics

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Francina Cantatore ◽  
David McQuoid-Mason ◽  
Valeska Geldres-Weiss ◽  
Juan Carlos Guajardo-Puga
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
Graduate Employability ◽  
Pro Bono

The Disastrous First Fund-Raising Campaign in Legal Education: The Harvard Law School Centennial, 1914–1920

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-578
Author(s):  
Bruce A. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fund Raising ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Students ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
The Law ◽  
The University

Between 1915 and 1925, Harvard University conducted the first national public fund-raising campaign in higher education in the United States. At the same time, Harvard Law School attempted the first such effort in legal education. The law school organized its effort independently, in conjunction with its centennial in 1917. The university campaign succeeded magnificently by all accounts; the law school failed miserably. Though perfectly positioned for this new venture, Harvard Law School raised scarcely a quarter of its goal from merely 2 percent of its alumni. This essay presents the first account of this campaign and argues that its failure was rooted in longstanding cultural and professional objections that many of the school's alumni shared: law students and law schools neither need nor deserve benefactions, and such gifts worsen the overcrowding of the bar. Due to these objections, lethargy, apathy, and pessimism suffused the campaign. These factors weakened the leadership of the alumni association, the dean, and the president, leading to inept management, wasted time, and an unlikely strategy that was pursued ineffectively. All this doomed the campaign, particularly given the tragic interruptions of the dean's suicide and World War I, along with competition from the well-run campaigns for the University and for disaster relief due to the war.

Are ‘Digital Natives’ Equipped to Conquer the Legal Landscape?

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Bates
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Digital Natives ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
Precise Nature ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Teaching Research ◽  
The University

AbstractThere is no doubt that the ‘Google Generation’ or ‘Digital Natives’ are entering legal education with a very different set of skills than those who came before them. In this article Daniel Bates examines the precise nature of the skillset of those beginning their legal careers, and considers his experiences teaching research skills to law students at the University of Cambridge for over a decade. Furthermore, he considers how students' educational and cultural background in the areas of research and information literacy should inform the teaching of legal skills.

scholarly journals Legal clinic gender sensitive method for law students

Temida ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Nevena Petrusic ◽  
Slobodanka Konstantinovic-Vilic ◽  
Natalija Zunic
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Law Students ◽  
University Education ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Law Faculty ◽  
Gender Education ◽  
Practical Model ◽  
The University

In this paper, the authors discuss models of integrating gender issues, gender perspective and some gender aspects into the university education. In that context, the authors particularly focus on the concept of clinical legal education in legal clinics offering a specific practical model of teaching gender studies. Legal clinics provide for an innovative approach to gender education of prospective legal professional. The teaching method used in these legal clinics is aimed at raising students' awareness of gender issues and common gender-related biases. In the recent period, the Legal Clinic at the Law Faculty in Nis has achieved excellent results in the Clinical legal education program on the women's rights protection, which clearly proves that legal clinics have good prospects in general legal education.

scholarly journals Towards Designing a Validated Framework for Improved Clinical Legal Education: Empirical Research on Student and Alumni Feedback

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Stephan Van der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The Body ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Implementation Framework ◽  
The University

The pedagogical advantages of employing a Clinical Legal Education (“CLE”) teaching and learning strategy have been acclaimed in literature for almost a century and it continues to be ideally suited to cater to modern education expectations. As an agent for social change, CLE offers law students an effective gateway to participate in, and be influenced by, fundamental social justice problems while it also improves access to justice for the indigent. Though the clinical literature is replete on expected benefits for clinical law students, very little (if any) verifiable empirical research, independently sourced and evaluated, has been published to assess the veracity of these claims in support of CLE. After receiving a funding grant from the University of Stellenbosch Fund for Innovation and Research into Learning and Teaching, the University of Stellenbosch Law Clinic appointed an independent, external agency to conduct empirical research through an extensive measure and evaluation exercise. The aim of the project was to source, document and analyse robust empirical research data about the Faculty of Law’s CLE module, Practical Legal Training 471. The project involved the sourcing and collation of formal student evaluation feedback reports spanning a period of nine years. Additional alumni and current student data were gathered either by online questionnaire or by telephonic interview. The research was aimed at eliciting quantitative as well as qualitative responses. The purpose of this article is to describe the applicable methodology and aims of the research project, to unpack and discuss the resulting empirical data, and to draw certain conclusions based on the findings of this research about CLE’s impact on law students’ experience specifically relating to their practice-readiness and social justice sensitivities. It is suggested that this research will prove both interesting and useful to law teachers involved in relevant programmes at other higher education institutions. The data and evidence detailed herein will assist them to conduct their research and to make substantiated recommendations for the development of CLE programs on a broader national and international level. This research will also add to the body of knowledge on students and student learning and allow for recommendations regarding the creation of a broader implementation framework for improved CLE.

scholarly journals Masters of our Destiny – The Integration of law clinic into post graduate Masters provision

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 395
Author(s):  
Karen Clubb
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Training ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Teaching Methodology ◽  
Paper Briefly ◽  
Post Graduate ◽  
The University ◽  
Law Degree ◽  
Insight Into

<p>Increasingly students are looking to their undergraduate law degrees to do more than provide them with a qualification which acts a ‘stepping stone’ to further legal vocational training. The provision of law degrees across the sector includes both qualifying and non-qualifying degrees where the study of law is combined with other subjects, vocational and non-vocational. Not all students who obtain a qualifying law degree will continue to the vocational stage of training, but all degrees need to address the employability agenda, and law students in particular need to consider future career aspirations early on in their degree.</p><p>Clinical legal education as a teaching methodology has received considerable academic attention for the benefits student engagement can yield in enhancing the overall student learning experience This paper briefly reviews the benefits of undergraduate clinical legal education (CLE) and considers the benefits of developing this at post graduate level in a Masters in Law programme This paper considers the distinction between the two approaches and the need for a different approach to the provision of a law clinic module within a postgraduate law Masters programme, identifying a possible model of delivery.</p><p>The paper further presents some of the potential challenges in developing and maintaining this provision over time and attempts to offer some insight into how these have been considered in the development of a postgraduate law clinic module at the University of Derby.</p>

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