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Taking the Next Steps in the Development of Irish Clinical Legal Education

Taking the Next Steps in the Development of Irish Clinical Legal Education. Lawrence Donnelly Lecturer & Director of Clinical Legal Education School of Law National University of Ireland, Galway larry.donnelly@nuigalway.ie Irish Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference

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Taking the Next Steps in the Development of Irish Clinical Legal Education

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  1. Taking the Next Steps in the Development of Irish Clinical Legal Education Lawrence Donnelly Lecturer & Director of Clinical Legal Education School of Law National University of Ireland, Galway larry.donnelly@nuigalway.ie Irish Association of Law Teachers Annual Conference Killiney, Co. Dublin – 17 November 2012

  2. Clinical Legal Education: A Global Phenomenon • came to prominence in the mid-twentieth century in the US • rapid advances in last two decades – the “global clinical movement” • supported in developing countries by major philanthropists • widely regarded as the single most important innovation in the pedagogy of legal education in the last hundred years • Western Europe: “the last holdout”

  3. Defining Clinical Legal Education • an oft-posed – and difficult to answer succinctly – question • skills training vis a vis clinical legal education • “live clinic” now regarded as the touchstone, but clinical legal education can encompass a number of different activities • my own tri-partite definition of optimal Irish clinical legal education

  4. Legal Education in Ireland - Past • emphasis on black letter law and legal theory • little diversity in means of assessing students • relatively small numbers of students, most of whom entered the professions • practical skills training left largely to the professional law schools

  5. Legal Education in Ireland - Present • significant expansion of number of students (undergraduate and postgraduate), more law schools, varied course offerings (interdisciplinary, law + language, etc.) • wide-ranging career paths for graduates • pedagogical innovation • but. . .a frightening vista (less opportunities in professions, cash-strapped third-level sector, Legal Services (Regulation) Bill 2011, future of law schools)

  6. Clinical Legal Education in Ireland (1) • despite difficult context and uncertain future, clinical legal education is gathering momentum here • two well-established programmes • a number of burgeoning programmes and exciting initiatives • next steps?

  7. Clinical Legal Education in Ireland (2) • Irish law schools late to the game, but this presents opportunities • pro-active involvement of the Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA) • need to ensure that Irish clinical legal education mirrors global successes • need for room to discuss and debate how it should develop here

  8. An Irish Clinical Legal Education Association (ICLEA?) • similar organisations exist in other jurisdictions (e.g., CLEA in US, CLEO in UK, ACCLE in Canada) • to advance clinical legal education in Ireland through different channels and by different means • roundtable meeting at UCC in October • PILA-funded, first-ever conference on Irish clinical legal education in April • “ICLEA” needs you!

  9. Why Prioritise Clinical Legal Education Now? • “It is the commitment to developing, testing, adapting, comprehending, and explaining a practical conception of justice in action, teaching law students that the privileged class of lawyers possess the responsibility to facilitate a just society. The law schools, the legal profession, and the judiciary all need to be confronted by models that continually examine what they do in the light of standards of practical justice.”

  10. Bibliography • Lawrence Donnelly, “Developing Irish Clinical Legal Education” in (Thomas Mohr and Jennifer Schweppe, Eds.), Thirty Years of Irish Legal Scholarship 359 (Round Hall, 2011). • Frank Bloch (Ed.), The Global Clinical Movement: Educating Lawyers for Social Justice (Oxford University Press, 2010). • Lawrence Donnelly, “Clinical Legal Education in Ireland: Some Transatlantic Musings,” 4 Phoenix Law Review 7 (2010). • Lawrence Donnelly and Marie-Luce Paris, “Legal Education in Ireland: A Paradigm Shift to the Practical?,” 11 German Law Journal 1067 (2010). • Richard Wilson, “Western Europe: Last Holdout in the Worldwide Acceptance of Clinical Legal Education,” 10 German Law Journal 823 (2009). • Lawrence Donnelly, “Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges and Opportunities,” (2008/2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education 56. • Richard Wilson, “Training for Justice: The Global Reach of Clinical Legal Education,” 22 Penn. State International Law Review 421 (2004). • David Barnhizer, “The University Ideal and Clinical Legal Education,” 35 New York Law School Law Review 87 (1990).

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