Understanding how a law clinic can contribute towards students’ development of professional responsibility

Abstract

There is rich international literature spanning over decades giving valuable insights into the educational benefits of Clinical Legal Education (CLE), however there is little in the way of empirical data evaluating the link between utilizing CLE to develop specific skills. This paper aims to discover the link between CLE as a learning methodology and the extent to which students become more aware of professional responsibility skills after a clinical experience. The study employed a phenomenographic methodology to evaluate the variations in student learning. The findings suggest that students believe they have developed a greater sense of awareness and learning of a variety of lawyering skills and a greater awareness of values and characteristics of a competent lawyer through the clinical experience.