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Abstract
This thesis explores the role of clinical legal education as a methodology for teaching law students to become more reflective, justice-focused lawyers. Specifically, it questions the significance of reflective skills in enabling law students to achieve their ethical duty to contribute to justice. The thesis includes an analysis of empirical research which measures the impact of a clinical component within an applied legal ethics course on students’ understandings of ethical issues. This empirical evidence reveals the ways in which a clinical component, where students interview real clients, can enrich students’ understandings of what constitutes ethical issues. It emphasises the importance of caring for clients as a facet of achieving justice. A clinical component changes students’ understandings of what constitutes ethical issues, from narrower ideas of ‘conflict of interest’ to broader understandings of the limitations of the legal system to provide solutions for people and the limitations of free legal services.
The thesis finds that developing a reflective lawyer means teaching a lawyer the importance of thinking about what they do, how they do it, and whether there are other ways of doing the work of a lawyer. It includes an analysis of both self in lawyering and the ability to think analytically about the law and the legal system and their role in creating social justice. Reflection is the key to students learning and understanding concepts of justice and injustice in a broad sense.
Having examined the central role of reflective skills in forming reflective and justice-focused lawyers, the thesis discusses the ways in which including a clinical component can also provide a means to build students’ confidence in their ability to complete their law studies, and also reinforce their commitment to using law as a tool to achieve justice. This can, in turn, build students’ mental health and connect them with their purpose for studying law.
The thesis finds, furthermore, that reflection is central as a means to interrogate identity and privilege in students. Identity in the form of ability/disability is one aspect of identity. The thesis finds specific means to teach this through a clinical methodology. It finds that teaching students about the medical versus the social model of understanding disability, and the centrality of people with disability in teaching students about disability, are fundamental to effective teaching of these issues. Through the lens of ability/disability, a range of facets of identity is examined. These are essential for future lawyers to reflect on in order to be effective lawyers. Within methods of legal education, clinical legal education is a particularly effective way of teaching students how to be reflective and justice-focused. It provides a path to transform legal education.