Andragogical Basis of Clinical Legal Education, The
![handle is hein.journals/vanlr35 and id is 335 raw text is: The Andragogical Basis of
Clinical Legal Education
Frank S. Bloch*
I. INTRODUCTION
The addition of a clinical component to the traditional law
school curriculum has been proposed as an educational reform for
more than fifty years.1 During the past ten years, a period in which
many law schools have established clinical programs in earnest, the
debate over the value of such a reform has dominated the litera-
ture on legal education.2 This debate often has focused on whether
* Associate Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Education, Vanderbilt University
School of Law. B.A., 1966, Brandeis University; J.D., 1969, Columbia University; Ph. D.,
1978, Brandeis University.
1. Probably the most influential early article on the subject was Frank, Why Not a
Clinical Lawyer-School?, 81 U. PA. L. REV. 907 (1933) [hereinafter cited as Clinical Lawyer-
School]; see also Frank, What Constitutes a Good Legal Education?, 19 A.B.A. J. 723
(1933) (speech summarizing University of Pennsylvania Law Review article). For a response
to Judge (then Professor) Frank, see Gardner, Why Not a Clinical Lawyer-School?-Some
Reflections, 82 U. PA. L. REV. 785 (1934). Some legal clinics already were in operation in the
1920's and 1930's and were both supported and criticized. See, e.g., Bradway, The Begin-
ning of the Legal Clinic of the University of Southern California, 2 S. CAL. L. REV. 252
(1929); Bradway, Some Distinctive Features of a Legal Aid Clinic Course, 1 U. CH. L. REV.
469 (1934) [hereinafter cited as Distinctive Features]; David, The Clinical Lawyer-School:
The Clinic, 83 U. PA. L. REV. 1 (1934); Fuchs, The Educational Value of a Legal
Clinic-Some Doubts and Queries, 8 Am. L. SCH. REv. 857 (1937); Harris, The Educational
Value of a Legal Aid Clinic-A Reply, 8 Am. L. SCH. REV. 860 (1937). In addition, the
University of Denver operated a Legal Aid Dispensary as early as 1905. See Merson, Den-
ver Law Students in Court: The First Sixty-Five Years, in CLINICAL EDUCATION AND THE
LAW SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE 138 (U. of Chicago Law School Conference Series No. 20) (E.
Kitch ed. 1970) [hereinafter cited as LAW SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE].
2. The literature on clinical legal education is collected in part in two valuable bibliog-
raphies. G. GROSSMAN, CLINICAL LEGAL EDUCATION: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (Council
on Legal Education for Professional Responsibility 1974); Snyman, A Proposal for a Na-
tional Link-Up of the New Legal Services Corporation Law Offices and Law School
Clinical Training Programs, 30 J. LEGAL EDUC. 43, 56-66 (1979) (including some articles
relevant only to legal services). A review of recent volumes of the Journal of Legal Educa-
tion confirms this observation. See Holmes, Education for Competent Lawyering-Case
Method in a Functional Context, 76 COLUM. L. REV. 535, 536 n.3 (1976) (author suggests
reading every other article in the Journal of Legal Education for authority that there is no
shortage of solutions to the perceived failings of legal education). Two law review symposia
devoted largely to clinical legal education have been published in the past year. See Clinical
Legal Education and the Legal Profession, 29 CLEV. ST. L. REV. 345, 345-848 (1980); Sym-
posium, 40 MD. L. REV. 203, 203-347 (1981).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vanlr35&div=20&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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