About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

26 Clinical L. Rev. 357 (2019-2020)
Weaving Threads of Clinical Legal Scholarship into the First-Year Curriculum: How the Clinical Law Movement Is Strengthening the Fabric of Legal Education

handle is hein.journals/clinic26 and id is 365 raw text is: WEAVING THREADS OF CLINICAL LEGAL SCHOLARSHIP INTO THE FIRST-YEAR CURRICULUM: HOW THE CLINICAL LAW MOVEMENT IS STRENGTHENING THE FABRIC OF LEGAL EDUCATION KIMBERLY E. O'LEARY* I. INTRODUCTION In the inaugural volume of the Clinical Law Review (CLR), the editors began with an essay inviting clinicians to practice what we preach . . . by engaging in the processes of reflection, critique, and future planning.' In this, the 25th Anniversary edition of the CLR, the current editors invite us to engage in these processes again. In this essay, I pick up seven threads of clinical legal scholarship, and assert that the time has come to weave those threads into the very fabric of first-year, doctrinal courses in law school. This argument is not a new one: Margaret M. Russell, writing in the first volume of the CLR, made a compelling' case to broaden the first-year curriculum to in- clude perspectives from clinicians and other law school academics.2 Addressing her essay to fellow law teachers, especially other non- clinicians, she described methods she used to break away from the traditional doctrinal approach.3 Russell described an environment ripe for such cross-fertilization: increased attention to issues of diver- sity in legal analysis and practice, the weakening of search for a cohe- sive canon of how to approach the law, and the availability of experiential methodologies and clinical collaborators.4 I want to ex- pand her idea to embrace a different way of approaching first-year * Professor of Law, WMU-Cooley Law School. This essay is dedicated to Associate Dean Christine Church, who urged me to contribute my clinical teaching skills in an inte- grated way in the first-year curriculum, and who encouraged me to begin sincere conversa- tions with faculty colleagues about how to improve student learning. The author thanks Professor Jeanette Buttrey, who accomplishes more in a week than most of us accomplish in a semester; Professor Mable Martin-Scott and Professor David Finnegan, for willingly engaging, teaching, and learning; and Joni Larson, for encouraging a deep dive into learn- ing theory and reminding me that student learning is the main focus of a law school. Thank you all for always helping me get it right. 1 Stephen Ellmann, Isabelle R. Gunning & Randy Hertz, Why Not a Clinical Lawyer- Journal?, 1 CLIN. L REV. 1 (1994). 2 Margaret M. Russell, Beginner's Resolve: An Essay on Collaboration, Clinical Inno- vation, and the First-Year Core Curriculum, 1 CLIN. L. REV. 135 (1994). 3 Id. at 138. 4 Supra note 2. 357

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most