Stanford Law School launches the Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic

Here is an interesting example of collaboration between a law firm and a law school to expand the clinical education in the law school curriculum.  Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP has committed $250,000 to establish the Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe Fellowship for a Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic at Stanford Law School.  The clinic, which is scheduled to launch in Fall 2007, will give students an opportunity to work with non-profit organizations and micro-businesses.  The students will act as general counsel to non-profits, doing transactional work, including corporate governance matters and corporate disclosures. 

The Nonprofit and General Counsel Clinic is one of ten clinics that operate as a single law firm – the Stanford Legal Clinic.  Among them is the well-known Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, which has enabled students to work on more than two dozen Supreme Court cases.  Other clinics do pro-bono work ranging from immigrants' rights to cyberlaw and environmental protection.   

What do you think of clinical education?  What kinds of clinics would you want to see at your law school?

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Teaching practical skills to students

Comments

[Susan Cartier Liebel]

I think clinical education should be mandatory. Failure to provide 'hands on' experience within the safety net of law school is tantamount to educational malpractice. I also believe there should be clinics on solo/small firm practice for where the majority of lawyers will end up. Start giving road maps to the road most travelled and it will make for happier lawyers.

[Anastasia]

I am reading "Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses" by L. Dee Fink right now. He suggests a "taxonomy of significan learning" with 6 categories:
1)Foundational Knowledge
2) Application
3) Integration
4) Human Dimension
5) Caring
6) Learning How to Learn
It seems to me that good clinics can satisfy all 6 dimensions.
I'll probably post more on this taxonomy in the future.

[Chuck Newton]

Legal clinics are find, but what law schools should support are true non-profit law firms. Especially in areas of consumer law, personal injury law, there is no reason why these public interest firms cannot be self-supporting and funded. They could actually be incubators of sorts, where students would migrate in to the firm during the early part of law school, get some financial assistance during the final year, and then take on some students full time for a year or two after graduation.

[Anastasia]

Chuck -
I think that could be a great way to meet the needs of various groups: the public, students, law schools. I guess, right now student legal services would be a comparable model, except they usually provide services just for the students and at least some are funded through student fees, I don't know about all of them.

Thanks for dropping by!