The Value of Clinics

January 9th, 2016 / By Deborah J. Merritt

I just returned from the AALS annual meeting, where I attended a session sponsored by the section on clinical education. The program, notably, was assigned to the “Bowery” conference room. For those not familiar with NY geography, the Bowery is a “city district known for cheap bars and derelicts.” It’s not clear why the Sheraton Midtown decided to name a conference room after that checkered locale.

We “derelicts” of legal education, however, assembled in our Bowery room to discuss the value of clinical education. We heard numerous thoughtful evaluations of clinics, including survey evidence about the value that students and employers place on this experience. We also listened to a particularly incisive presentation by Bob Kuehn on the costs of clinical education. As Bob has written in a forthcoming paper, clinical courses are not as expensive as many observers believe.

A particularly eloquent statement, however, came from a member of the audience. Every professional, he observed, develops lifelong values, attitudes, and habits of mind in their first professional workplace. Why wouldn’t law schools want to shape those values? Classroom discussion, Socratic questions, and exams go only so far. Don’t we want to shape our graduates as professionals? Why would we forego the chance to make those impressions?