Multidisciplinary clinics – broadening the outlook of clinical learning

Abstract

Students exposed to the clinical legal education environment quickly acknowledge that clients’ presentation of their legal problems is much more complicated, subtle and multifaceted than they could ever have believed was possible. They regularly report to their clinical supervisors that their classroom experience has not adequately provided them with either the practical skills or legal knowledge that they need in order to deal confidently and competently with the many factors and complexities underlying clients’ legal problems. They report feelings of inadequacy in their dealings with issues that often form a deep-rooted subtext to clients’ legal problems. These issues may be a mixture of psychiatric, financial, social, educational and ethnic or language factors.

In recognition of this inadequacy reported by clinical students, this paper focuses on the necessity of developing multidisciplinary legal clinics - law students working in a clinic together with students from other disciplines, such as social work, financial counselling and psychology. Professionals across a wide range of fields have increasingly recognised the advantages of multidisciplinary practice in teaching, scholarship and service delivery to clients. A multidisciplinary approach to legal practice is becoming more relevant as legal systems change to encompass processes and procedures of justice delivery which deviate from the traditional adversarial paradigm.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the challenges of establishing and working in such a clinic.