We are gathering information about real-world practice courses that combine aspects of traditional in-house clinics or externships. Sometimes called “hybrids,” “external clinics,” or “practitioner-supervised clinics,” these models may involve a faculty member (either part-time or full-time) supervising law students in practices outside the law school, a faculty member and practitioners sharing student supervisory responsibilities, and different approaches to teaching the clinic seminar. We plan to use the information in the first instance in connection with a plenary session at the 2017 Midwestern Clinical Conference.

We are less concerned with nomenclature than with the design features of these “hybrid” courses and their advantages and disadvantages. The questions below describe a few models of which we are aware and solicit information about these and other models. We are interested in programs that fall between traditional in-house clinic and externship models.

For purposes of this survey, we adopt these definitions of traditional in-house clinics and externships:
  • A law clinic is “a course in which a significant part of the learning involves students assuming the role of a lawyer representing actual clients, or performing other lawyering roles, under the supervision of an attorney who is a member of the law school faculty.”
  • An externship is “a course in which a significant part of the learning relies on students either representing clients or performing other lawyering roles under the supervision of practicing lawyers or other qualified legal professionals who are not members of the law school faculty, in practices outside the law school.” 
See Association of American Law Schools – Section on Clinical Legal Education, Glossary for Experiential Education on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/abstract=3030887.

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* 1. Does your law school offer courses similar to any of the following? Check all that apply and use question 3 to describe and comment.

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* 2. Please describe any “hybrid” courses (not traditional in-house clinics or externships) at your school that are structured differently from those described in the previous question.

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* 3. We would welcome your comments and insights about the advantages and disadvantages of the structure of any such course. We are interested in the reasons these courses were designed as they were, the impact on client services, the quality of student learning, the role and interaction of faculty and practitioners, the ethical protocols involved, the faculty member’s obligations for scholarship and other teaching, and the financial aspects of the course. We welcome comments on these and any other aspects that seem relevant to you.

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* 4. (Optional) Can we contact you for further information?

Thank you!

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