One of the key goals of the PILA project is to promote public interest law as part of legal education at third level for students and professional legal education. PILA believes - backed by international experience - that strong clinical legal education programmes are a positive and practically useful influence in legal education. Starting with this issue, the Bulletin will profile existing and planned clinical legal education programmes across Ireland. This issue, we start with the excellent NUI Galway programme established by PILA manager Larry Donnelly!
Larry Donnelly pioneered the NUI Galway clinical legal education programme in 2007, based on his own experience of legal education at Boston's Suffolk University Law School. His aim was to give students the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of the acute difficulties encountered by both groups and individuals in Irish society, so that in their future professional lives, they could endeavour to promote law reform in the name of those at the margins of society. The programme helps students to really bridge the gap between legal study and the "real world", and is well-regarded both here in Ireland and internationally.
Final year students in the NUI Galway Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) degree apply for the one-semester programme, and are then selected and matched with government agencies, quasi- and non-governmental organisations and with practising lawyers throughout Ireland. Students work on a part-time basis at their placement organisation instead of taking an additional subject. After the 10 week placement, students write a reflective essay and participate in an interactive seminar in which they share their experiences while on placement. Programme participants are assessed on their performance and receive academic credit toward their degree for their efforts.
The unique element of the programme is that it gets students out of the university setting (and often outside of Galway) and into the everyday application of law. It is different from other, faculty-based programmes, such as moot courts and simulations, because the student is forced to deal with a legal problem whose solution will affect real people. The programme also requires the academic administering the programme to be practically-focused - in order to locate and secure placement opportunities and to ensure that participants are well-matched with organisations and law firms!
Former BCL student Darina Flynn BL says "I participated in NUI Galway's inaugural Clinical Placement programme in 2007, working alongside another law student with the Equality Authority in Dublin. It was a fantastic experience that offered a unique opportunity to develop substantive legal skills as well as gain valuable insight into the working world of law. Our supervisor, Eilis Barry BL, offered great advice and support whilst encouraging us to take an active and independent role in the work that we carried out." Darina is a recently qualified barrister who also has an LLM from the University of Cambridge, and she practices in Dublin.
Former BCL student Kathryn O'Shea says, "I was lucky enough to partake in a clinical placement programme in NUI Galway during my final semester of legal studies in 2007. I was placed along with another student from the B.C.L class to work in the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland working directly with their Legal Co-ordinator, Kate Mulkerrins. This experience was a fantastic opportunity and I gained many important insights- particularly at a policy level as the team were involved in preparing position documents for the children's rights referendum. I found this learning experience particularly useful and the support of our supervisor and team at the RCNI was excellent." Kathryn now works at the Dublin office of Ashoka, an international social entrepreneur support organisation.
Mr Donnelly says "A university graduate with a solely theoretical understanding of law or any other similarly vocational academic discipline is ill-equipped to enter into that profession. That's where I think clinical programmes play a vital role. While there was some initial scepticism about clinical legal education in an Irish context, due in large part to the historical divide between the legal academy and the professional schools, the growing interest in and exciting plans for clinical programmes in other Irish law schools are indicative of its now widespread acceptance. As a clinician, the most inspiring part of my work has been hearing from so many students whose placements instilled in them an understanding of how law can be used in the public interest. I hope that the other existing and planned clinical legal education programmes will similarly demonstrate to law students that they can use their professional skills and talent to benefit those individuals and groups on the margins of Irish society."
PILA is passionate about the continued development and establishment of clinical legal education programmes across Ireland - and believes that these programmes provide legal training that is innovative, practical and extremely useful for law students.