A report examining the state of clinical legal education in Ireland was launched on 16 October at NUI Galway. The report, entitled ‘Clinical Legal Education in Ireland: Progress and Potential’, was written by Larry Donnelly, Lecturer and Director of Clinical Legal Education at the School of Law in NUI Galway and commissioned by PILA. The launch was presided over by retired High Court Judge Brian McMahon.
The report includes a detailed focus on the current clinical legal education programmes in place in third level and professional law schools in Ireland, two programmes in operation in the UK as well as interviews with all levels of participants in the various programmes. It provides a number of key findings aimed at incorporating principles of public interest and justice to clinical legal education programmes and to raise awareness of clinical legal education and its benefits. The report calls on law schools to develop “live client” models of clinical education, to involve the school’s clinical director in the placing of students, to have greater regard for the practice experience of new academic staff and to incentivise current staff to pursue interests they may have regarding clinical legal education. It also makes recommendations outside of the academic sphere by emphasising the leadership potential of the Irish Clinical Legal Education Association (ICLEA) in expanding programmes, discouraging placement providers from remunerating student participants with the exception of expenses, and raising the possibility of awarding continuous professional development to legal practitioners involved in clinical legal education programmes. Ultimately, the report highlights the potential for clinical legal education to act as a catalyst for access to justice and a more engaged legal community.
Click here to read the report in full.