The word ‘clinical education’ has a deceptive impression. Many would think that it is something that is only done in the field of medicine. This is however, not far from the truth. Clinical training is one of the mainstays of medical education where students are often given opportunities to practice medicine on hands-on forums. Technically the words ‘clinical education’ are not restricted only to medicine or science-based-skills related education. Clinical education refers to programs or short courses which provide professionals-in-training with practical and skills-oriented instruction under the supervision of a skilled practitioner.
This short article focuses upon the possibility of clinical education in the domain of law whereby the law students will be afforded an opportunity to receive professional training while completing their legal education. In one sense it could be a smart alternative to a mandatory six month internship that is taken up after the student has completed his/her LLB degree and is ready to apply for a license to practice in the lower courts of the country.
As to the possibility of legal clinical education, the answer is affirmative. There exists now a vast field known as clinical legal education and in most developed countries legal education has some essential components relating to clinical training. Many a times these clinics work for free in public interest litigation.
How Clinical Legal Education Works
Clinical legal education is essentially a component of legal curricula. The concept is to have a law clinic in the law school or college which will operate as a teaching law office. The law clinic will be led by a faculty member who would at the same time be a practicing attorney. In this clinic, the existing law students will be engaged in positions like those of associates and interns in any actual law office. Here they would get an opportunity to work with real clients and face real problems of professional life. This setting is then used as a tool to learn the methods used in the practice of law and their relationship to the academic side of the law. This exercise in the law clinic gives students ample opportunity to see themselves, in the practice of law and reflect upon their skills to enhance them further.
Interestingly, the law clinics could be general in their scope or they could also be area specific. There are law clinics that only focus on some specific speciality of law. These specialities may be determined in accordance with various factors: the need in a particular area such as family law disputes or employment matters, or the expertise of the available clinical faculty. However, the law clinic may not accept any case. The prevalent criteria should be the educational value of the case, the law points involved in it, its appropriateness that whether students in the clinic will be able to handle the case or not, and of course the public services aspect of it.
Although when launching a Law Clinic, questions arise as to the arrival of a case. Whether there is any chance of actually receiving an opportunity to represent a client in Court. Once the case is accepted by the clinic, students are then assigned the case under the supervision of a skilled full-time lawyer cum faculty member. The student is expected to research thoroughly on the matter in issue either directly or substantially. Through various consultations both with the client and the faculty supervisor, the student is then engaged in real life case preparation.
Establishing Pakistan Law Clinic
Pakistan suffers from a large deficit of legal aid programmes. The scope and need for legal aid is far wider than reasonable conception, provided there are sufficient resources allocated to legal aid programmes, Building upon this, Pakistan College of Law has recently established its first full time legal aid clinic with the name of Pakistan Law Clinic. It is stated that the activities of the clinic will have a great impact on both the training of the law students and the legal as well as human rights of the poor, ultimately, creating a gateway for the poor to reach access to justice. Although Pakistan College of Law has an established status and academic position achieved through a series of globally known accomplishments of the College and its students, however, with the establishment of this Clinic, the College has taken an active step in the imparting education through a series of skills including training of law students. The intended result is to construct around major social issues such as women’s rights, labour rights, rights of the child and most importantly rights of the poor and vulnerable.
Unfortunately, legal education has been approached by instituions in Pakistan as a narrow disciplinary study. The establishment of Pakistan Law Clinic intends to rigorously train law students by exposing them to realistic issues of access to justice, which will encourage the law students to appraise themselves to the real issues in the legal field. The apparent lack of deeper thinking behind the purpose of legal education and training in Pakistan has resulted in a legal profession that unfortunately, does not have the incentives to undertake meaningful social change in a sustained fashion. The establishment of clinical programmes in law colleges can eradicate this issue by playing a vital role revamping lawyers as effective representatives of social change. This will equip students with the necessary vocational skills in order to achieve the desired social change.
Moreover, currently, there is little proximity between legal profession and legal academics in Pakistan. This proximity is highly relevant if legal education is to have any influence on legal practice. The clinical education may enhance this proximity by providing the required forum for interaction between students and legal practitioners. The students as aforementioned will be exposed to court hearings; steps involved in a civil/criminal proceedings and traditional legal practices in a court hearing.
Impact of Law Clinic on Legal Education
The importance of clinical legal education cannot be stressed enough. As early as in 1930s, the American legal education that was seeing a modernization of curricula and pedagogy focused its change around introducing more student contact with courts and their skills training in a legal clinic. It goes without saying that the practical clinical experience of preparing office memorandums and trial briefs trains for more effective written presentation of cases. The clinic work by all means, supplements the existing methods of legal education, and with them, draws the students nearer to the actualities of law practice. The ultimate question however is whether the law school shall attempt to bridge the gap existing between present day law school instruction and all that practical knowledge and actual experience which the young lawyer needs, to practice law effectively.
Although legal educators confess the inadequacy of present curricula to achieve full preparation for practice, they seek to avoid the objection by declaring that this preparation is now acquired in practice, and that practical experience should wait until after a student graduates and applies for his admittance to the Bar. Certainly no clinic at a law college could teach the art of practice in its entirety; but it must be understood that no law college purports to teach the whole of substantive law. The law college curriculum is designed to train students in general principles of substantive law, and one would confess educational inadequacy if it is assumed that general principles in the art and technique of practice cannot likewise be made the basis of law college instruction.
Furthermore, the training received at a law clinic attached to a law school bridges the gap a graduate would feel during the transitional period between graduating and interning or working full time in the legal arena. The law office is not an educational institution. Whether engaged in a profession or business, the lawyers in a law office are concerned with handling matters for clients for a financial reward. The few young lawyers who find work in large law offices may receive some post-law school training; but such training is for the benefit of the office. It is a sink or swim process, with a ready replacement at hand if the student lawyer fails to meet expectations. The function of the young lawyer in such an office is specialized, and he may never become well-rounded in his professional training. This contention furthers the ideology that law clinics are much needed in the Pakistani systems of legal education.
Future of Clinical Legal Education in Pakistan’s Legal Education System
Law clinics provide a forum to the law students where they can get out of their lecture halls and step into the real world of law. By representing real life clients students can begin to obtain a deeper understanding of how legal doctrines or theories operate in the legal field. This in turn, encourages them to polish their professional as well as legal skills. While representing a client and solving a legal dispute, students may come across the issues faced by the legal system where doctrines or theories ended up being misapplied or misfit. This would offer a unique perspective to a law student who still will be deeply attached to the theory and doctrine and yet will be able to see their flaws when applied. This ultimately will encourage the students to view the legal education in the interests of justice. The legal clinic as part of clinical legal education instructs law students about the actual functioning of the legal system thereby instilling in them the value and duty of public service.
It is highly desirable that the legal education reform in Pakistan be focused towards the insertion of clinical legal education in the law colleges in Pakistan as it would not only impart practical skills but also a sense of responsibilities of practical side of law. By assisting clients, dealing with their legal as well as social problems, the students may be motivated to have a positive and solution oriented perspective of law and legal system.
Conclusion
Finally, it is safe to say that law clinics are a much needed reform to basic legal education taught in classrooms in Pakistan. It plays a unique role in exposing students to social injustice in society. By providing assistance in the form of pro-bono cases, law students learn the importance of lawyers resolving clients’ legal problems. Students will also get an opportunity to hone their skills and enhance their CVs for their future employability in the job market. And last, but not the least is that students will also gain professional behaviour needed to have basic standi in courtrooms. They need to be reminded that ’justice’ itself is not something that emerges ipso facto from the existing legal system. It is felt that with law clinics, a major if not a lot of contribution can be made to bring change to the existing circumstances of Pakistan.