Law in Contemporary Society

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LawSchoolClincs 6 - 10 Apr 2010 - Main.NathanStopper
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  I grabbed this from the Law School Links thread - I think it's a particularly pertinent topic given that 1Ls are applying for clinics right now and that it deserves its own thread

The perils of state-funded public interest work?

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 I think that one of the issues that is so concerning about this is that law school clinics seem like a low hanging fruit. It is easier to have the legislature exert influence over a group of law students than it is to have it exert influence over a long established government agency. There will also likely be less outcry. Nonetheless, this is still quite a threat. If the legislature found a well-documented trend of lawsuits against a particular industry that seemed motivated by bias, or a disproportionate number of frivolous law suits filed by law school clinics, there may be grounds for action, but it doesn't seem as though this threshold has been met yet in Maryland.

-- DavidGoldin - 09 Apr 2010

Added:
>
>		@Sawaswat - I think the question here is whether or not academic freedom actually requires that a wide range of ideologies be represented. Once the government requires that the clinic (or any other academic offering, for that matter) represents a balance of ideologies, then it begins to dictate what the professor may or may not teach. If an environmental clinic is involved in a bunch of cases against polluters, is it then required to represent polluters in subsequent litigation? I really don't think we want the government to involve itself in dictating what can and cannot be taught in universities, or what cases a clinic may or may not litigate.

The most recent issue of the Columbia Magazine featured a great interview with provost emeritus Jonathan R. Cole about academic freedom that is very relevant to our conversation (you can read it here). One comment that struck me was:

"Academic freedom allows faculty members to determine what will be studied in the classroom, to organize the classroom as they see fit, to engage in conversations about ideas or experiments that might be radical, with the expectation that there will be a set of rigorous, conservative methods used to test the truth and value of those ideas."

One additional point: it makes sense to me that clinics will mainly be representing the small guys and not the Perdues of the world, since they can afford to pay lots of money to litigate cases instead of relying on pro bono work from clinics.

-- NathanStopper - 10 Apr 2010


Revision 6r6 - 10 Apr 2010 - 04:35:06 - NathanStopper
Revision 5r5 - 09 Apr 2010 - 19:48:39 - DavidGoldin
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