Legal clinic celebrates, encourages innovation

The UT College of Law Legal Clinic will be holding a 60th anniversary celebration and symposium this Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 15. The symposium, entitled “Looking Forward — the Next 60 Years of Clinical Legal Education,” will focus on understanding and improving legal education.

“This is a time of flux in legal education,” Benjamin Barton, director of the legal clinic, said. “We’re rethinking the way we’re running law school.”

According to Barton, legal clinics give law students the chance to practice before graduation, which benefits both the students and the community. The students help represent people who cannot afford lawyers.

“All the work is free, and the students do very high-quality, strong work. It’s a tremendous benefit to the community,” he said.

While clinical programs are an asset to any law school, Barton said there is always room for improvement.

“It’s a pressing question,” he said. “Are we doing enough to teach people how to practice law when they graduate? Clinical programs are really helpful in that regard.”

One of the symposium’s panels, “Expanding Clinical Experiences,” will focus on such improvements in legal education. According to Carl Pierce, professor of law and symposium panelist, the panel will explore new ideas for clinical law programs and how such programs can serve the community.

“We want to get students actively involved in efforts to improve the law and administration of justice,” he said.

Last semester, Pierce led a seminar in which the class acted as members of a Supreme Court task force studying the issue of self-represented litigants.

“We have a right to represent ourselves, but the system is based on everyone having a lawyer,” Pierce said. “A lot of people can’t afford a lawyer, and they’re appearing in court in larger numbers. The question is, are they actually getting a fair trial?”

The students were able to participate in task force field research projects and gain a different type of experience.

“We want law students to participate in law reform initiatives,” Pierce said. “The idea is that instead of just reading, they go out into the real world. If there are no questions raised, nothing is gained.”

Paula Williams, associate professor of law and panelist on “Clinics and the Community,” said she hopes people attending the symposium will have ideas to offer for discussion as well, since, according to her, the university is heavily involved within the community.

Williams plans to speak on UT student experiences within the legal clinic.

Students in the business law clinic had the chance to participate in meetings between local business leaders and members of Knoxville’s Empowerment Zone last year.

“It was very eye-opening for the students to go to this meeting located in east Knoxville in an African-American community,” Williams said. “The business leaders were mostly white while the empowerment zone members were African-American. The students were able to see difficulties in communication between the two groups. They saw the divide between them.”

All UT students are welcome to come to any of the panels. More information on the panels and the symposium can be found on the Internet at http://www.law.utk.edu/news/Clinic60th.htm