A Model for Interdisciplinary Clinical Education: Medical and Legal Professionals Learning and Working Together to Promote Public Health

Interdisciplinary training for professionals is becoming more common in higher education. Educators are beginning to understand the benefit of jointly training students in complex and interrelated skills that improve and complement the primary skills needed to succeed in a particular profession. Legal educators have recognized the value of encouraging flexible, collaborative thinkers who become better problem-solvers through interdisciplinary learning. Many of these are also coming to realize the importance of interdisciplinary training as a component of readiness for professional practice. For many law students, law school clinics are the first opportunity they have to learn legal skills and to engage in problem-solving for real clients. This experiential learning opportunity is often powerful and transformative, and can imprint skills, values, and practice habits that stay with students throughout their professional careers. Incorporating interdisciplinary learning opportunities into the law school clinic experience affords opportunities for co-learning, holistic problem-solving, and community building during young professionals’ formative years. Learning to be a lawyer in the context of an interdisciplinary law school clinic combines the experience of working with real clients and academic inquiry into the nature of the lawyering process itself and the ethical and fundamental practices of other professionals. Clinics serve as incubators for professional development. They provide opportunities for reflection on the practice of law, professionalism, social justice, and countless skills that help ready students for the profession of law. The HeLP Legal Services Clinic at Georgia State University College of Law aims to create an interdisciplinary dimension to such practice and inquiry, and thus influence the way in which the professional students from the law and medicine disciplines work together as learners and future professionals

Measuring the Impact of Social Justice Teaching: Research Design and Oversight

Research and the production of scholarship is a fundamental part of being a legal academic. Such endeavors identify issues and answer questions that further understanding of the law, the profession, and the justice system itself. Research and scholarship in the legal academy traditionally meant the study of law and legal theory. A growing body of legal academics are focusing research and scholarship on legal education itself, as well as research that measures the impact of legal education on the development of students’ practical and professional skills.  The impact of clinical legal education is an important aspect of this scholarship.[1] This article explores how thoughtfully designed research projects can measure the impact of social justice teaching, using examples and experience gleaned from the evaluation and research component of a medical legal partnership[2] and its affiliated law school clinic. The article examines principles of good research design, the art of formulating research questions, and the potential uses for resulting data. It also identifies critical steps and issues to consider when developing a research project.       

Interprofessional Medical–Legal Education of Medical Students: Assessing the Benefits for Addressing Social Determinants of Health

Screening tools exist to help identify patient issues related to social determinants of health (SDH), but solutions to many of these problems remain elusive to health care providers as they require legal solutions. Interprofessional medical-legal education is essential to optimizing health care delivery

Measuring the Impact of Social Justice Teaching: Research Design and Oversight

Research and the production of scholarship is a fundamental part of being a legal academic. Such endeavors identify issues and answer questions that further understanding of the law, the profession, and the justice system itself. Research and scholarship in the legal academy traditionally meant the study of law and legal theory. A growing body of legal academics are focusing research and scholarship on legal education itself, as well as research that measures the impact of legal education on the development of students\u27 practical and professional skills. The impact of clinical legal education is an important aspect of this scholarship. This article explores how thoughtfully designed research projects can measure the impact of social justice teaching, using examples and experience gleaned from the evaluation and research component of a medical legal partnership and its affiliated law school clinic. The article examines principles of good research design, the art of formulating research questions, and the potential uses for resulting data. It also identifies critical steps and issues to consider when developing a research project