Drinking from a Firehose: Conversation Analysis of Consultations in a Brief Advice Clinic

This article concerns the important issues of access to justice and practical lawyering skills. Clients are representing themselves in family law matters in ever increasing numbers. Courts, bar groups, nonprofits and law schools have responded by offering “brief advice” clinics. How well these clinics operate can significantly influence the public’s access to justice. This article analyses actual consultations in a brief advice clinic relying upon transcriptions of recordings and using conversation analysis techniques. This analysis demonstrates that the matters brought to the clinic are not “simple” ones where legal representation is not needed. These clients are facing serious problems from domestic violence, to abandonment, to denial of visitation, and they have many questions and strong feelings about their circumstances. Fortunately, experienced attorneys who specialize in family law are able to analyze these matters and provide strategic, personalized counseling and relevant information. Unfortunately, these lawyers often rush to provide information they believe will be helpful before they fully understand the client’s situation and goals. These volunteer attorneys are motivated to share all they know, and sometimes flood these clients with information. The clients, in turn, strive to share their stories and rationales, even when the lawyers would prefer to review their papers and ask them yes/no questions. The result is that both attorneys and clients may feel they are drinking from a fire hose. The article carefully analyzes the successes and failures in these consultations and concludes by outlining best practices for interviewing and counseling in a brief advice clinic

Medical Paradigms for Counseling: Giving Clients Bad News

When lawyers must give clients bad news, they should draw upon the lessons that emerge from the world of medical counseling. Lawyers must be direct and candid about the state of affairs. They must fully describe how grim the situation appears nd explain why this is their opinion. They must enter into a dialogue in which the client\u27s questions are answered and the client\u27s feelings are respected and responded to. Lawyers must be self-aware in order to avoid re-sponding dysfunctionally to the client\u27s reactions. They should show empathy and communicate hope to the whole person who is the client. Only after delivering and processing bad news n this way can the lawyer counsel the client about choices and_ plans for the future

Access to Justice in Utah: Time for a Comprehensive Plan

This Article argues that an ongoing state planning process should be established to ensure all residents have access to justice in all forums. Many states have established such planning processes and structures that allow courts, bar associations, publicly funded staff programs, other charitable entities, and the branches of government to engage in coordinated design, assessment, and enhancement of legal services for the public. Although much good work is underway in Utah, the lack of coordination and candid assessment mean that many needy Utahns are not served and many services are not available. It is time for an honest study of the available resources, a search for a common mission, and a commitment to ongoing coordination and planning so all have access to justice

Listen Up: Conversation Analysis Shows How Law Students Fail-and Succeed-in a Brief Advice Clinic

People with important legal matters are often unable to afford representation. As a result, most parties with family law cases handle these cases themselves. Often, they rely upon brief advice clinics to help them do so. Law schools are required to provide pro bono opportunities for all law students. These pro bono opportunities can include volunteering at brief advice clinics together with volunteer attorneys. Is this a match made in heaven or a disaster waiting to happen? Pro bono law students vary in their professional demeanor and skills interacting with clients in a brief advice clinic. They have a strong desire to help and to display their knowledge, but this sometimes creates problems and results in the clients getting less than adequate services. The attorneys who volunteer also vary in their skills as supervisors. Some provide a flood of information for the student, covering much more than the student can absorb and the particular client will need to know. Others are able to simultaneously instruct the student about the law and process while giving the student scripts to convey information and advice to the clients. Finally, these clients are challenging to interview and counsel. They invariably raise additional questions, but do not always provide the context or reason for their questions. This study closely analyzes the student-client dialogues and the student-attorney dialogues to identify what works and what does not at a student-staffed pro se clinic

Professional Identity Formation Through Pro Bono Revealed Through Conversation Analysis

Law school is supposed to teach legal analysis and lawyering skills as well as mold law students’ professional identities. Pro bono work provides an opportunity for law students to use their legal knowledge and skills and to develop their identities as emerging legal professionals. As important as both pro bono work and identity formation are, there has been very little research regarding how pro bono contributes to students’ identity formation. This Article utilizes a data set of over forty student-client consultations at a pro bono brief advice project that have been recorded and transcribed. It uses conversation analysis to study the approaches students take in presenting themselves to clients. These students are volunteers, supervised by pro bono attorneys, and are not enrolled in a clinic or class designed to teach lawyering skills or to explore professional ethics. As a result, their presentations of themselves are largely untutored portraits. The Article mines this rich data set to understand not only the inclinations of the students but also how law schools might best guide and assist students to reflect upon and develop their professional identities in the context of their volunteering

Realistic Ionizing Fluxes for Young Stellar Populations from 0.05 to twice solar metallicity

We present a new grid of ionizing fluxes for O and Wolf-Rayet stars for use with evolutionary synthesis codes and single star H II region analyses. A total of 230 expanding, non-LTE, line-blanketed model atmospheres have been calculated for five metallicities (0.05, 0.2, 0.4, 1 and 2 solar) using the WM-basic code of Pauldrach et al. (2001) and the CMFGEN code of Hillier & Miller (1998). The stellar wind parameters are scaled with metallicity for both O and W-R stars. We incorporate the new models into Starburst99 (Leitherer et al. 1999) and compare the ionizing outputs with Schaerer & Vacca (1998) and Leitherer et al. (1999). The changes in the output ionizing fluxes are dramatic, particularly below 228 A. We also find lower fluxes in the He I continuum for Z > 0.4 solar and ages < 7 Myr because of the increased line blanketing. We test the accuracy of the new models by constructing photoionization models. We show that for the dwarf O star grid, He I 5876/H beta decreases between Z = 1 and twice solar in a similar manner to observations (e.g. Bresolin et al. 1999) due to the increased effect of line blanketing. We therefore suggest that a lowering of the upper mass limit at high abundances is not required to explain the observations. For the case of an instantaneous burst, we plot the softness parameter "eta prime" against the abundance indicator R_23. The new models are coincident with the data of Bresolin et al. (1999), particularly during the W-R phase, unlike previous models which over-predict the hardness of the ionizing radiation.Comment: 21 pages, 15 postscript colour figures, includes mn2e.cls. To be published in MNRAS. Revised version containing modifications to Tables 1-

Recognition of common object-based categories found in toddler’s everyday object naming contexts

Previously, we investigated the distribution of instances of early-learned object-based categories in toddler’s realistic everyday learning episodes; we found important differences in terms of frequency and variability (3D vs. 2D; real object vs. realistic toy vs. simple shape). Using a picture book task we tested 24-36 month olds’ recognition of these categories in four conditions: Realistic; Features (only parts of the photo visible); Silhouettes; and Geons (a shape caricature version made with only 3-4 parts and no color or texture). Results show similar recognition for all Realistic and Silhouette versions; Geons were lower than the first two; and Features had the lowest recognition rate. Critically, categories with the highest variability in our previous study were readily recognized by Features but difficult to recognize in Geon version. These results suggest that abstracting global shape is influenced by the specific trajectory of experienced exemplars.Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship PIIF-GA-2011-301155

Dairy Farm Business Summary: Northern New York 1989

A.E. Ext. 90-08The primary objective of the dairy farm business summary, DFBS, is to help farm managers improve the business and financial management of their farm through appropriate use of historical farm data and the application of modern farm business analysis techniques. In short, DFBS identifies the business and financial information farmers need and demonstrates how it should be used in identifying and evaluating strengths and weaknesses of the farm business

Dairy Farm Business Summary Southeastern New York 1984

A.E. Ext. 85-09This report is part of your Cooperative Extension Farm Business Management Program. Each year dairy farmers throughout New York State submit business records for summarization and analysis. In addition to this publication, each participating farmer receives an individual farm summary and analysis report for his or her business. The information in this publication is compiled by combining and averaging data submitted by the participating farmers from the region described at the bottom of this page. Program Objectives Primary objectives of the dairy farm business management program are to (1) assist farmers in developing and maintaining more complete farm business data for use in management decisions and (2) help farmers improve their management skills through appropriate use of farm record data and application of modern decision-making techniques. This report is prepared in workbook form for use in the systematic study of individual farm business performance. The need for a thorough dairy farm business examination and follow-up plan is greater than ever. The years immediately ahead will bring continued economic pressures on dairy farmers. We must continue to place emphasis on cost control and improvements in operating efficiency to maintain adequate farm incomes. Projecting cash flows, planning for future needs, and recognizing how those needs can be met will be required to survive the current dairy farm financial crisis. New Developments This year, several farm management agents and specialists are participating in a Dairy Farm Business Summary Pilot Program. Cooperative Extension Associations with appropriate microcomputers, have the capability to strengthen their dairy farm business analysis activities by calculating and printing the individual farm summary and analysis reports for immediate use by the agent and farmer, at any time. After the individual farm data is entered in the county office using the Micro DFBS computer program, it is sent to the Department of Agricultural Economics at Cornell University for additional review prior to transfer to a mainframe computer program for calculation of regional and state summaries. Dairy farmers participating in the milk diversion program are included in this report. Since there is a relatively small number from any one region, the data from these farms has not been summarized separately. A separate summary and analysis of milk diversion program farms will be included in the 1984 New York State Dairy Farm Business Summary