Clinique ToGo: Changing Legal Practice in One African Nation in Six Days

With honour and humility I accepted an invitation from the U.S. State Department to participate as a technical advisor in a weeklong rule of law2 seminar in Togo, with attorneys, judges, law professors and students. My mission was to explain various models for delivery of free legal services and assist in developing proposals for establishing a bar association pro bono3 programme in conjunction with the nation’s principal law school.When the State Department first invited me to participate in its speaker specialist programme, I admit that for me it was all about having a glimpse of an otherwise inaccessible part of the world and the attendant cultural, professional and intellectual exchange. Only after my initial programme visit did I become familiar with the concept of “rule of law” (l’état de droit), as well as the related concepts of access to justice and the law and development movement. This was to be the focus of my journey to Togo

Beyond the Fakultas\u27 Four Walls: Linking Education, Practice, and the Legal Profession

More than fifty years after the first post-colonial Southeast Asian regional conference on legal education, commentators and educators do not necessarily agree on the appropriate curricular balance between theory, doctrine, and practice, or what role the government should play in directing the orientation of legal studies and careers in Indonesia’s law schools. The author argues in favor of legal education that is rich in experiential learning and integrates the involvement of practitioners and doctrinal faculty. This objective may be a relatively new reality in Indonesia, but also one that needs revitalization in other Southeast Asian nations and beyond. This article lays out the contemporary debate in Indonesia over the composition and direction of legal education, asserting that consistent with best practices, learning practical skills in analysis, advocacy, and professionalism — including clinical methods — should be integrated into the program. Moreover, Indonesia’s recently adopted Legal Aid Law presents an opportunity for students and staff at publicly funded law schools to become more actively involved in delivering legal assistance to the indigent. If faculties are not sufficiently resourced, they should more effectively employ lawyers and judges in an adjunct capacity, particularly in a practicum or other co-teaching model. Finally, the author argues that the State should play a guiding role in developing a cadre of social-justice lawyers

The Cambodian Law Faculty: Blueprint for a Curriculum Rich in Research and Experiential Education

Experiential education. Rigorous research and writing. Scholarly engagement. A window onto the ASEAN nations and beyond. These should be the hallmarks of today’s law faculty in Cambodia. The objective is to provide a professional education for the future thinkers and leaders of a nation in the throes of rapid development

The Juris Doctor Is In: Making Room at Law School for Paraprofessional Partners

The 60th anniversary of the United States’ oldest continuous legal clinic presents an opportunity to reexamine the pedagogical machinery, reshape the curriculum, reflect on advice not taken, and reignite the “movement for change” in (clinical) legal education. The author recommends a modest retooling: Law schools should offer a degree program for non-lawyer advocates. This would capitalize on the many attributes that paralegals bring to the profession. The author\u27s focus is on how teaching paralegals or lay advocates in law schools can foster less costly non-adversarial dispute resolution, sensitivity to human and cultural aspects of client rapport, and co-education between members of the legal profession. Paraprofessionals can help lawyers accomplish their tasks with efficiency, affordability, professional collaboration, and responsiveness to clients.. While the paradigmatic example he offers is a lay advocate working on behalf of special education students in a public school setting, the value added by paralegals is by no means limited to that forum. Finally, the author suggests what educators should emphasize in a new law school curriculum and how they might design a paraprofessional program

Just between Yoo and He: Two Justice Department Lawyers\u27 Imaginary Torturous Email

On December 9, 2014, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released its long-awaited Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which The New York Times described as “a portrait of depravity that is hard to comprehend and even harder to stomach.” The Times had reported four years earlier that a number of Department of Justice (DoJ) emails were determined to be missing during the Office of Professional Responsibility\u27s investigation of the Bush Administration memoranda providing legal justification for “enhanced interrogations,” the so-called torture memos. What follows is an imaginary exchange of emails between two young lawyers during their tenure at the DoJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in 2002. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental

Beyond the \u3ci\u3eFakultas\u3c/i\u3e\u27s Four Walls: Linking Education, Practice, and the Legal Profession

More than fifty years after the first post-colonial Southeast Asian regional conference on legal education, commentators and educators do not necessarily agree on the appropriate curricular balance between theory, doctrine, and practice, or what role the government should play in directing the orientation of legal studies and careers in Indonesia’s law schools. The author argues in favor of legal education that is rich in experiential learning and integrates the involvement of practitioners and doctrinal faculty. This objective may be a relatively new reality in Indonesia, but also one that needs revitalization in other Southeast Asian nations and beyond. This article lays out the contemporary debate in Indonesia over the composition and direction of legal education, asserting that consistent with best practices, learning practical skills in analysis, advocacy, and professionalism—including clinical methods—should be integrated into the program. Moreover, Indonesia’s recently adopted Legal Aid Law presents an opportunity for students and staff at publicly funded law schools to become more actively involved in delivering legal assistance to the indigent. If faculties are not sufficiently resourced, they should more effectively employ lawyers and judges in an adjunct capacity, particularly in a practicum or other co-teaching model. Finally, the author argues that the State should play a guiding role in developing a cadre of social-justice lawyers

When It\u27s Not Apparent: Some Modest Advice to Parent Advocates for Students with Disabilities

In this article, I explore ways in which parents of children with disabilities can more effectively participate in educational decisionmaking and oversight. I begin by describing the federal special education statute, the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), as a set of procedural safeguards that are intended to result in meaningful educational benefit. IDEA\u27s cornerstone is the individualized education program (IEP) for each child. The IEP, negotiated between school authorities and the child\u27s family, is often an arduous and stressful process. I first note the limitations of using litigation against local school districts as a tool to achieve aggregate or long-term positive outcomes or to resolve individual disputes about services, accommodations, placement and instructional interventions. I then offer practical guidance for individualized advocacy and problem solving that can be useful at the IEP meeting, as well as strategies for parent organizing and mobilizing, and formation of alliances outside the disability community. Finally, I suggest that mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution are more effective means of resolving disputes than due process hearings and litigation

Representing David: When Best Practices Aren\u27t and Natural Supports Really Are

As California marks the 30-year anniversary of the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, there is more legal support and social acceptance than ever for including individuals with developmental disabilities in our daily lives — i.e., in community-based settings. Yet, the day-to-day decisions are not necessarily easier. Informed parents and professional advocates are meant to digest the latest literature, absorb the best practices, fight the fights, rise above the loneliness, and travel the correct path in search for services and support. In this article, I highlight the peculiar difficulties posed for professionals who advocate on behalf of children with disabilities, using the landmark Lanterman Act — with its emphasis on choice and inclusiveness — as a backdrop. Mindful of the best practices to which we all aspire, our advocacy is bracketed by the realities of time, money, bureaucratic behaviors, and human or other subjective factors. From early intervention to respite care, from residential placement to transition-planning and natural supports, I have traveled that path, strayed from it, and learned a few things along the way — with my son David. Legal knowledge, enhanced consciousness, and ideology all help to shape the model disability rights advocate, along with a dose of the real and the pragmatic. Lanterman Act, Developmental Disabilities Services Act, Developmental Disability, Intellectual Disability, Natural Support, Supports and Services, Self-Determination, Autonomy, Choice, Inclusion, Independent Living, Interdependency, Community-Based, Regional Center, Protection & Advocacy Syste

Clinique ToGo: Changing Legal Practice in One African Nation in Six Days

In this essay, the author looks at the role of the short-term rule of law consultant in a developing country. The setting is Togo in francophone Africa and the State Department\u27s mandate for the consultant is to help establish a pro bono indigent legal aid program with participation by the national bar association and the country\u27s principal law school — in one week\u27s time. Using the device of a daily journal, the author describes (1) the background for the visit, (2) the series of exchanges with his hosts from the US Embassy, bar association and Université de Lomé, (3) the objectives for structural change in the spheres of education and practice, and (4) the Togolese legal, educational and political culture, particularly as influenced by its former colonizer, France. The centerpiece of the visit is a five-day seminar that culminates in a recommendation to implement a long-standing free legal aid statute through executive action and to create a law school-based legal clinic or clinique juridique. The author tries to capture some of the flavor of the six-day experience, reflect on the capacity of short-term consultants to have an impact on legal reform in the Global South (or countries transitioning to democracy), and offer some advice for those who are similarly engaged in rule of law support and solidarity activities. The article ends with tips for the consultant and a blueprint for establishing a francophone legal clinic