Keywords

1 Introduction

Different forces are shaping modern legal education. At the same time, legal education should conform to the needs of the legal market and contribute to the objectives of social justice.Footnote 1 Tackling the contemporary global challenges which humankind is facing, such as poverty, hunger, social inequality and climate change, requires an interdisciplinary approach and careful consideration from the viewpoint of different legal and even non-legal disciplines.Footnote 2

Students have also changed. Being digital natives, today’s students are used to obtaining most of their information digitally, which affects how they behave and learn. They multitask, which often prevents successful carrying out of complex activities and lowers the quality of learning. Their attention span is generally shorter, so they prefer audio-visual to textual content, as well as shorter contents to longer ones. The information overload makes their learning efforts superficial, not necessarily lowering their expectations of approval.Footnote 3 The use of well-planned and supervised experiential learning methods, with integration of modern technologies, is perhaps the only way they can effectively study and learn.Footnote 4

In the author’s view, clinical legal education (hereinafter: CLE) has the potential to successfully overcome all these challenges. After briefly describing the experiential learning method and the concept of CLE, this chapter describes two clinical methods used at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. Its aim is to explore how careful combination of simulation and live-client clinic can answer the needs and expectations of contemporary law students, allowing them to become more skilful lawyers who are able to effectively deal with any issue in an interdisciplinary way, regardless of whether they have previously encountered it in their study.

2 Setting the Scene: Student-Centred Approach to Legal Education

2.1 Brief Overview of Teaching Methods

There are two basic traditional approaches to teaching in law schools which are usually associated with different legal traditions. Civil law countries are usually associated with a lecture-based method where teacher gives an ex-cathedra lecture to students with the aim of passing pre-set knowledge and helping them to memorise the rules and principles. In contrast to that, common law countries are usually associated with a Socratic case study method, which uses class discussions to facilitate the critical assessment of the law, thus focusing on the tools to understand the law instead of memorising.Footnote 5

These contrasting approaches are by no means accidental. They reflect the different law-making experiences in various legal traditions. While in common law countries law is created by judges and the basic legal principles are derived from landmark decisions of the higher courts, in civil law countries the principles have been extensively analysed and created by scholars at the universities and later laid down in laws.Footnote 6 The first one uses induction to derive the general principles, whereas the latter uses deduction.Footnote 7

These methods share some shortcomings. In their extreme variants, when teachers use the lecture method, the students are mere passive recipients of knowledge. Although situation is better in case of the Socratic method, as students do have to prepare and actively engage in class discussions, it is the conclusion their teacher makes what really counts in the end. When assessed, they have to perform reproductive tasks, imitating the knowledge or the method of reasoning presented by their teacher.Footnote 8

This opens some space for a third method which can put students at the centre of attention and teaching activity. Unlike the two traditional methods, problem-based teaching methods require from students to not only actively prepare, but also to experience problem-solving in action. Instead of learning before doing, student learn by doing. The approach is necessarily a holistic one, because problems in real life are rarely purely legal, or they rarely relate solely to one legal discipline. The teacher is solely a facilitator of the learning activity, and students learn from their own experience—their own trials and errors. The tasks they have to perform when being evaluated are productive, instead of being reproductive. The effectiveness and superiority of the method has also been confirmed by educational theory.Footnote 9

2.2 Clinical Legal Education as the Most Effective Form of Experiential Learning

The notion of CLE covers different teaching methods, not necessarily wearing the label ‘clinical’ in every context.Footnote 10 The label draws inspiration from medical training, as law students practice on simulated or real clients, or they work aside legal professionals, just like they would deal with patients in hospital as medical interns.Footnote 11 Typically, the following methods are mentioned as the most important ones:

  • live-client (legal aid, representation, advice, and/or referral) clinics in which students provide legal services just like any law office (referral, advice or representation services)

  • externship programmes in which students also provide legal assistance to live clients, but under the mentorship of external partners (law offices, NGOs, etc.)

  • simulation clinics, in which students provide a variety of legal services in a simulated environment

  • street-law projects, in which students educate the members of the community about their rights and duties

  • specialist clinical programmes, in which students perform other activities not fitting in the description above (e.g., lobbying, policy work, and monitoring).Footnote 12

Despite the differences, clinical methods have some common basic features. First of all, they endorse problem-based learning in a real or at least realistic environment.Footnote 13 Problem-based learning is by definition student-centred, being focused on what student does instead of being focused on what the teacher teaches.Footnote 14 Creative problem-solving is also client-centred, so it necessarily involves interdisciplinary approaches, as problems transcend the particular field of law or even one specific discipline.Footnote 15 CLE also focuses on social justice, exposing the students not only to legal problems of their clients, but also their social and economic background too.Footnote 16 It also teaches the students to understand clients’ needs and interests and encourages them to consider values and emotions in conflict management.Footnote 17 Perhaps the method can be best presented by using an example.

3 Forms of Clinical Legal Education at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

3.1 Law Clinic Zagreb: Integral Live-Client Clinic

The Law Clinic is a semi-mandatory course that can be elected as one of practical courses offered in the ninth semester (out of ten).Footnote 18 To obtain 10 ECTS points, the students are required to fulfil the minimum objectives. In at least ninety hours of their work, they are expected to:

  • regularly attend the joint meetings at the premises where they interview the clients

  • travel to rural areas within outreach projects, twice in the semester, where they also take in some of the clients,

  • volunteer in the partner NGOs, where they observe or assist some of their users, and

  • provide the written legal advice in at least five cases.

It may seem a lot, but most students do not have difficulties meeting those minimum requirements. Most of them exceed such expectations, assist more clients than needed, and stay for more than a semester. During the admissions, the advantage is given to the students who wish to stay longer than one semester or show more enthusiasm in certain fields. Most of them are not even on their fifth, but on their third, fourth, or rarely on their second year. They can use the earned credits eventually, when they officially enrol in the course, but their volunteering is an implied expectation.

Students can choose one of the seven groups which are focusing on different vulnerable members of the society (family members, foreigners and asylum seekers, overindebted citizens, patients, victims of discrimination, victims of crime and workers), depending on their interest and available free positions. Such division is not only useful to the clients, but to the students as well. They can touch upon different cross-cutting topics usually not covered within the curriculum (e.g. domestic violence, discrimination, women’s rights, patient’s rights, etc.) and to approach the observed legal issues in an interdisciplinary way. Usually, groups have twelve to fifteen members, so they are split into two subgroups, to boost the efficiency and to allow students to make best out of their teamwork. The interviews, that usually take place in the premises, are also done in teams of at least two students.

Students actually do most of the clinical work alone.Footnote 19 They interview the clients, they decide whether to take in the case, they draft the advice, and inform the client about it. The students are even in charge of the supervision. In case of general legal information, which is the simplest form of legal aid, usually provided in oral form, the younger colleagues are supervised merely by its group and student mentor, a student that has been engaged in clinical activities more than a semester. If the students are to provide a more complex written legal advice, there is an extra layer of supervision, done either by academic mentors (teaching staff) or external mentors (practitioners, nowadays mostly clinical alumni). The teaching staff is also in charge of logistics (funding, representation in relations with third parties, etc.), although everyday case flow management is also carried out by students. There are four of them—called student administrators—who are the only ones not volunteering but receiving a modest remuneration for their active engagement.

The autonomy of students has remained one of the cornerstones of the clinical method taken from the Norwegian source of inspiration.Footnote 20 However, such a self-sustainable concept is feasible only if the teaching staff works together with the students. The management works closely with student administrators and student mentors and makes all the most important decisions within the special body called ‘Small Council’. Student administrators also help to administer and take care of the finances in some domestic projects. Close collaboration and trust are truly essential in the process, and the result is that students can take care of variety of different tasks in accordance with general guidelines provided by the management or Small Council.

In 12 years more than 1200 students engaged in its work and more than 15,000 clients sought its assistance. Many students nowadays estimate that their clinical experience directly helped them with their employment and everyday tasks.Footnote 21

3.2 Legal Counselling and Client Interview Simulations

The main goal of this optional course is to strengthen students’ professional competences in the context of legal counselling (legal ethics, legal research, legal writing, negotiation, and client interviewing). The core of the course are role-play based interview simulations, similar to the ones conducted within the Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition (hereinafter: the ICCC), that Zagreb students also occasionally take part in.Footnote 22 The course completely rejects the concept of classic lectures and tries to integrate as many elements of experiential learning as possible. The course is split into three parts.

The first part prepares the students for role-play by exploring who can provide legal advice and what are the ethical standards to be observed by the legal advisors. In order to provide ethically sound advice empowering the client to make their own decision on how to deal with legal issue, the students are also exposed to different dispute resolution methods which they can offer to their clients as a solution to some of their problems. The students are also introduced to the basic methods and tools for legal research which they are expected to use when preparing for simulations. The preparatory part ends with introduction to the basic structure and stages of client interviews.

In the second part, students team up in teams of two simulating an interview with a client. One or two of their colleagues play a role of client(s). During the simulation, the students are expected to learn how to investigate the relevant facts and to identify the issues their simulated client is facing, focusing also on their goals. The simulation should result in finding appropriate solutions which they communicate to clients in the form of structured legal advice. After each simulation, the class engages in a moderated discussion reflecting on the interview and the socio-economic context of observed simulated legal problems.

In the last part of the course, students develop their writing skills, by drafting letters to the opposing party, courts, and other public entities. They observe the differences in style, format, and contents of these written documents. Since there are several courses teaching students how to draft court pleadings, this course puts the emphasis on the written communication with the client and the opposing parties (and their lawyers).

The core method used before and after simulations is the flipped-classroom (or blended learning) method.Footnote 23 Students are not only expected to actively participate in lectures, but also to adequately prepare for the class and do their homework before the teacher engages in the teaching process.Footnote 24 All the materials are accessible in ‘Merlin’, a Moodle-based platform only accessible to the students enrolled in the course. Each week students are introduced to the topic of the next class and to the expected learning outcomes. They get an assignment either to read some texts (laws, case law or scientific papers), watch a short video, or conduct and independent research. They are always required to critically assess those materials and to be prepared to elaborate their opinion in class. During the lecture, different methods are used to address these topics. Sometimes the lecture consists of pure moderated plenary discussion which each student can feely join. Sometimes such discussion is preceded by some group assignments which are carried out either by using a jigsaw or gallery walk method.Footnote 25 Sometimes the discussion is carried out as a moderated debate between two groups of students. Video materials are also used in class, to the extent they are useful for the realization of learning outcomes.Footnote 26 Joint conclusions are always recorded and published in ‘Merlin’.

All simulations are carried out by students, while the teacher and other colleagues are mere observers. Each student plays the role of an advisor and some of them play the role of the client—allowing a few to understand the position of their clients from both sides. Similar to the rules of the ICCC, students know in advance the topic and general issue of the client that seeks the legal advice. Only the student playing the role of the client knows in advance all (including hidden)Footnote 27 facts of the case. The students conducting the interview, on the other hand, are expected to do the research based on their guess of the client’s issue.

The simulations are slightly shorter than in the ICCC usually lasting no longer than 25 min. They are recorded with the explicit consent of students.Footnote 28 After each interview, all students comment on the success of the interview and, with the assistance of their teacher, they discuss the socio-economic context of the addressed legal issue.Footnote 29 This provides an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the real issues and interests which could be at stake in similar situations.

4 Combination of Clinical Methods as the Best Way to Address the Cross-Cutting Topics

The Zagreb example shows how two clinical methods can give opportunities to students to get a glimpse of their future careers and, simultaneously, to understand the real issues, needs and interest behind (simulated or real) problems of their clients. In the author’s view, it is the combination of these methods and contents the students are exposed to, which effectively prepares the students to become modern lawyers and it does so better than traditional methods.

Both methods integrate the concept of active and experiential learning, meaning they are student-centred learning methods. Students are not merely passive listeners. They take responsibility and learn from their own experience. The teacher only gives the initial impulse, by putting the students in a situation where they face a real or simulated client. The teacher provides students with basic instructions, but the student is the one who acts and learns from his own activity and experience. There are some differences in methods, though, that prove how students benefit the most from participating in both courses.

In the Law Clinic the students are expected to conduct lot of important tasks alone. Not having anyone except your colleagues next to you when you interview the client for the first time is a great way to ‘toss one in the water’ and all students eventually ‘swim’ perfectly, but having a ‘lifeguard’ nearby might facilitate the teaching process even more.Footnote 30 The autonomous student self-run concept used in the Law Clinic is thus great for learning how to take responsibility and how to behave in professional environment, but the lack of direct feedback and assistance makes the experience unsystematic and to certain degree chaotic. For those students who combine their live-client clinical experience with Legal Counselling course, the above-mentioned shortcoming is successfully compensated by the extensive feedbacks and discussions following the simulations. If it were an isolated activity, the student would lack the ‘real-feel’ and learn more from feedbacks and comments than from their own experience.Footnote 31 But if they are involved in both clinical activities, they are exposed to the benefits of both worlds.

Both courses are adapted to new generations of students by wide use of online tools and modern technologies. In the Law Clinic, students are provided with online resources required for research. They also use an CMS-based online database (‘Klinikarij’) to access the files of their clients, but also different written legal opinions that have already been provided to clients, so they also get to learn from each other. In the pandemic they also got to provide some legal assistance online within the outreach projects. Some street law activities have also sometimes been performed in online setting.

In the Legal Counselling course, the use of online tools is crucial for performing the flipped (blended) learning method. A Moodle based platform is crucial for preparation and subsequent reflection. Students are exposed to different type of teaching materials. Their need for audio-visual content is taken into account, so they are often required to watch a short video in their preparation. Even when it comes to textual content, students are exposed to different types of legal texts, ranging from laws and jurisprudence scientific articles. These different teaching materials are always accompanied by clear instructions on the task and expected learning outcome. The responsibility thus moves from the professor to students, giving them opportunity to learn from their own activities even before the professor directly involves in the learning process.

Finally, the combination of two clinical methods provides students with broader picture of interdisciplinary topics that are not adequately covered in the law school curriculum. For example, the clinical students involved in the work of the Group for victims of discrimination and minority rights get to interview the female employee who was denied promotion, as the result of her decision to do the maternity leave before doing additional training. To effectively engage in solving the client’s issue, the students cannot limit themselves to only one field of law (e.g., focusing only on the issues of labour or antidiscrimination law). Instead, they have to research, understand and then advise the client to consider different legal options, taking into account the implication of each choice.Footnote 32 They will not only get to advise the client, but to feel her emotions and to understand the wider picture of the social dilemma in front of them. Due to its organisation and client-focus, the Law Clinic gives students many opportunities to encounter such interdisciplinary topics. The students better understand the scope and wider meaning of issues that arise in practice.

However, a live-client clinic has its shortcomings too. The type of cases that students get to solve depend solely on the clients. Real clients will not approach the Law Clinic only when they have cases of greater social relevance or interest of students. They will often approach the students with typical (‘boring’) cases, where traditional fields of law are in question, whereas the cross-cutting topics will be left out.Footnote 33 This is where the Legal Counselling course fills in in the gap. In simulated environment, the issues are selected by teachers, allowing them to choose new and exciting topics. As an example, one pair of students had to prepare for an interview with the client who wanted to invoke their whistle-blower rights. In that specific field there are new, relatively complex, and unclear statutory rules. The students are thus exposed to the chaos they would encounter in the real world, but in a safe environment. The post-interview reflection and discussion deepens their understanding of the topic and allows them to comprehend a broader picture of the socio-economic context and interests.

5 It is All About the Timing: What is the Right Moment to Expose Students to These Teaching Methods?

The biggest challenge in combining simulation and live-client clinics is the issue of timing. When is the appropriate time to use the described teaching methods? Grimes suggests that simulation can be useful as a preparatory method for real-client work, but also later as an opportunity to revisit and reflect on the real-client experience.Footnote 34 So there is added value to using simulations prior, simultaneously, and after being exposed to the real clients. In other words, the decision what should go first does not depend on the teaching methods themselves, but on the desired learning outcomes at the faculty level.

For instance, simulations can easily be integrated into the general legal skills course, if such course is available. Separate skills courses facilitate the overall success and satisfaction of students, allowing them to concentrate on their own growth instead of focusing solely on academic performance.Footnote 35 Stand-alone course gives sufficient time to reflect on the social context of the analysed problem, also considering the emotions of simulated clients.Footnote 36 Even if such a general course is unavailable, skills training can be integrated into doctrinary courses. Such integration “… provides an offsetting benefit because it greatly enhances the students’ understanding of substantive theories by placing them in a practical, hands-on context.”Footnote 37

There is one practical reason why integrating simulations in the first year seems to be essential for Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb. There are no general legal skills course available to the first-year students, aside from Academic writing, introduced in 2022. The purpose of that course is to teach freshmen how to conduct academic research and to properly structure and write their papers and other student assignments. Although some of the skills acquired in that class are of general nature, so the course certainly contributes to the overall legal literacy of law graduates, it seems to facilitate the studying process more than it helps students to develop the skills which might be useful in their future careers.

In our opinion, simulations and role play carried out within the Legal counselling course are perfectly capable of being integrated into the first-year study. We also find that “an increase in role playing and a requirement of pro bono work beginning in the first year of school would accelerate maturation from both sociocultural and psychological perspectives.”Footnote 38 There is no reason to believe the first year students are not fit to take part in such exercises. Our experience with the ICCC has often shown that the first-year students are capable of reaching (and even winning) the finals, thus proving that interviewing and counselling skills, combined with basic knowledge of legal research and reasoning, is something that can be acquired and practiced prior to any serious introduction to theoretical aspects of certain field of law.Footnote 39

Introducing role play and simulations in the first year would be beneficial both as a preparation for live-client work in the Law Clinic, and as a part of general legal skills training. It would also teach students, early in their study, that the issues cannot be observed only from the legal perspective, thus making them more ready to deal with any cross-cutting topic that they may encounter in their future careers.

6 Conclusion

Clinical legal education and other experiential learning methods are more efficient in addressing cross-cutting topics than traditional ones, as they most often require consideration of multiple disciplines. Nowadays, their use seems even more important as they may be the only effective methods of teaching new generations, dependant on modern technologies. Although two clinical methods used at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, show how their careful combination helps students to cope with complex topics they have not previously encountered in their classes, it would seem that at least some exposure to simulations and role play should be available in their first year. This would teach them, from the very beginning of their study, to think outside the box and to be creative problem solvers. If modern technologies are widely used in such attempts, the combination promises to yield the best results. Of course, introducing new methods does not imply that the old methods should be completely abolished, but introducing more experiential learning elements certainly facilitates the learning process.