NCJ Number
153833
Journal
New England Law Review Volume: 28 Issue: 2 Dated: (Winter 1993) Pages: 383-452
Date Published
1993
Length
70 pages
Annotation
This paper examines issues associated with the education of law students about domestic violence, first addressing the reasons for including woman-abuse within the law school curriculum and then detailing the pedagogical advantages of teaching the subject.
Abstract
The method for addressing these issues is through an analysis of the current law school courses and clinical programs that focus exclusively or primarily on domestic violence. This paper reviews 17 programs at 16 law schools. Of these, all but four include a clinical component. Seven require some direct advocacy work with clients, even if students receive no extra credit for this work. Ten courses are seminars on domestic violence, most of which include an optional clinical component, or programs are inhouse clinical programs with classroom components that either focus completely on lawyering skills and process or offer a mix of domestic violence law and lawyering skills. The clinical or direct client-contact experience offered to students in the program also differs greatly. The 13 courses with clinical components break down broadly into three groups: nine offering clinical placements doing civil litigation, two offering placements doing only criminal litigation, and two offering a combination of both civil and criminal litigation. Of the civil litigation clinics, threeof these concentrated on obtaining civil protection orders for battered women; in the other three clinics students could work on a range of legal services work in addition to obtaining protection orders, including divorces, child support abuse and neglect, benefits, housing, and immigration. One criminal program assists in the prosecution of misdemeanor-level domestic assaults by batterers. The other criminal program does criminal defense work exclusively, some of which involves defending battered women who are charged with felonies for killing or assaulting their batterer. Finally, there are three clinical programs that combine both civil and criminal work. Students in these clinics engage in general civil legal services and may provide criminal defense or work with assistant district attorneys prosecuting misdemeanor- level domestic assaults. The emphasis in all of the mixed clinics is on civil work. 181 footnotes