Clinical legal education program and revised model law curriculum: Championing law advocacy and ethical-driven lawyering
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Abstract
(Extract)
The rebranding of Rule 138-A1 with lethargic history save for the University of the Philippines’ Office of Legal Aid and the Ateneo Legal Services Center is a great leap forward to fix the huge disconnect between the study of law and the practice of law. In this maiden commentary, I will focus on two big proverbial concerns.
The rebranding offers two-tier solutions that complement each other: first, overhauling of the law curriculum, which is now “foundational-centered”; and second, integrating clinical legal education in the curriculum, which is now “experiential and ethical-driven”.
Description
Judge Trespeces notes that Revised Model Law Curriculum launched in the last quarter of 2021 now zeroes in on the pressing need for lawyers not only to be practice-ready but ethically-driven as well. He cites his own survey that from 2017 to 2021, 430 bar discipline cases docketed at the Supreme Court, which reflected the “dark side” of lawyering, spread throughout the legal profession. The author argues that the integration of a clinical component of legal and judicial ethics in procedural subjects like criminal procedure, civil procedure in dispute resolution, and evidence rules is a significant enhancement of achieving ethical-driven lawyering. To illustrate, the editors take note that WVSU College of Law recently integrated its CLEP learning activities into the teaching of the course Administrative Law, Law on Public Officers, and Election Law. This timely integration of CLEP activities to relevant subjects, such as Election Law, coincided with the recently concluded 2022 National Elections. Without a doubt, strategies like this are in accord with CLEP’s goal to inculcate in students’ values of ethical lawyering and public service. Judge Trespeces in his conclusion notes that these initiatives require the concerted efforts of all stakeholders to set the CLEP in motion in order for its objectives to come to fruition.
