About the Virtual Clinic

Welcome to the virtual clinic where a variety of resources will be available to clinic students to help you prepare for real client representation. The premise of the virtual clinic is to take advantage of technology to offer you a variety of tools and techniques for learning in your own style and on your own schedule, within the boundaries of your real case responsibilities and the syllabus for your clinic as established by your faculty.

Consistent with the capabilities of computer technology, learning here is not intended or expected to be linear. Rather, the resources, sometimes refered to as learning triggers, are always available on line and are connected to each other through a variety of links so you can move around in the order that makes sense for you depending on your learning preferences and the demands of your particular cases in the clinic. You can return and review any parts or resources as often as you find them useful. Another goal of the virtual clinic is to help you and your supervising attorney make the best use of your time together by allowing you both to be best prepared for supervisory meetings. You should be able to use the resources here to identify more specifically the ways that your supervisor can help you generally with your learning and specifically with your progress representing your real clients.

The types of learning triggers that are available within the virtual clinic include:

• a. Text materials you can read, print or download about lawyering skills and values, substantive law, and the process of learning to be a professional.
• b. Video discussions that may include faculty, practitioners and students about different aspects of practicing law.
• c. Demonstration videos of legal interviews, counseling sessions, negotiations, and other performances of lawyering activities.
• d. video samples of specific skills or portions of performances, with annotations and opportunities for your comments and critiques.
• e. opportunities for you to participate in simulations and then review and critique your performances.
• f. Online self graded quizzes.
• g. Forms, outlines and templates for case planning, preparation for lawyering tasks, and for substantive legal materials.
• h. links to on-line resources from other sources.
• i. Discussion boards for you to read and post comments about cases, classes and about materials found in the Virtual Clinic.

Let’s consider an example. Say you are preparing for an initial client interview or you are studying interviewing in your clinic. You could begin by reading some materials about initial client interviews then watch a video of a lawyer conduction such an interview, with annotated comments. Then you could practice asking questions using a simulation problem in which your questions are video recorded and then available to you and your professor to critique and evaluate. Alternatively, you could begin by reviewing an outline of the stages and goals of an initial client interview, then watch the demonstration video, and then read the materials about conducting interviews. Your faculty supervisor may have some suggestions about possible approaches depending on their particular goals, the types of cases you will be handling, your prior experience, or other considerations. And you can repeat, review, and move back and forth to increase the depth of your knowledge and mastery of each topic and challenge. It should be obvious that this approach gives you primary responsibility for all aspects of the learning process, but also gives you access to your supervisor for guidance and individual specific enhancements. The materials and learning triggers should prove helpful as your work on cases unfolds throughout the semester. The Virtual Clinic should be an ongoing resource as you represent your clients, as well as an aid to learning in anticipation of assuming the lawyer role.