Here’s some questions I’ve been asking myself about clinical supervision in the course of intense preparations for an upcoming immigration court hearing:
- What is expected of students during school break? What should be expected of them?
- When should a student insisting, “I want to do it even though it’s break time” be accepted by a supervisor/faculty member? Be rejected?
- If school breaks are important, which is a given, as all US law schools have them, is it a mistake to even PERMIT students to do case work during that time?
- If students continue their case work during breaks, what might they be forfeiting? What harm might they experience – e.g., income earned during this time in part-time work, family re-connection time…
- Are any harms offset by the beneficial work in which they’re engaging, the service they’re performing, the learning they’re gaining?
- Where does all this leave the clients whose cases need concentrated attention during these breaks? – To the supervisor/faculty member?
Have others out there considered these questions? Come to any conclusions? Want to share them?
Filed under: Best Practices and Clinics, Uncategorized |
Best Practices for Legal Education 
If a student wants to work, I would let them, but also put some limitations on it. I’ve had to cut some holidays short and had a docket on New Year’s Eve once. Once practicing, your breaks are sometimes in the way of court business.