In gratitude for CLEA

Today was my last meeting as a member of the board of directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association. This is one of the high honors of my career, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to work and serve alongside brilliant, creative, generous, justice-minded clinical law profs for these six years. I’m terming-out after three years on the executive committee and a three-year term on the board. In 2017, I served as vice-president followed by a term as president in 2018. These are positions of stewardship and collaboration for a vital organization within US legal education.

When I became a clinical professor and program director nearly 17 years ago as a young lawyer, I was at a school with a then fledgling (now thriving) clinical program. I did not take clinics in law school, so I was excited but adrift without a lot of support to show me how to do it. It was CLEA and its community of hospitable, encouraging mentors and colleagues who taught me how to do this work well, through meetings and conferences, conversations and questions, books and articles. In my experience, CLEA plays two essential roles in legal education, and this is the first one: developing community and training, empowering, and guiding new clinicians. Very often, clinical profs are few (maybe even alone) at their law schools, and CLEA provides a collegial, practically useful congregation of experienced experts more than willing to share.

CLEA’s second great contribution is advocating for clinical education itself, the movement toward more and better experiential education and professional formation for law students, rooted deeply in access to justice and the improvement of the law and our profession. CLEA has been essential in advancing security of position and status for clinical profs and ensuring that clinical education is a central part of law school curriculum. Its work results in generations of law students better prepared to practice, to practice well with wisdom and resilience, and to advance access to justice in their careers. That work continues.

I’m ever grateful to CLEA for its investments in me and countless other clinical professors, and I am grateful to have served for six years on the executive committee and the board of directors with some of the best professors, lawyers, and people in the world. CLEA and its leadership will continue to advance its important work with care, integrity, joy, and love. 

Well done, y’all.