This year, the Clinical Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding. With one of the first programs of its kind in the nation, Maryland Carey Law has been a leader in integrating practice experience into legal education since 1973.
Throughout 2023, the law school has celebrated the milestone with special programming. The final event, an online conference exploring the next 50 years of clinical legal education, took place on Oct. 27.
Watch: See how the discussion unfolds by watching the conference recording (YouTube)
The conference featured clinical faculty from across the country sharing their visions for the future of clinics and how they can help advance, re-envision, and transform conceptions of lawyering, teaching, scholarship, fairness, and justice.
Maryland Carey Law professors Maneka Sinha, Kathi Hoke, Aadhithi Padmanbhan, Sara Gold, Maureen Sweeney, Tiffany Yang, and Michael Pinard, most of whom teach in the Clinical Law Program, took turns introducing the prominent thinkers who offered short, themed talks. Topics included participatory lawyering; the integration of theory and practice; the development of part-time, evening clinics; and AI in clinical instruction.
Speakers:
- Sameer Ashar, Clinical Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Equity, University of California-Irvine School of Law
- Priya Baskaran, Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
- Gautam S. Hans, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
- Donna Lee, Professor of Law, City University of New York School of Law
- Rachel E. Lopez, Associate Professor of Law, Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Alicia Plerhoples, Anne Fleming Research Professor, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Clinics and Experiential Learning, Georgetown Law Center
- Lisa Washington, Assistant Professor of Law, Wisconsin Law School
Maryland Carey Law Professor Leigh Goodmark, who directs the Clinical Law Program and the Gender, Prison, and Trauma Clinic, wrapped up the event by sharing some information on the history of Maryland Carey Law’s Clinical Law Program and general remarks on the value of clinical legal education.
The beauty of working in the clinical law space, she said, “is that we are part of seeding the change that we hope to see in the world.”
Each year at Maryland Carey Law, more than 20 faculty lead over 150 students in providing around 75,000 hours of free legal services to the community, making the Clinical Law Program one of the region's largest public interest law firms. The program was the first in the country to receive the John Minor Wisdom Award, the American Bar Association's leading public service honor.
Current Maryland Carey Law clinics include:
- Consumer Bankruptcy Clinic
- Consumer Protection Clinic
- Criminal Appellate Clinic
- Criminal Defense Clinic
- Environmental Law Clinic
- Eviction Prevention Clinic
- Fair Housing Clinic
- Federal Appellate Immigration Clinic
- Gender, Prison, and Trauma Clinic
- Immigration Clinic
- Intellectual Property & Entrepreneurship Clinic
- Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic
- Mediation Clinic
- Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic
- Public Health Law Clinic
- Survivors of Violence Clinic
- Youth, Education, and Justice Clinic