Beyond core skills and values: Integrating therapeutic jurisprudence and preventive law into the law school curriculum.

Abstract

Within the last decade, many law schools have broadened their educational missions to include lawyering skills programs that bridge the gap between practice and theory. At the same time, legal scholars have advocated training attorneys to integrate their planning and counseling roles to become "therapeutically oriented preventive lawyers." Skills and clinical programs in law schools are well suited for such training. The authors discuss the lawyering skills program they developed and direct. Using examples from classroom simulations, they illustrate how the integration of therapeutic jurisprudence and preventive law into the skills curriculum can sensitize students to the psychological aspects of the attorney-client relationship and prepare them to practice law as a humane profession.

Development and effects of client trust in criminal defense attorneys: preliminary examination of the congruence model of trust development

“…Inmates in the current study preferred attorneys who answered their phone calls and listened to their suggestions. These findings support the argument made by some legal Trust in attorneys 211 educators that client-centered lawyering skills should be taught in legal training programs (Berkheiser, 1999;Goldman & Cooney, 1999). Although some law schools have modified their curricula to encourage students to develop the practical skills needed to become effective ''client-centered'' legal counselors (see Goldman & Cooney, 1999), many practicing attorneys have no formal training in these skills.…”

“…These findings support the argument made by some legal Trust in attorneys 211 educators that client-centered lawyering skills should be taught in legal training programs (Berkheiser, 1999;Goldman & Cooney, 1999). Although some law schools have modified their curricula to encourage students to develop the practical skills needed to become effective ''client-centered'' legal counselors (see Goldman & Cooney, 1999), many practicing attorneys have no formal training in these skills. For instance, Boccaccini, Boothby, and Brodsky (2002) surveyed 252 practicing criminal defense attorneys and found that only 33% had taken a course on developing client-relations skills (4% in law school, 29% as a continuing legal education course).…”

“…Findings from the current study suggest that criminal defendants prefer attorneys who practice from a client-centered perspective. Legal scholars have used the term client centered to describe attorneys who listen closely to what their clients have to say, consider clients' emotional concerns and well-being, and stress client decision making and choice (Goldman & Cooney, 1999;Winick, 1999). Inmates in the current study preferred attorneys who answered their phone calls and listened to their suggestions.…”

Dissolving the stiff upper lip: Opportunities and challenges for the mainstreaming of therapeutic jurisprudence in the United Kingdom

“…Firstly, as a discrete topic area, introducing students to its key principles and applications, either as part of a wider course on approaches to law, or in a module wholly focused on TJ itself. Secondly, by using a TJ approach to teaching and learning which is dispersed throughout either all, or at least part of, the law school curriculum, for example, by using it within a clinical education setting (Brooks, 2006;Gould and Perlin, 2000;Berkeiser, 1999) or during the teaching of mooting, legal drafting and other lawyering skills (Fourie and Coetzee, 2012; Goldman and Cooney, 1999). There is some evidence of successful "perspective" courses introducing students to TJ and explicitly bringing it to the forefront (Wexler, 1996, p. 283).…”