Skills Training in Clinical Legal Education: A Critical Approach

Abstract

In this article, I identify and critique the technocentric approach to lawyering skills that is prevalent in discourse about clinical legal education. The technocentric approach views legal practice as apolitical and uncontested, and tends to preclude alternative and critical visions of legal practice. I argue that clinical legal education should not be primarily understood as a vehicle by which to transfer a set of pre-determined technical lawyering skills to students. Rather, I argue that clinical legal education should be viewed as an opportunity for students to learn, through critical reflection upon experience, about the contested, contextual, and political nature of legal practice, and to begin to develop skills that reflect this critical understanding. I draw on critical pedagogical theories and provide examples from the clinical law program at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law to suggest directions for this approach.