Two Heads are Better than One: The Case-Based Rationale for Dual Disciplinary Teaching in Child Advocacy Clinics

Abstract

Increasingly, teaching a future lawyer in a child advocacy clinic without a social worker is like teaching a future horticulturist without live plants or a future architect without blueprints. In the context of three waves of legal education, this article addresses the benefits of offering a child advocacy clinic staffed by a lawyer and a social work in order to promote three values: interdisciplinary legal education, creative problem solving and therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) principles. It makes a case-based rationale rather than arguing from a macrosystem perspective. A hypothetical Bonnie’s case is used to describe, first, how the traditional law school curriculum would address her case and then how traditional clinical legal education might address her case. The article explores how a jointly taught clinic could enhance these traditional methods by substantially improve outcomes for Bonnie through marrying interdisciplinarity, creative problem solving and TJ.