Interdisciplinary Clinical Education — on Empowerment, Women, and a Unique Clinical Model
23 clinical law review 429 (2016)
42 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2018
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
For the past seven years, the Women’s Rights Clinic operating within the Law School of the College of Management in Israel has been engaged in an “assistance project” of the women cleaners working at the campus. This article presents a discussion of interdisciplinary clinical work and focuses on an empowerment model developed in the Women’s Rights Clinic. It argues that clinical work for marginalized populations requires a holistic approach that is not limited to legal work alone, but enables the use of a combination of legal and extra-legal tools. The holistic approach illustrated in the article emphasizes the importance of integrating into lawyering models skills from the domains of social work and therapy rooted in empowerment theory: developing empathy and listening, giving clients a voice, avoiding paternalism, and using emotional discourse in communication with clients.
Keywords: clinical education, empowerment, lawyering models
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