Clinical Faculty in the Legal Academy: Hiring, Promotion and Retention

Abstract

This article represents a report written at the request by the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education to identify faculty leading clinical programs or employing clinical methodologies in order to distinguish the most robust models. In addressing the need to collect reliable data to assess clinical models, as well as the statuses of the educators who run them, this article facilitates much-needed conversation regarding the value of clinics and those who run them. Such areas of considerable value include content-based education, learning through performance, and consistent feedback, among others. Given the clinical model’s value, this article recommends a unitary tenure model and a continuing yet more limited approach for full-time and part-time educators, respectively, and notes points of tension that may flow from these recommendations. This article concludes with proposals as to how clinical models might be implemented to align with the group’s findings and recommendations

Keywords: clinical faculty, academia, education, legal clinic, tenure model, faculty retention, experiential learning