Practicing (And Teaching) Therapeutic Jurisprudence: Importing Social Work Principles and Techniques into Clinical Legal Education

Abstract

Practicing Therapeutic Jurisprudence ("TJ") requires proponents to advance a particular normative framework. As a clinical social worker turned lawyer, who is now also a clinical law teacher, I believe strongly that the field of social work provides a useful framework for legal education and practice.' As I will demonstrate through examples from my teaching and my students' practice experiences, the role of the clinical law teacher is uniquely and well suited to apply social work values, principles, concepts, and techniques. By importing these core social work elements into the clinical legal education, faculty can truly teach future lawyers to practice TJ in a meaningful way.