Emily Allbon and I spoke to members of the Clinical Legal Education Organisation (CLEO) about how designers ways might contribute to clinical legal education.
We highlighted two interrelated ways in which design-based methods might enhance clinical legal education:
- First, designed outputs (such as diagrams and virtual worlds) might enable the sharing of complex legal ideas between practitioners to students and clients;
- Second, practical-critical-imaginative mindsets and experimental processes can help to generate enabling and inclusive ecosystems in which teachers, learners and clients can, individually and collaboratively, co-create and refine legal ideas.
We gave examples of how we have seen design enhancing legal education in two contexts that are relevant to clinical legal education (1) higher education and (2) public legal education.
Some CLEO members are already using similar methods, and we want to encourage them to think about them in this wider designerly context in case that enables a richer understanding of, and ability to explain, how and why they do/not work
We drew on the work of Stefania Passera, Rob Waller, Juno, Camilla Anderson, Grainne McKeever Lucy Royal-Dawson, Rossana Ducato and Alain Strowel.
For more on Design in Legal Education more generally see our edited collection.
Amanda Perry-Kessaris 