More than 1,300 legal educators registered to attend the virtual 2021 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education from April 28 to May 1. The meeting’s theme, “Reckoning with our Past & Building for the Future,” focused discussions and programming on the unique challenges clinical legal educators and their law students face in a highly polarized world.
The conference’s virtual setting enabled more participants to attend the conference and to attend multiple meetings. Although nothing can fully replace the generative conversations that develop organically at an in-person event, AALS provided several options for attendees to connect with each other online.
“The theme of this year’s conference recognizes that we are at a critical moment of transition, where we need to examine our own practices as a clinical community – not only in terms of pedagogy, but also how we are promoting antiracism and cultivating diversity within the clinical legal professoriate,” said Jayesh Rathod (American University, Washington College of Law), chair of the conference planning committee. “The theme also recognizes the instructional changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to think critically about the post-pandemic future of clinical education.”
Opening Keynote Presentation: A Conversation with a Voting Rights Activist
The event featured more than 415 speakers and over 129 sessions covering a broad range of topics including effective teaching, scholarship, and working with adjunct faculty. The conference also had several sessions on professional development, mindfulness, self-care, and resilience.
“The conversations included both higher-level discussions about the future of clinical education, as well as more concrete discussions about teaching in the midst of a pandemic,” said Rathod. “Several of the sessions examined how we can seize the current moment to advance social justice and antiracism principles within the clinical community and the academy more generally. At the same time, clinical legal educators are also focused on the immediate reality of their teaching, including whether, or to what degree, online teaching will continue in the fall 2021 semester. A common thread for many of these conversations is that clinicians play a central role in many of our institutions in leading discussions about both equity and pedagogical innovation.”
Jayesh Rathod, Conference Planning Committee Chair – American University, Washington College of Law during the Plenary Session “Antiracism in the Academy and Clinical Legal Education.”
Anita Sinha (American University Washington College of Law) receives the 2021 Shanara Gilbert Award.
On Wednesday, Professor Anita Sinha, Director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University Washington College of Law, received the 2021 Shanara Gilbert Award during an awards ceremony. The honor from the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education recognizes an outstanding clinician with less than 10 years of experience in the field. In addition, the section’s Steve Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award was presented to Deborah N. Archer (New York University School of Law) and Rick Wilson (American University Washington College of Law). The award recognizes career achievement in clinical legal education scholarship and was established in 2020 to honor the legacy of Steve Ellmann (New York Law School).
Presentation of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Steve Ellmann Memorial Clinical Scholarship Award
On Friday, the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) honored Bob Kuehn (Washington University St. Louis School of Law) as the 2021 Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Education. The Irwin County Detention Center Project, which addresses the welfare and legal rights of women detained by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement in Georgia, was given CLEA’s 2021 Award for Excellence. The project is a collaboration between clinics at five law schools: Boston University School of Law, Columbia Law School, University of Georgia School of Law, Harvard Law School, and Texas A&M School of Law.
On Friday afternoon, the plenary session, “Are We (Almost) There Yet? Clinical Programs and the Academy as Anti-Racist Institutions” explored diversity among clinical law professors and how schools can advance antiracism in their programs and institutions. It was moderated by Kim McLaurin (Suffolk University Law School) and featured Jon C. Dubin (Rutgers Law School), Alexi Freeman (University of Denver Sturm College of Law), Gautam Hans (Vanderbilt University Law School) and Camille A. Nelson (Dean, University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law). The day concluded with presentations from the 2021 Bellow Scholars who provided updates on their research projects.
Plenary Session, “Are We (Almost) There Yet? Clinical Programs and the Academy as Anti-Racist Institutions”
The conference also featured virtual poster presentations, and works-in-progress, as well as multi-session working groups focused on topics including alternative dispute resolution, civil rights, clinic administration, community economic development, education law, environmental law, immigration law, juvenile law, legal writing, and many others.
Continued this year were shorter concurrent sessions (45 minutes compared to 90 minutes in prior years) and 30-minute lightning sessions which focused on providing attendees with brief takeaways on a variety of clinical legal education topics.
Reflecting on the 43rd year of the conference, Rathod said, “The AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education is a signature event.”
“What started out as a very small gathering has blossomed into an expansive, multi-day event that welcomes hundreds upon hundreds of attendees,” Rathod continued. “The growth of the conference mirrors the growth of the clinical legal education at law schools across the US, including the emergence of diverse types of clinics and a range of pedagogical approaches.”
The 2021 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education was developed by the Planning Committee, who volunteered countless hours during the past two years to organize the conference. The committee included:
AALS thanks the Planning Committee for making the conference such a success.
