FOR CLEA VICE-PRESIDENT:

 KATE KRUSE

http://law.unlv.edu/faculty/katherine-kruse.html

It is an honor to be considered for the position of CLEA Vice-President in 2012.  These are both troubled and hopeful times for CLEA’s mission “to advocate for clinical legal education as fundamental to the education of lawyers.”

These are troubled times because the combination of budgetary pressures and efforts to deregulate ABA accreditation standards that have pushed schools to include clinicians into a fuller role within the legal academy now threaten to diminish law schools’ commitment to clinical legal education.  I am no stranger to the issues that surround these threats.  On the AALS Task Force for the Status of Clinicians and the Academy, I worked for four years in town hall meetings and drafting retreats to study and debate the benefits and trade-offs of various statuses that clinicians hold: tenure, clinical tenure, long-term contract, short-term contract and clinic fellowships.  As CLEA Secretary, I have become actively involved in the past three years in CLEA’s advocacy work in the ABA Standards Review Committee.  CLEA has worked together with SALT, the AALS, and representatives of legal writing professors and law librarians to ensure that the accreditation standards, which secure a measure of protection for the academic freedom and governance of clinical professors, are strengthened rather than diluted.  That important work will continue into 2012 (and perhaps longer), and I look forward to providing leadership and continuity in CLEA’s advocacy work.

These are hopeful times as well.  The Carnegie Report has drawn national attention to what clinicians have known all along: experiential learning that integrates theory, doctrine, skills, and ethics is an essential cornerstone of preparation for the practice and profession of law.  CLEA’s groundbreaking Best Practices for Legal Education helped to define the ideal for outcome-based assessment in legal education.  As the tide in legal education turns toward learning outcomes, CLEA is poised to provide guidance and leadership in the legal academy on how mastery in areas such as interviewing, counseling, negotiation, fact investigation, and the exercise professional judgment can be measured and assessed.  CLEA’s Best Practices Implementation project is carrying forth this work, and its efforts in the next few years to develop and disseminate knowledge about outcomes assessment will be critical, if the learning outcomes movement in legal education is to produce more than a simple reiteration of the “easy” measures of bar passage and job placement.

With membership topping a thousand, CLEA has never been stronger.  I relish the opportunity to engage the tremendous energy, creativity and commitment of the clinical community as we move forward together into the next stage of advocacy for clinical legal education.  I hope that you will support my candidacy with your vote.

FOR CLEA SECRETARY:

DONNA LEE

http://www.law.cuny.edu/faculty-staff/DLee.html

I am running for the position of CLEA secretary so that I can continue to work on issues that are fundamental to promoting and protecting clinical legal education.  As a clinician and professor at CUNY law school, I’ve had the privilege of working with students and clients on a wide variety of cases and projects, and of seeing how the students’ experiences teach them values and skills they can use far into the future.  As a CLEA board member, I’ve learned about how advocacy on issues like “political interference” with the work of law school clinics and “security of position” for clinicians makes a difference in our immediate clinical community and in the larger social justice community.  Clinical legal education creates additional resources for poor, communities of color that, but for clinical programs might not have access to legal assistance.  It also helps to nurture the next generation of progressive lawyers.  Seeing the connection between the work of the myriad clinics in law schools across the country and board service motivates me to run.

Under CLEA’s bylaws, the secretary’s duties include supporting the board election process, participating on the executive committee, and serving as principal record-keeper.  With a board of up to eighteen members, and a membership exceeding eight hundred, it feels hard to maintain connection and coherence.  With the help of my fellow board members, if elected, I would try to facilitate communication between the board and our membership, consistent with fulfilling the role of board secretary.

FOR CLEA BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

PAUL J. CAIN

http://niu.edu/law/faculty/directory/paul_cain.shtml

I am running for the CLEA Board because of the many challenges facing legal education today, and particularly, clinical legal education.  We are teaching at a time when the forces of change are converging on clinical legal education.  The publication of the Carnegie Report precipitated some of the impetus for change.  The current economic condition is another impetus for change.  I am interested in being a part of the dialogue and action facing the challenges to legal and clinical education. 

I have been a clinical teacher for 13 years.  During that time I have held many different teaching positions with differing levels of status.  At different times I have been a visiting professor, a “fellow” (but not in the sophisticated Georgetown model sense), a short-term contract supportive professional staff and, now, a Clinical Associate Professor eligible for a long-term contract.

In addition to a variety of statuses, I have taught in a variety of types of law schools.  They include very expensive private law schools and inexpensive public law schools.  Some schools have been “top tier” and some have been “lower tier” as determined by the U.S. News and World Report listings.  Some of the schools have had relatively large student bodies and faculty members, and some have had relatively small student bodies and faculty members.  The three law schools at which I have taught have different models and concepts of clinics and clinical teaching.   My clinical teaching journey has exposed me to many facets of clinical teaching.  I believe my experience would be a valuable asset to bring to the CLEA Board.

PATIENCE CROWDER

http://law.du.edu/index.php/profile/patience-crowder/

I joined the legal academy seven years ago as a clinical fellow in the Community Development Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law.   I had absolutely no idea then of how much being a clinical teacher would become such an integral part of my identity.  At the end of my three-year fellowship, I knew that I wanted to obtain a full-time clinical teaching position.  I joined the faculty at Tulsa College of Law, where I started a transactional law clinic.  During my third year at Tulsa, I learned about my current position at Denver Law where I have been happily teaching for just over one year.  These three tremendous opportunities motivate me to ask for your support of my candidacy for a position on the CLEA board. 

I am passionate about several issues that are reflected by CLEA’s mission.  My experience as a clinical fellow instilled in me the importance of professional development and mentoring for junior clinical faculty.  As a junior faculty member currently working with a clinical fellow, I’ve become particularly mindful about my development as a clinical teacher – with respect to both my interactions with my students and the clinical fellows who I will work with over the course of time.  With one exception, I’ve been fortunate to attend every clinical conference that has occurred since I’ve started teaching, and I’ve found these to be invaluable opportunities to explore new teaching methods while assessing my own development.  Similarly, I’ve been equally devoted to attending the annual Transactional Clinical Conference to focus more specifically on evolving teaching methods in my practice area.        

In addition, because I was hired by both Tulsa and Denver Law to form and teach transactional law clinics, I have unique insights into clinic and law school administration.  As such, I believe that I can contribute to conversations about the development of clinical programs as well as equity and status issues, particularly as these issues are connected to diversity issues throughout the legal academy.  I’ve already gotten some exposure to CLEA’s diversity initiatives as a member of the CLEA ABA Standards/LSAT Working group.

Finally, as a transactional clinician at a western law school, I hope to be able to offer a different voice and perspective on the organizational development of CLEA.  I hope that my perspective could be useful as CLEA works to advance existing initiatives, identify new initiatives, and meet the diverse needs of its membership – all while being an advocate for clinical teachers generally.  I am excited about this opportunity, and I thank you for your consideration. 

ANJUM (ANJU) GUPTA

http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/anjum-gupta

As my experiences and background suggest, I have, since law school, been dedicated to clinical legal education and serving minorities and the economically disadvantaged. Although I am a relatively new clinician, I will bring to CLEA board service my knowledge and experience with several different clinical programs. I currently serve as Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers-Newark, where I am launching a new Immigrant Rights Clinic (which I will direct) and teaching non-clinical courses, including courses on immigration and refugee Law and professional responsibility. Prior to joining the Rutgers faculty, I served as Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Students in that clinic represented immigrants seeking various forms of relief from removal before the Department of Homeland Security, the immigration courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the federal courts of appeals. I previously served as a Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Georgetown Law, and I began my law teaching career as a Clinical Fellow at the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall University School of Law, where students represented clients in cases involving asylum, human trafficking, domestic violence, immigrant labor rights, and criminal immigration issues.

I received my B.A. with high honors in psychology and women's studies from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and my J.D. from Yale Law School, where I was an Equal Justice America Fellow, Director of the Temporary Restraining Order Project Domestic Violence Clinic (which I co-founded), Student Director of the Rebellious Lawyering Conference, and an editorial board member of the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism. I participated in two clinics while at Yale: the Immigration Legal Services Clinic (where I also served as Student Director); and the Advocacy for Parents and Children Clinic. I also worked at the ACLU Immigrant Rights Project and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I clerked for the Honorable Chester J. Straub of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Charles P. Sifton of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

I have served as co-facilitator for the immigration working group at the AALS clinical conference and this year will serve as co-chair of the planning committee for the immigration clinicians' portion of the Immigration Law Teachers' Workshop. I recently spoke on a panel about minorities in academia at the Asian American Bar Association of New York's Fall Conference, and I will speak on a similar panel at a joint Conference of Asian American Law Faculty (CAPALF) and Northeast People of Color Conference (NEPOC) in November. As a relatively new clinician and a clinician of color, I am particularly interested in assisting with CLEA's initiatives with those two populations. 

JOHN (J.D.) KING

http://law.wlu.edu/faculty/profiledetail.asp?id=275

I was very pleased to be nominated to serve on the board of CLEA. I have been impressed with the organization and I would be honored to help out as a board member in any way that I can. In 2009, I started the Criminal Justice Clinic at Washington and Lee School of Law; I am currently the director of that clinic and an Associate Clinical Professor. Prior to my time at Washington and Lee, I taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Defender Aid Program, a post-conviction criminal defense clinic at the University of Wyoming College of Law. I was first introduced to the world of clinical teaching as a Prettyman Fellow in Georgetown’s Criminal Justice Clinic from 1999 to 2001.

This is an exciting and challenging time for clinical legal education and I would love the opportunity to help out through participation on the CLEA board. As the traditional model of legal education comes under increasing scrutiny and financial strain, clinical legal education can become a target. With CLEA, I would like to advocate on behalf of clinics and the instructors who teach in clinics during this time. The current debate over legal education provides us a great opportunity to articulate the value of the clinical model and to emphasize its importance for the future of legal education. I appreciate the great work that the members of CLEA have done in the past ad I would happily welcome the opportunity to serve on the board. 

KARLA MCKANDERS

http://www.law.utk.edu/faculty/mckanders/

I became a member of CLEA in 2006, when I was appointed a Reuschlein Clinical Teaching Fellow at Villanova University School of Law.   Entering into legal academia has permitted me to merge my passion for social justice with my enthusiasm for ensuring that law students graduate ready to practice law.  Since 2008, I have served as an Associate Professor of Law within the Advocacy Clinic at the University of Tennessee College of Law.  I focus my advocacy and research on immigration and asylum law. Currently, I have been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for the 2011-12 academic year and will be teaching refugee law and policy in Morocco.

 CLEA’s New Clinicians Conferences assisted me in my transition into legal academia and played a positive role in my development as a clinician.  I can recall attending the conference and sitting in a large circle with new clinicians discussing subjects such as clinical pedagogy, the non-directive method of supervision, balancing teaching and scholarship, and issues of status within the law school academy.  Being introduced to the community of clinicians in this manner positively impacted my teaching style and focus on clinical pedagogy.  Further, networking allowed me to meet and maintain relationships with new clinicians. It would be my pleasure to serve on the Board and this Committee to orient new clinicians into academia.

I am currently serving on a CLEA Committee that is examining the effectiveness of and alternatives to the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). This Committee is examining the role that CLEA should play in discussions regarding the replacement of the LSAT test. This is important to CLEA’s mission of reforming legal education to ensure that a diverse body of students enter the academy and become reflective practitioners.

Serving on the Board of Directors would allow me to enhance my service to CLEA by focusing on CLEA’s mission of fostering teaching and scholarship by clinical educators, reforming legal education so as to prepare law students for excellent and reflective law practice, and promoting justice and diversity in the legal profession. In regards my involvement with the CLEA Board, if elected I would be interested in actively participating in Board policy and organization discussions, and serving on conference and meeting planning committees. Further, I am particularly interested in working to bridge the gap between newer clinicians and the more seasoned generation of clinicians.  I would appreciate the opportunity to serve on the Board and continue the committed work that CLEA has accomplished for clinicians in legal academia.

SUZETTE M. MELÉNDEZ

http://www.law.syr.edu/deans-faculty-staff/profile.aspx?fac=104

I make this statement in support of my nomination for the CLEA Board.  I humbly accept the nomination and am very excited about the prospect of serving the clinical community in this capacity.  I have been the Director of the Children’s Rights & Family Law Clinic at Syracuse University’s College of Law for the past 8 years.  From the moment that I came onto the clinical scene, I have marveled at the level of energy, passion and commitment that radiates throughout this community on a national level.  I have felt welcomed initially and supported continuously by so many across institutions.  I have benefited from the generosity of spirit and professionalism of the CLEA members and, quite simply, I wish to give back.  Although I have presented at conferences and led small groups as well as having been an active participant, I wish to contribute to this community at a deeper level and, thus, I request to be made a member of your Board.  I also have enjoyed serving for the past two years on the Nominations Committee of the AALS Clinical Section Executive Committee.  This committee is chaired by JoNel Newman. 

I am prepared to dedicate myself to the fulfillment of the responsibilities of this Board during my tenure and would be willing to serve on committees such as Task Force on Minorities in Clinical Legal Education, Best Practices Implementation, New Clinicians, Per Diem, Membership/Outreach, Elections and Conferences just to name a few.   I am able to engage in a dialogue with many different people and would welcome the opportunity to “ask questions, get answers, be pushy and figure it out” (I have no problem being pushy! Respectfully, of course).  Having learned so much from this community, I am selfishly motivated in making this statement as I have no doubt that this is an environment in which I will continue to learn.  I have been so impressed over the years by the engagement of clinicians in their craft regardless of the number of years in clinical education and their desire to constantly “do it better”.  I would like to use my tenure on the Board to share that collective knowledge and to advance the goals of CLEA and promote its programs.  For all the reasons stated above, it would be my privilege and my honor to serve in this capacity.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if there are any questions.

BINNY MILLER

http://www.wcl.american.edu/faculty/miller/

I am grateful to have the opportunity to run for a second term on the CLEA board.   CLEA is an amazing organization that makes a huge difference in legal education and the lives of clinicians, and I am proud to have assisted CLEA with its efforts in the past 3 years.  I served on the CLEA elections committee for 2 years (and chaired the committee in one of those years), and am now chairing the CLEA diversity committee.  I am also working with the community of legal writing professors to better connect CLEA with the work of that community.  In 2011, CLEA co-sponsored the Applied Legal Storytelling conference with the Legal Writing Institute, and I look forward to working on future collaborations with the legal writing community. 

I am at heart an integrationist when it comes to the role of clinics in the larger law school.  I believe that clinical education has its greatest impact on law students and the legal profession when clinics are fully integrated into the workings of the larger law school.  But I also believe that as clinical teachers we should not lose sight of our unique identities as law professors who are passionate about the social justice mission of clinical teaching, and about serving clients.   For those of us who teach in live-client clinics, or in externship or “hybrid” type clinics, our professional lives look and feel different than those of our nonclinic colleagues.  As clinical teachers, we can use the lessons of theory and practice to improve legal education, the legal profession and the clients that we serve. 

I have been a clinical teacher for more than 20 years, with all of that time spent at American University’s Washington College of Law.  Teaching, practice, scholarship and service are all important parts of my identity as a clinical teacher.  I supervise law students who represent clients on misdemeanor, felony and juvenile charges; spending time in court with students and clients reminds me about why I became a clinical teacher.  I have served as a small group leader and a concurrent session presenter at the annual AALS clinic conferences and workshops, and as a member of the Board of Editors of the Clinical Law Review, a CLEA-sponsored organization.  I continue to volunteer as a workshop facilitator at the Clinical Law Review’s annual writing workshop.  I believe that organizations such as CLEA, the Clinical Law Review, and the AALS Clinical Section are critical sites for action concerning clinical education and its place in legal education.   I hope to continue my work with CLEA as a member of its Board for the next 3 years.

JEFFREY POKORAK

http://www.law.suffolk.edu/faculty/directories/faculty.cfm?InstructorID=45

I am asking you, Comrade CLEA Members, to please support me for another term on the Board. 

This is a challenging time for legal education as an industry and for law students and future lawyers as a profession.  The grinding economic crisis is felt in all but a few law schools.  Fewer student applicants, a seriously changed employment scene, less external giving, the elimination of many federal grants – all lead to an uncertain future at our institutions.  And uncertainty in legal education is often first felt in clinical programs.  Hiring freezes, post-grant layoffs, increased demands for program justification are just some of the negative effects we all have seen over the past few years.  At the same time, an exciting review of the structure of legal education is taking place.  Carnegie and Best Practices offer new ways to think about positive education programming for our students.  They also offer opportunities for opponents of clinical faculty status to demand sacrifices from our community when no such similar request is made of the non-clinical faculty.  My first term on the CLEA Board may have happened at the beginning of this crisis, but I swear it is correlative, not causative!

For those who do not yet know me, I am the Director of Clinical Programs at Suffolk University Law School.  As such, I have had a hand in rebuilding Suffolk’s program and working with some of the finest clinical professors in the country.  I fancy myself an institutionalist and innovator who seeks maximization of clinical education.  “Mandatory Clinics!” is my unrealized goal, but together with the Suffolk clinical team we have been successful in bringing more and more varied clinical and internship opportunities to our students.  Although CLEA was conceived as an advocacy organization for clinical educators, I have always considered it equally one of the only organized voices for law students and quality education in the professional discussions of faculty, deans, and administrators.  This is part of the vision I will continue to bring to the CLEA Board.

CLEA has allowed me to become increasingly involved in the national efforts to maintain the quality of legal education.  Although I previously had some inkling of the function of the ABA in the accreditation of law schools (we all see some of their representatives every seven years) I had no idea until my first term on the Board just how revolutionary a policy making body might be.  In the case of the Standards Review Committee over the past three years, the revolution was all in the direction of laissez faire education with dictatorial powers suggested for Deans and really no substantive minimal standards offered in return to protect the quality of law student education.   The American Law Deans Association maneuvered into critical positions of power offering 1999 ideological solutions for 21^st century challenges.  Further, the combined effects of the recommendations of those agenda-ed folks who had captured the process would lead to a more wealthy, white, and less prepared law graduate.  CLEA stands, sometimes alone, against that dystopian future.  Over the past two years, I was honored to work on the CLEA teams that helped draft responses on security of position and LL.M law studies skills requirements.  I have been proud to add my small efforts in this struggle to the truly inspiring work of other CLEA officers and Board members.  I feel that I am now come to the point where I fairly understand the stakes and strategies of our endeavor and I am eager to have the opportunity to continue work on these important issues.

I also have worked on other CLEA initiatives including the elections committee and the new clinician’s trainings.  If re-elected, I will also work to revive the annual creative writing competition which has languished of late.  I have enjoyed – and benefitted – from my first term on the Board.  I hope that I will again be chosen to serve and represent you, my colleagues, and all of our students for another term.

LETICIA M. SAUCEDO

http://www.law.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Saucedo/index.aspx

I am seeking a place on the CLEA board this year because I believe that I bring both diversity and experience to the board’s mission and activities.  I have been a clinician since I entered the legal academy in 2003.  I am currently the director of clinical programs at U.C. Davis School of Law, where I oversee the operation of four clinics.  Previously, I was the co-director of the immigration clinic at Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I expanded clinical course offerings while at UNLV, by offering a transnational clinical course in addition to the immigration clinic work.  I also worked with students and alumnae to create learning and pro bono opportunities in the communities in which the law school operates.

Throughout my career as a clinician, I have experienced the opportunities and the challenges of experiential and clinical legal education.  I have been actively involved in discussions about the place and the importance of clinical legal education within my own institution. I have focused much of my work within the law school on seeking support from the faculty for expanded clinical offerings and on generating faculty discussion about the pedagogical benefits of clinical education.  I would like to join the discussion at a more national policy-making level, which is why I want to join the CLEA board.

In January 2011, I was appointed to the AALS Standing Committee on Clinical Legal Education.   Since my appointment, I have learned much from the CLEA leadership about the issues that clinicians like me face in our schools on a daily basis.  I believe that I will be a more effective member of the AALS Standing Committee if I have access to the thoughts, opinions, and positions of CLEA members and the CLEA board.  I am hoping that, as a CLEA board member, I can support the efforts of the organization in venues like standing committee meetings.

I began my career as a clinician at a school with an integrated tenure track.  I am currently tenured at a law school where clinicians have security of status, but are not on an integrated tenure-track.  I understand the opportunities and challenges of an integrated tenure track model and I want to contribute to the discussion of the issues surrounding security of status.   I would be honored to join a distinguished group of clinicians seeking to ensure that clinical legal education remains a strong, viable and growing component of legal education.

JANET THOMPSON JACKSON

http://washburnlaw.edu/faculty/jackson-janet.php

I would be honored to serve as a CLEA Board member.  My interest in and commitment to clinical legal education preceded my teaching in this area.  As an executive for a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC serving homeless and at-risk families, I was part of a consortium of legal service providers that included clinical professors.  From that experience I learned the valuable role that clinical programs contribute to the provision of social and legal services in low-income communities.  I then took the position of Clinical Fellow at the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Community Development Clinic in 2002.  While there, I was introduced to CLEA through active members with whom I taught in UB’s clinical program.  As a new clinician, I soon found CLEA to be a rich source of information and support.

After joining the faculty of Washburn University School of Law in 2004, I initiated the Small Business and Nonprofit Transactional Clinic.  As the only transactional clinician at Washburn Law, I have relied on the support and encouragement of other members of CLEA who are involved in transactional clinics.  I also have had the opportunity to give presentations for CLEA members at the AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education and to grow professionally and personally from the many workshops and activities I have attended.

As a member of the CLEA Board, I would welcome the opportunity to further contribute to CLEA through planning and involvement in activities and committees.  I have particular interest in the Best Practices Implementation committee and the Task Force on Minorities in Clinical Legal Education.  Above all, it would be a privilege to represent the interests of the clinical community through service on the CLEA Board.  Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.