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Elliott Milstein, Dean Rivkin, Wally Mlyniec and Ann Shalleck drafted a letter to the ABA Council on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar opposing the new approach to clinicians’ security of position adopted by the Special Committee on Security of Position; the report, with its alternative approach, amounts to a recommendation to replace current ABA standard 405(c). Standard 405(c) requires that clinical faculty have security of position “substantially similar” to that of other faculty; the alternative would seriously weaken the protection of clinicians within the academic life of their law schools. The substitute would judge the sufficiency of faculty status of clinical teachers on three criteria--whether academic freedom is protected, whether a law school is able to hire and retain a competent faculty, and whether the school permits limited participation in faculty governance. This approach, if adopted and embodied in a new standard, would be a big loss for clinical education. The attached letter, written just shortly before the due date for comments to the ABA Council, was drafted quickly and disseminated unsystematically to meet the deadline for submission. Some of you may have seen it already and had a chance to sign on. The drafters hope that the letter serves to outline for the Council the grave danger to clinical education and the educational mission of law schools that the proposed alternative approach embodies. Even with limited time and few resources, the drafters put together broad support for protecting the role clinical faculty play in shaping legal education. While we do not know what will follow the meeting of the Council at the ABA meeting in August, there will be many ways to join in. Click here to read the letter.
© Copyright 2005 by CLEA
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