The Legacy of Clinical Education: Theories about Lawyering

This article will examine some of the various schools of thought about what lawyers do. It is offered as a commentary on the beginning of a philosophy or sociology of lawyering that is derived from the clinical movement which will survive long after the pedagogical and political disputes about clinical methodology have been resolved. This is a subjective study which incorporates my own interpretations of the concepts of the various schools of thought. I describe the approaches to or theories about lawyering and their "creators" as I know them, recognizing that some major theories, schools and people may not for one reason or another have come to my attention.

The schools of thought discussed may suffer from some distortion both in their description and their attributions. Yet, even a slightly distorted description of an approach to lawyering can help us to frame and to respond to questions about the lawyer's function in a legal system. Although there is controversy surrounding different views about the pedagogy or methodology of clinical legal education, the focus of this discussion is on the theories of what it means to be a lawyer in our legal system, as they have developed from the clinical experience.