Bluhm Legal Clinic Leads National Organizations for Law School Clinical Faculty

The Clinic is pleased to share that two of our faculty members are currently leading the two national organizations for law school clinical and experiential faculty. Clinical Professor Shobha Mahadev from the Children and Family Justice Center is the co-president of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA).  Professor Cindy Wilson, the Director of the Center for Externships, is the co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS Clinical Section). With more than 1600 dues-paying members, CLEA is the largest association of law professors in the nation and advocates for clinical legal education as fundamental to the education of lawyers. The AALS is a non-profit organization of over 200 law schools whose mission is to uphold and advance excellence in legal education, and the Clinical Section supports clinical faculty from schools across the country.  Both CLEA and the AALS Clinical Section advocate for clinical and experiential faculty and support clinical teaching and scholarship.

Shobha and Cindy have both been active participants in national clinical legal education efforts for many years. Their work has included speaking at national conferences on law school education, testifying before the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, and chairing the annual clinical conference. They have also worked to ensure that CLEA and the AALS Clinical Section support each other’s efforts and work. This appears to be the first time that professors from the same law school have led the two national clinical groups in the same year. It is also the first time that any professor from the Bluhm Clinic has led either organization.