Advocating for Clinic from the
“Outside”: Lessons from the
Coalface in Ireland
Larry Donnelly
Manager, Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA) (www.pila.ie)
Lecturer & Director of Clinical Legal Education,
School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway
(on leave 9/2010-9/2012) (www.nuigalway.ie/law)
International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conference
Durham, UK, July 2012
The Public Interest Law Alliance
(PILA)
 engendered by a 2005 international
conference on public interest law
 founded by the Free Legal Advice
Centres Ltd (FLAC), a 40+ year old
human rights organisation promoting
access to justice
 PILA’s remit: to advance the use of
law in the public interest in Ireland
PILA’s work to advance public
interest law in Ireland
 engage with non-governmental
organisations/mobilise legal
practitioners
 pro bono register
 support the alliance: communications
and events
 lobby law schools re: Clinical Legal
Education
PILA’s efforts to develop and
expand Clinical Legal Education
 outreach to third-level institutions
and professional law schools
 promoting Clinical Legal Education
programmes and teaching of public
interest law
 today’s law students are tomorrow’s
senior counsel, managing partners
and judges
Clinical Legal Education in Ireland
 still lags behind other jurisdictions
 denominated clinical posts and
externship-based clinics at the
National University of Ireland, Galway
and University College Cork
 clinical offerings at other third-level
institutions and professional schools
 new clinical programmes planned
(e.g., University College Dublin)
PILA working from the “outside”
 guest lectures to classes and
presentations to student societies
 meetings with law school deans and
other interested academics
 publication of law journal articles and
delivery of conference papers
 but. . .still on the outside
Obstacles PILA has encountered
 lack of resources (Irish students pay
very little in fees, cuts in government
funding, dearth of philanthropic
sources and alumni giving)
 ill-fitting structures (rise of the Ph.D.
as the sine qua non, loss of law
school autonomy, uncertain future of
professional legal training)
 *inconsistent clinical pedagogy*
Defining “Irish” Clinical Legal
Education – 1
 academic credit for participation
 “It was, and is, apparent that course
credit in the academic world is the
equivalent of money in our society.
Course credit is the medium of
exchange, incentive, and measure of
value of certain matters and things. The
more credit awarded, the greater the
time and effort invested by students and
faculty supervisors.”
Defining “Irish” Clinical Legal
Education – 2
 focus on experiential learning
 “The placement demonstrated for me
the limits of the law and how, within
its confines, there is very little place
for the victim and the victimised. The
person is sometimes invisible. The
law can only extend so far. . .”
Defining “Irish” Clinical Legal
Education – 3
 promote social justice and protect
human rights
 “What makes clinical legal education
a global phenomenon is the
worldwide importance of its ultimate
goal: preparing future lawyers for
high-quality, ethical law practice
grounded in a legal profession
dedicated to social justice.”
PILA’s next steps
 moving “inside”: partnership with NUI
Galway School of Law
 establish Irish Clinical Legal Education
Association (ICLEA?)
 formalise links with clinicians
internationally
 international conference in Galway –
yet focus on development of clinical
legal education within Ireland
Why are we doing this?
 “It [the clinical movement] is the
commitment to developing, testing,
adapting, comprehending, and
explaining a practical conception of
justice in action, teaching law
students that the privileged class of
lawyers possess the responsibility to
facilitate a just society.”
Bibliography
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David Barnhizer, “The University Ideal and Clinical Legal Education,” 35
New York Law School Law Review 87 (1990).
Frank Bloch, “Access to Justice and the Global Clinical Movement,” 28
Washington University Journal of Law and Policy 111 (2008).
Lawrence Donnelly, “Irish Clinical Legal Education Ab Initio: Challenges
and Opportunities,” (2008-2009) 13 International Journal of Clinical
Legal Education 56.
Lawrence Donnelly, “Clinical Legal Education in Ireland: Some
Transatlantic Musings,” 4 Phoenix Law Review 7 (2010).
Lawrence Donnelly, “Developing Irish Clinical Legal Education,” in
(Thomas Mohr and Jennifer Schweppe eds.) 30 Years of Legal
Scholarship (Dublin, Round Hall, 2011) 359.
William Pincus, “Remarks at the CLEPR 40th Anniversary Celebration,”
16 Clinical Law Review 23 (2009).
Richard Wilson, “Western Europe: Last Holdout in the Worldwide
Acceptance of Clinical Legal Education,” (2009) 10 German Law Journal
823.