You can find here the PDF version of the English and French Call for Proposals for Participation.
A Joint Conference of the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education & the Canadian Association of Law Teachers
The Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE) and the Canadian Association of Law Teachers (CALT) are pleased to announce that our annual conferences for 2018 will be held jointly at the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), from Thursday 31 May to Saturday 2 June 2018.
The theme of the joint conference is “The Whole Lawyer 2.0” and we are pleased to release this Call for Proposals for Participation.
Background to Theme
At our 2017 joint conference, we were collectively introduced to and initially explored the notion of “the whole lawyer”. We did so through the work of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) in its “Foundations for Practice” study, as well through the Calls for Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Our initial explorations raised many issues, concerns and questions of ongoing significance and interest. This successive joint conference will more fully explore key topics related to “the whole lawyer” and continue critical conversations related to several key sub-themes.
Thematic Key Topics
This conference again brings together legal educators, clinicians, and others involved in legal education before, during and after law school. The conference will focus on the contributions of law schools, legal clinics and other experiential education programs, regulators, the bar, and professional development programs in producing “the whole lawyer”. In order to build on last year’s sessions, we have identified, below, a number of key topics within that theme that we suggest are particularly deserving of further exploration:
- Legal Education and the TRC Calls for Action: Ongoing responses & critical conversations
- App-Lawyer Issues: Technological Know-how in Legal Education
- The Concept and Definition of ‘Competency’: Friend or Foe?
- The What, Why, and How of Legal Education for ‘The Character Quotient’ and other ‘Soft Skills’
- New Approaches to the ‘Old Skills’ in Legal Education: Lectures and Exams are Dead, Long Live the Lecture and the Exam!
- Legal Education and Professional Identity Development: So You Want to Be a Community Lawyer?
- Addressing and Advancing Access to Justice in Legal Education
- Articling and Alternatives: Issues, Challenges and Reform in ‘Transitional Training’
- Teaching and Learning Legal Ethics: Approaches in the Classroom and the Clinic
Non-Thematic Topics
CALT and ACCLE each plan to have portions of their programs set aside for non-theme events or sessions (e.g. Teaching Tips & Troubleshooting Workshop; Clinical Supervision Workshop; Regulatory Issues Roundtable; New or Improved Clinics Showcase). We therefore also welcome proposals for presentations or sessions relating to non-thematic topics. Please note though that we are NOT inviting proposals relating to general areas of research.
Call for Proposals for Participation
We invite you to submit Proposals for Participation that relate to a thematic key topic or a non-theme topic of interest to the joint audience. Proposals can be for an individual contribution or for a collective exploration.
Regardless of whether individual or collective, we encourage contributions that aim to activate engagement, exchange and interaction among participants. The traditional session formats used at the joint conference are Panel, Workshop or Roundtable, but proposals for use of other formats are welcome, including demonstrations or experiments in non-traditional or dynamic presentation formats (such as Pecha Kucha). Conference organizers may seek more information on formats for collective explorations. Individual contributions will usually be grouped thematically and may require collaboration among the individuals to ensure a coherent and engaging session.
Submissions: This year, we are asking conference participants to submit proposals by filling in a Google form, found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSciwv0LS2D2fB-idkuI4SgiC2uiTCm36y5rNKWLZgQPCLPl9w/viewform. Please submit your proposal via the Google form by Friday January 12, 2018.
Proposals will be reviewed and selected by members of the ACCLE /CALT Conference Committee based on their quality and relevance to the theme and goals of the conference.
Questions about this call for participation should be directed to Prof. Gemma Smyth gemma.smyth@uwindsor.ca (for ACCLE) or Prof. David Wiseman dwiseman@uottawa.ca (for CALT).
PLEASE NOTE: All participants will be responsible for their own conference expenses.