ACCLE is pleased to submit feedback on Bill C-75, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and other Acts and to make consequential amendments to other Acts. ACCLE heard from members that they were concerned with the impacts of Bill C-75 on students’ ability to represent clients in summary conviction criminal matters, as well as the impacts on clients. This submission (please see below pdf) speaks to both concerns. Many thanks to the ACCLE Board, Professors Jillian Rogin and Gemma Smyth, Ms. Johanna Dennie and law student Parmis Goudzarzimalayeri for their work on this submission.

Bill C75 ACCLE Feedback Final

In 2018, the ACCLE Policy Committee conducted a survey of clinicians and clinical legal education programs across Canada to better understand the state of clinical legal education in Canada. The report outlines three primary, overarching themes: the working conditions and status of clinicians, operational concerns, and pedagogical and instructional supports. Based on these results, ACCLE looks forward to further working with our membership in shaping our advocacy over the next several years. Please contact ACCLE President Gemma Smyth (gemma.smyth@uwindsor.ca) with any feedback about this report.

Final ACCLE Policy Committee Report (pdf)

Final ACCLE Policy Committee Report (doc)

In 2018, the Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education (ACCLE) Policy Committee surveyed clinicians and academics working in clinical legal education. Please read our Final ACCLE Policy Committee Report which contains the results of this membership survey. Concerns raised by respondents include funding, working conditions, job security, and pedagogical challenges. We look forward to discussing these results and pathways forward at our 2018 conference.

ACCLE / ACECD (Association for Canadian Clinical Legal Education / Association Canadienne pour l’enseignement clinique du droit) is thrilled to announce that it will once again co-host its annual Conference with CALT / APCD (Canadian Association of Law Teachers / L’Association Canadienne des professeurs de droit) from Thursday, May 31 – Saturday, June 2, 2018. Our joint conference will take place at the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Please mark the date on your calendars and plan to join us in Kingston, Ontario for this exciting event!

We have partnered with CALT for our ninth annual conference due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from last year’s conference in Victoria, British Columbia. ACCLE is comprised of a group of individuals and clinics interested in supporting clinical legal education in Canada. The organization shares best practices, pedagogies and other information related to clinical legal education. ACCLE encourages the promotion and improvement of clinical legal education in Canadian law schools, promotes clinical pedagogy and research, and facilitates the dissemination of information pertaining to clinical legal education to clinicians in Canada. Each year, ACCLE hosts a conference in various locations across Canada for the above mentioned purpose. Speakers address a wide range of issues relating to clinical legal education.

Please see our English and French Call for Proposals for Participation for further information.

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:

1. Legal Education and the TRC Calls for Action: Ongoing responses & critical conversations
2. App-Lawyer Issues: Technological Know-how in Legal Education
3. The Concept and Definition of ‘Competency’: Friend or Foe?
4. The What, Why, and How of Legal Education for ‘The Character Quotient’ and other ‘Soft Skills’
5. New Approaches to the ‘Old Skills’ in Legal Education: Lectures and Exams are Dead, Long Live the Lecture and the Exam!
6. Legal Education and Professional Identity Development: So You Want to Be a Community Lawyer?
7. Addressing and Advancing Access to Justice in Legal Education
8. Articling and Alternatives: Issues, Challenges and Reform in ‘Transitional Training’
9. 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.