Scholarship@WashULaw

Document Type

Article

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

2002

Publication Title

Clinical Law Review

Abstract

Although clinical legal education is an established part of American legal education, few commentators have considered how the ethical issues governing lawyers' conflicts of interest and competency apply in the law school clinic context. This article fills that gap by identifying and explaining the ethical obligations law clinic students and supervising clinical faculty encounter in case and client selection due to conflict of interest and competency considerations. It analyzes various conflicts of interest due to prior, current, or future employment of law clinic students and faculty, and it explores conflicts based on the status of clinical faculty as employees of the law school and university. The article also discusses the components of effective conflict-checking systems, and suggests model conflict-checking procedures. Additionally, the article considers the duty of competence owed to law school clinic clients, clinical faculty's ethical duties to clients, and issues of adequate assistance of counsel in criminal cases handled by law school clinic students. The article concludes that in spite of the burdens that greater focus on conflicts of interest and competence issues might impose on law school clinic programs, clinic students, faculty, and clients will benefit from such efforts.

Keywords

Conflict of Interest, Clinical Education, Competency Issues, Legal Clinics

Publication Citation

Peter A. Joy & Robert R. Kuehn, Conflict of Interest and Competency Issues in Law Clinic Practice, 9 Clinical L. Rev. 493 (2002)

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