Preparing Lawyers for Practice: Developing Cultural Competency, Communication Skills, and Content Knowledge through Street Law Programs
Abstrakt
The paper focuses on law students' experiences with Street Law courses. The paper concludes that Street Law provides significant and often unique benefits for law students, including developing vital cultural competency skills, practicing legal communication with nonlawyers, and cementing content knowledge in a nonacademic environment.
The text also includes a comparison of the legal practice benefits of Street Law and other traditional and clinical credit-bearing law school courses. The paper concludes that Street Law is equally meritorious and, because of the rigorous academically and professionally valuable experience gained from participation in Street Law programs, law students should be awarded academic credit for their work.
This paper includes: a background discussion of Street Law programs; an explanation of the study methodology; a summary of the study results, including a detailed examination of the five most common themes; personal reflections from six law students who participated in Street Law; a brief discussion of other law-related education programs taught by law students; and final conclusions and recommendations.