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Information Literacy & Clinical Legal Learning and Practice

Hugo KellyLaw & Official Publications LibrarianNUI Galway

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The Clinical Legal Model has a number of elements

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The Library is the first place of practice for law students

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The Library as place can accommodate Clinical Legal Practice

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The Law collections can be a teaching tool as well as a research tool.....

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Legal Literacy is well established

• In 98% of all institutions law library staff were involved in providing legal research skills training.

SLS/BIALL Academic Law Library Survey 2010/2011

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BIALL Legal Literacy Standards

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• Research skill 1 - Demonstrate an understanding of the need for the thorough investigation of all relevant factual and legal issues involved in a research task

• Research skill 2 - Demonstrate the ability to undertake systematic and comprehensive legal research

• Research skill 3 - Demonstrate the ability to analyse research findings effectively

• Research skill 4 - Demonstrate the ability to present the results of research in an appropriate and effective manner

• Research skill 5 – Continuing Professional Development – refreshing the legal research skills required of a modern lawyer

So law students should be able to transfer their legal literacy skills to the workplace…..

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What are the most important research abilities for US Law Firms?

• Meyer, Patrick, 2012 Law Firm Legal Research Requirements for New Attorneys (September 26, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1953437 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1953437

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Firm Size .Research Task

Total

Case law 89.4 %

Cost Effective 86.9%

Secondary Sources 78.8%

Citator Services 78.1%

Legislation Codes 65%

Scorched Earth Research

• Multiple transactional searches. Not clearly defining the search query before going online. Scorched earth research.

• Too used to flat rate access from law school; they search Westlaw and Lexis like they're running a search in Google - trial & error. They don't know how to be specific as to what databases they actually need to use. Don't understand to search with broader search strings, then focus down to save on costs.

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It’s not so much that students research badly, it’s that they do it all

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Back to the BIALL Survey• IT or database workshops were the most popular method of delivery, used

by 81% of all respondents

• large group sessions were the next most popular method of delivery used by 75% of all respondents

• Student workbooks, which enable hands-on self-paced learning, were used by just 20%

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Kolb Learning Cycle

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• Reflective Observation & Abstract Conceptualisation

• The student will not learn unless he reflects and develops his abstract understanding, in this instance, about the availability of cases.

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• This is where we can learn from Clinical Legal Practice

• Instead of giving direction (which only involves part of the learning cycle)

• We pose a real legal problem.....

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Instead of “This is where you find European Union Court of Justice cases....”

“You need to produce the official European Union Case report for a competition case that you are working on.”

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Instead of:

“This is how you find an act.......”

We can reframe the question and pose it within a legal scenario

“A client comes to you. His neighbour has a dog that barks all night. Can you find any legislation that will help address this problem?”

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• So in essence the Library can be good for Clinical Legal Education by presenting and promoting the physical possibilities of the building and legal resources

• But the theory of Clinical Legal Education can be good for us in the Law Library where it offers us a pedagogic structure

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