Seeing Things As We Are. Emotional Intelligence and Clinical Legal Education

Abstract

This paper considers the relevance of emotional intelligence for the cognitively dominated law school. I describe the crisis in the American legal profession and suggest how those problems are likely to be replicated in Australia. I examine what little we know about the impact of law schools on students and find the extant research is not encouraging. The paper considers how clinical legal education provides the best opportunities to engage with students on levels that could make a difference to their inner wellbeing in practice. I then look briefly at our developing understanding of emotional intelligence and its relevance in clinical legal education. The last part considers specific opportunities already in many clinical programs for encouraging students to develop their emotional capacities.