Is it possible to go from Zero to 60? An evaluation of one effort to build Belief, Capacity, and Community in Street Law Instructors in One Weekend

Authors

  • Seán Arthurs
  • Melinda Cooperman
  • Jessica Gallagher
  • Dr Freda Grealy
  • John Lunney
  • Rob Marrs
  • Richard Roe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19164/ijple.v1i1.639

Abstract

“From Zero to Sixty: Building Belief, Capacity, and Community in Street Law Instructors in One Weekend”,[1] offered guidance in how to prepare law students to teach Street Law through an annotated step-by-step outline of a unique weekend orientation program developed and field-tested by the seminal Georgetown Street Law program and delivered in partnership with the Law Societies of Ireland and Scotland. Although this seminal paper provided scholars and practitioners with invaluable resources, recommendations, and insights, readers left this original paper with a critical unanswered question: Does this orientation program actually work?

In the present paper, we strongly answer that question in the affirmative. We briefly revisit our original paper as context and then present, share, and discuss both quantitative and qualitative data gathered to evaluate how effectively the orientation program accomplished its stated goals of building belief, capacity, and community in Street Law instructors in one weekend.  The results derived from the data collected in both Ireland and Scotland evidence a series of powerful outcomes that support the orientation program’s efficacy and impact. We hope that the transformative change in attitudes and student growth measured over the course of the weekend will act as a catalyst to practitioners seeking to prepare the next generation of Street Lawyers and launch the next wave of Street Law programs.

 

[1] Arthurs, S., Cooperman, M., Gallagher, J., Grealy, F., Lunney, J., Marrs, R., & Roe, R. (2017). From Zero to 60: Building Belief, Capacity and Community in Street Law Instructors in One Weekend. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, 24(2), 118-241

Author Biographies

Seán Arthurs

Seán Arthurs was a Clinical Teaching Fellow with the Street Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center from 2011-2013 and an adjunct professor with the Clinic in 2014. He has presented, written, and trained on learner centered education with diverse audiences in a variety of contexts around the globe.

Melinda Cooperman

Melinda Cooperman is an attorney at the Children’s Law Center (CLC) in Washington, D.C., where she represents children in abuse and neglect cases as a guardian ad litem, and works as a consultant in the field of law related education. Prior to joining CLC, Melinda taught at the Street Law Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center and ran the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project at American University’s Washington College of Law.

Jessica Gallagher

Jessica Gallagher was the 2014-2016 Clinical Teaching Fellow with the Street Law Clinic at GULC.  She earned her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2012 and is a member of the North Carolina Bar. 

Dr Freda Grealy

Dr. Freda Grealy is a solicitor and Head of the Diploma Centre at the Law Society of Ireland. She introduced Street Law to the Law Society in 2013 and leads a number of their Street Law Programmes. 

John Lunney

John Lunney is a solicitor and course manager at the Diploma Centre of the Law Society of Ireland and also leads their Street Law programme. 

Rob Marrs

Rob Marrs is Head of Education at the Law Society of Scotland and leads on implementation of Street Law. 

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Published

2017-10-11

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2017)

Section

From the Field

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