Background

Law practice is replete with what Michael Polanyi called “tacit knowledge” – knowledge that isn’t taught but is learned through experiences, relationships, and other sources. Relatively little has been meaningfully or empirically studied regarding the intricacies of real client interactions in law, meaning that much of the lawyer-client, lawyer-judge, lawyer-colleague, etc. relationship is comprised of tacit knowledge. This type of knowledge is an inevitable part of any practice context; however, it is particularly acute in applied legal education. This is one explanation for why “first generation” students often find law school alienating – much of law is known only to “insiders”, or people who already have exposure to the legal field. Alienation can be even more significant in the transition from law classroom to the law field, particularly in client-facing roles.

This third edition of “Learning in Place: A Living Landscape of Practice” gives law students and students-at-law background and tools to enter law-related work placement more confidently and reflectively. The book aims to tackle the “tacit knowledge” problem by setting out in plain language what many lawyers come to take for granted. It also includes student and new lawyer voice through the inclusion of student reflections. While the text has also been useful for new lawyers, the book has a learning focus that lends itself to a more stylized placement context such as clinics, externships, internships, and articling.

This book and any accompanying class or mentorship program are parts of an overall workplace experience intended to support reflective learning and skill development. This book does not engage with the substantive legal knowledge more common in a law classroom, or with the specific cases, policies, legislation and practices of a particular practice area. We assume each work or placement context provides its own substantive legal training. As law students quickly learn in a placement context, law-in-action is often unique between jurisdictions – even within the same province or territory – and different again from the law as it is written. This is why the reflections from law students on their experiences are vitally important to this book; law students give experiential depth and essential insights based on their insights as novice practitioners. These novice insights can be the most important in uncovering the hidden and under-recognized aspects of law practice.

There are aspects of the text that overlap with some bar preparation courses, legal theory and professional legal ethics courses, and clinical courses. The text also canvases topics often left to “co-curricular” contexts such as mental health and wellness and career planning. Other topics include the context of law practice and common workplace challenges that shape the earliest days of becoming a lawyer. While there are definitions and substantive materials included here, this text is less about “knowledge transfer” than it is about ways of understanding and lending insight to legal practice and the interpretive lenses students will bring to their profession. It is for this reason that we start, here, with a quote from Paulo Freire. His method emphasizes the dialetic relationship between the student, teacher, and their environments. His emphasis on communication as the method by which this relationship is realized mirrors the pedagogy in many clinical and externship classes.

This text also takes theory and critical perspectives seriously. Therefore, students will see reference to theoretical and critical approaches intended to question how law is assumed to “be” and “be done”. It does not shy away from the thornier and more problematic realities of practice and law more generally. We have made efforts to supply resources and supports and to take a strengths-based approach (in short, a strengths-based or asset-based approach means focusing on a person’s or a community’s positive attributes and strengths rather than focusing solely on weaknesses or deficits). This text includes discussions of racism, sexism, intersectional oppression, and many other forms of discrimination.

How to Use this Book

1) Content Forecasts

Readers bring a host of their own life experiences to a learning experience. In a clinic, internship, externship or other work-informed context, many students report experiencing very challenging, emotional situations during their placements. “Living” these challenging situations can bring with it a layer of extra intensity. These materials bridge the gap between law practice and deal with serious issues not often addressed either in the classroom or practice. Because these experiences and materials may impact students differently (and perhaps more deeply), the text includes content forecasts when there are stories of discrimination, harassment and abuse that are not obvious from the title. This is not to exclude or patronize but to express care and to allow students to prepare to engage with potentially difficult but essential topics.

2) Reflective Questions

Students will see reflective questions throughout the text. Reflective practice is essential to professional improvement, access to justice, ethical practice and wellness. Some questions and exercises will resonate and some will not. Students may wish to choose exercises and reflections that work for them and ignore others.

3) Skills

The text contains some substantive content on lawyering skills such as interviewing and client counseling. These are typically skills taught in the externship site itself, but students have historically appreciated a basic introduction. The text does not cover all substantive legal skills.

4) Order & Depth

The text does not need to be read systematically from start to finish. Students can choose which parts are most helpful at different points throughout an externship. Students can also read just the material written here, or may choose to watch the videos, follow the links and read more in-depth if a topic is of interest. Often, there are short quotes or excerpts from pieces that may pique a student’s interest. The reference or link to the full text is available throughout the text, as well as in the final “References” section at the end of each Chapter.

Theory of “Learning in Place: A Living Landscape of Practice”

From a theoretical perspective, this text takes what other professions refer to as an “ecological view” of practice. This approach understands humans as shaped by their environments on many levels – including with themselves. It is usually used as a framework to understanding clients and communities. In this context, it situates the student/lawyer as a human in relationship to themselves, their immediate environment, their work context, and many other contexts and systems that shape experience. It also considers the systems that make up legal work environments – the workplace itself, its governance and management (boards, partners, etc.), and court systems. Finally, the ecological view allows us to consider sociopolitical, economic, colonial, and other systems that impact both individuals and systems – systems that often interact on clients and communities in harmful ways. The practice of law is shaped by relationships – the relationships of law students and lawyers to themselves, their communities, colleagues, workplaces, and environments.

The idea of a “living landscape” also reflects an ecological view, where human beings actively shape the environment around them. This includes the lawyers, clients, community members, the environment, families – the many people that influence the landscape of law practice.

Finally, this text takes a legal realist view that emphasizes the analysis of law as it exists in practice rather than (or perhaps alongside) how it exists in written law. This is because “law on the ground” – which students often confront in a work-informed context – can be messier, more unpredictable, and varied than how it is often presented in texts. Social context also plays a much more significant role in legal reasoning than often presented; as such, students will be encouraged to consider the contextual background of practice.