Priya Baskaran, Laila Hlass, Allison Korn, and Sarah Sherman-Stokes
Experiential courses include law clinics, externships, simulations, as well as practicums, a relatively new experiential course term, referring to a modified externship program where students work on a project or case under the direction of a supervising attorney, while also taking an associated seminar covering related subject-matter doctrine, theory and/or skills. This chapter will illustrate how popular multimedia is an effective teaching tool to introduce core lawyering skills, critical topics and legal concepts by providing a shared experience where students can identify issues together, providing an easy and comfortable space for students to begin to discuss critical topics or provide critique of skills. This is particularly true because some of the “worst” lawyering is on display in popular multimedia, so students feel comfortable taking part in critique, and multimedia provides a humorous and alternative medium that engages students. Popular multimedia can also create a safe and accessible space to unpack and discuss larger socio-economic, political, racial, and structural schema that affect the lives of clients in a clinic or practicum setting. Because law students’ experiences may be vastly different from those of their clients, multimedia can be effectively harnessed to ease students into discussions regarding these complicated and difficult topics, empowering them to be more thoughtful and successful advocates who better understand the systems and structures that impact their clients’ lives. Popular media can be used to introduce students to a variety of legal concepts, some of which may seem abstract, including corporate forms and business governance.
This site also includes spreadsheet of suggested multimedia clips authors have used in their own experiential classrooms. The authors have included a pdf of best practices to ensure compliance with copyright laws.
This site and the accompanying chapter are made possible by the generous support from the Hodges Summer Research Grant.
