The Taxonomy of Clinics: The Realities and Risks of all Forms of Clinical Legal Education

As clinical legal education (CLE) is becoming an increasingly popular form of teaching in law schools across the globe,2 it is important for institutions to consider the realities and risks of each kind of model. Certain kinds of CLE may be a very realistic portrayal or simulative of practice, but carry more risks to those involved. This article explores the realities and risks3 of all kinds of CLE by using an ordinal scale to measure them. This scale was tested at the 8th Worldwide GAJE Conference in Turkey. Those who attended the session became the scale themselves, moving and discussing the kinds of CLE to where they believed they were in terms of reality and risk. This article analyzes the results of that session, exploring what some clinicians from across the globe think of the realities and risks of CLE, and whether we can balance them together to provide students with a sound educational experience. As clinicians, we aim to expose our students to the realities of practice whilst keeping the risks involved to an absolute minimum so that they gain a practical legal education without any adverse effects.