Street Law in Action

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Street Law in Action

• Durban, South Africa
• August 1- August 12, 2007

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Street Law at UKNZ

• Street Law is one of three options to fulfill the
  community service requirement at UKNZ.
• David McQuoid- Mason and Ed OBrien brought
  Street Law to UKNZ in 1986 as a solution to
  providing legal skills to law students while
  teaching lay people in South Africa about
  democracy.
• Street Law has since covered many areas of the
  law including HIV/AIDS.

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What is Street Law?

• Street Law is a preventative legal education
  program which utilizes the skills of law students
  to educate lay people about how the law works and
  can work for them .
• Innovated at Georgetown Law Centre in 1972, the
  Street Law program has been adapted in various
  forms world wide.
• Forms include Community Service, Credit-based
  extra curricular, Clinical Program.

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Types of Street Law

• Community Service Program
• Volunteer based
• Unilateral focus on public education
• Credit Based Extra- Curricular Activity
• A set of responsibilities accompanies the
  service.
• Bilateral expectation that credit is
  received for the work produced.
• Clinical Legal Education Program
• Designed as a comprehensive bilateral
  learning process.
• Continuous assessment of skill set.

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Win-Win Situation?

• The Program demands that law students integrate
  their understanding of legal principles with the
  practical demands of the profession such as
  developing strong communication and presentation
  skills.
• Additionally the program serves the public by
  paving an avenue for access to justice.

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Requirements and Skills

• 25 Lessons in the community.
• Communication, Critical thinking, Social
  Consciousness, Ethics
• Twice Weekly Seminars
• Apply Knowledge, Simulations
• Mock Trial Package
• Trial Advocacy
• Reflective Journals
• Writing, Analyzing, Internalizing

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Student Survey

• Most Important Skill Communication
• Social awareness increased while professional
  plans stayed the same (83)
• Learned more than they thought

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Application to Carnegie

• Skills Training
• Assessment
• Ethics
• Social Consciousness

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Challenges for U.S. Institutions

• Perceive as a legal skills initiative, not just a
  community service program.
• Seeing social consciousness as a requirement of
  the profession

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The South African Experience
Lloyd, Tiffany, Prof. McQuoid-Mason, Me, Riaz,
Melanie, Rolene
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Getting the Message Out!

• 1986- Professor McQuiod-Mason and Ed Obrien work
  to adapt the Street Law Project to a program at
  the University of Natal (now University of
  Kwazulu-Natal)
• Initiative was to give the public access to
  justice, train law students, and educate about
  apartheid policies and democracy.
• These initiatives have expanded over time to
  include HIV/AIDS and socio-economic education.

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t
At the heart of the street law program is the
principle that citizens need to be aware of legal
principles in order to assume an active role in
community discourse essential to a thriving
democracy. This ideology directly conflicts with
lingering values from the apartheid era. Where
student-instructors were once taught not to
question the law, the street law program demands
they facilitate learning through discourse and
class participation. Likewise those being taught
by student-instructors begin to rewire their
conception that the legal system is inherently
unavailable to them and that injustice is an
unavoidable, natural consequence of existence.
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What did I want to know?

• What challenges has the program overcome and what
  challenges does it face?
• How is sustainable funding provided?
• What are student and faculty perceptions?
• Does the theoretical framework translate into
  substantive legal skill sets?

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Welcome to our office
Professor McQuoid-Mason provided a mountain of
material to get through August 3-5 Review paper
and start reading supporting materials August 6-
Visit legal training center and begin
interviewing staff August 7- interviews with
faculty August 8- classroom and site visits.
Interviews with students August 9 More
material. Review information gathered and
identify gaps to Prof. McQuoid-Mason August 10-
Interview with Mr. Lotz. Gather materials.
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Interviewing
Lloyd is a difficult guy to catch up with
although hes always bouncing around. He has been
committed to the program since he was a student.
Acknowledges the challenges that have come with
structural changes and is trying to adjust.

• The students were a lot of fun to talk to and
  they were brutally honest
• Think the class should be more about teaching
  methodology
• Smaller class sizes
• Struggle with behavioral issues
• Learned more than they thought they would

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In the Classroom
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In the End

• Although the program does face its growing
  pains, it provides an innovative approach to
  developing practical skill sets that can be
  continually assessed while providing a service to
  the community.