Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
This article will argue that the legal academy has much to learn by recording, transcribing and systematically studying student-client and attorney-client consultations. Clinical faculty can utilize conversation analysis and other social science techniques to do this. Social scientists and medical providers have studied doctor-patient conversations in this way over many years. Through this systematic study researchers have reached conclusions about effective doctor-patient consultations that form the basis for teaching these skills in medical school. This article will highlight some of these studies and their findings. Some have contended that attorney-client conversations simply cannot be recorded and studied in the same way as doctor-patient consultations due to attorney-client privilege. This article will lay out how a law clinic could obtain client informed consent to this procedure, protect client confidentiality and privilege, and gain the necessary approval of the Institutional Review Board. Finally, this article will suggest topics about client consultations that could merit study in the law clinic.
Recommended Citation
Smith, Linda F., "Get Real: Why and How Clinicians Should Record, Transcribe and Study Actual Client Consultations" (2017). Utah Law Faculty Scholarship. 69.
https://dc.law.utah.edu/scholarship/69