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I want to introduce you to our Housing Rights Clinic which runs every other semester. It is taught by Doug Seidman, a member of our adjunct faculty and a full time attorney for The Legal Aid Society Manhattan Housing Court Project and my colleague Russ Pearce. The twist to this particular post is that Doug is an adjunct and Russ is a "doctrinal" or "stand-up" teacher, but when you put the two together, they create a wonderful clinical experience. The labels are real, but the truth, of course, is so much richer.
Doug Seidman is a bit of a legend. He is a deeply experienced attorney who returned to Manhattan Housing Court some years ago, having had the opportunity for broader horizons, because he is a client focused lawyer who wants to help people with housing problems. He is a hero to me because of his longstanding commitment to his clients. Doug chose to return to Housing Court to run a direct service office in the courthouse.
Knowing Doug a little, I doubt he thinks of himself as a hero, or recognizes how much his students gain from spending time with him and seeing him model his dedication to his clients and our profession. He is a wonderful lawyer of great skill and a model of what I hope my students will understand as the heart of professionalism - a willingness to answer the call to service.
In this clip Doug talks about the wonderful range of experiences his students have in the courthouse. I note that Doug talks about the work he and the students do on behalf of clients. His dedication to the work comes through in the clip and I think you can easily see what a wonderful experience he offers his students.
The Other Half of the New Math - The "Non Clinical Clinician" in the Team
I noted above that my colleague, Russ Pearce, co-teaches the Housing Rights Clinic. Russ' background includes three years as a housing rights lawyer in a legal services practice (Doug Seidman was his supervisor). He was interested in clinical teaching when he moved into academia, but Russ came to Fordham as a "non-clinical" faculty member.
Russ taught traditional courses, published extensively on legal ethics, and became a full professor before he began to teach in a clinic. Although he did not take the usual route into clinical teaching, his commitment to his clients and students, as well as the fact that he is among the most creative thinkers I know, makes him a wonderful clinical teacher.
I don't think there are too many law professors who choose to use the freedom that tenure and promotion gives us to jump into the swirl of activity that supervising clinic cases involves, but Russ is a model to all of us who are far enough along in our careers to be faced with the choice between using all we have learned to do something new or just continuing to do the same thing because we know how to do it. I have long been drawn to Eric Erikson's life stages and have often thought about his formulation of the challenge of middle age as the struggle between generativity and stagnation. Russ is a generative guy in little danger of stagnating.
In the next clip, Jeff Margolies, a student in the Housing Rights Clinic offers his views on the benefits of working at the courthouse, rather than the law school, and comments on the differing styles of his two clinic teachers. In his typically perceptive way, Jeff comments on the value of being immersed in the bustle of the courthouse and goes on to capture Russ and Doug's differing styles.
As you might guess, Doug urges the students to jump in and Russ is more oriented toward planning and analysis. Students can benefit so much from team teaching that combines different styles, so long as the teachers can help them understand and negotiate the differences. There is always the danger, and I have seen it realized too many times, that the students will not benefit from the difference, but only feel confused and pushed in different directions. But as we all know, successful collaboration demands real work and attention. It starts by forming groups, but it only works when we really build a team.
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-- Ian Weinstein
Housing Rights, Law school, Housing Court, Clinical Legal Education
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