Raising the Bar: Standards-Based Training, Supervision, and Evaluation

I. CHANGES IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION THAT MAKE STANDARDS ESSENTIAL I enrolled in the Criminal Defense Clinic during my third year at NYU Law School and immediately enjoyed criminal court practice. Motivated by the responsibility of client representation, I thrived in the fast pace and unpredictability of the courtroom. Even then, though, I contemplated how I might have structured the seminar differently had I been in charge of the clinic. I wondered how to better prepare students for their first interviews and court appearances. I thought about the benefits and detriments of supervision. Was it necessary or beneficial for me to feel quite so lost and overwhelmed? Should I really have been permitted to wander about town unsupervised, with a client accused of a string of scissor point robberies as we searched for Alternative to Incarceration programs? Were there guidelines or checklists designed to help me decide what steps ought to be undertaken for clients and when? Since those first heady and terrifying days in criminal practice, I have considered how best to teach the practice of law. I have worked as a public defender, designed continuing legal education for private assigned counsel, taught trial advocacy to public defenders, created systems to evaluate defender organizations, assessed defender organizations and law schools, and guided a great many law students through their introduction to practice. I am convinced now of what I first thought when I began--it really is helpful to incorporate standards into training, supervision, and evaluation. In this short Article, I sketch the methodology my colleagues and I at Pace Law School use to incorporate practice standards into our clinical teaching (1) and reflect on how a standards-based teaching paradigm could be adapted to the training, supervision, and evaluation of public defenders. Then, I briefly consider how standards and standards-based teaching assist in the administration of assigned counsel plans and in the evaluation of the performance of public defender organizations. Although this Article does not cover any of these topics in depth, my goal is to introduce the reader to a standards-based approach to teaching and suggest that lessons from that model might be valuable for public defender offices. The legal profession is growing and changing in ways that impact both law school curriculum and the responsibilities of public defenders. Each year more new lawyers graduate from school, take a bar examination, and join the profession. (2) The expansion of the profession correlates to the increased demand for legal services. Every day there is more legal work to do. (3) States enact laws to regulate conduct that was never before regulated, in ways that were never previously conceived, (4) and specialized agencies are formed to oversee and manage the multiple and complex aspects of modern life. (5) In the field of criminal law, current public safety strategy depends on police officers making numerous arrests--many for minor crimes that carry increasingly complex collateral consequences, including devastating immigration consequences. (6) Working conditions for lawyers have also changed. (7) Increasingly, lawyers concentrate on specific areas of law, keep detailed billing and work records, practice either in small or solo firms or in enormous multi-office firms, and confront complex ethical dilemmas--some created by the changes in legal practice. (8) one of the most significant changes in the field is the reduction of training and supervision provided to new lawyers. This change has been brought about primarily by the increase in competition in the private sector and the decrease in funding, along with the increased need for legal services in the public sector. In the past, law graduates could expect years of close and careful supervision at a law firm or through a clerkship. Now, many new lawyers join small firms or begin an independent solo practice immediately after passing the bar, shouldering the responsibilities of client representation right after graduation. …