Second Myanmar National Clinical Legal Education Workshop

The suggestion that I might teach clinical legal education in Mandalay immediately conjured up romantic and historical images.  As a baby-boomer, I thought of the Burma of WWII fame, the history and mystery of Rangoon, Mandalay and the famous Irrawaddy River, as well as the more recent political turmoil and the internationally recognised bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi.

And of course there was also "The Road to Mandalay", a Rudyard Kipling poem, a song, and ultimately a movie featuring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

I was initially asked to teach a course on pro bono, but that role developed into something both more challenging and interesting, from my point of view.  The first preliminary challenge was not overcome until two days before the workshops commenced. In fact, it was only a few hours before my arrival in Mandalay that the workshops received Government approval! 

I have a particular attraction to South-east Asia; I think in a former life I must have been there in some way or another. However, this was an occasion both to contribute what I hoped would be a useful teaching role, as well as see a little of a country that I had not previously visited.

I was there to participate in the second Myanmar National Clinical Legal Education (CLE) Workshop held at the University of Mandalay as part of an international team of regional and international CLE experts, pro-bono lawyers, and researchers from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the USA and Vietnam.  The workshop, which focused on assisting university law departments across Myanmar to develop and implement CLE programmes is part of a UNDP-supported project, run by Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative (BABSEA CLE), to strengthen clinical legal education in Myanmar. BABSEA CLE is a nonprofit organization that has been working in the Southeast/South Asia region for more than 10 years helping universities establish and strengthen CLE programmes.  My participation in the project came about as a result of BABSEA CLE's collaboration with New Perimeter, DLA Piper's international pro bono initiative.

The other teachers were broadly drawn from other parts of the region.  I soon developed a new network of colleagues, and then friends.  The BABSEA CLE methodology and lesson plans are both highly active and interactive.

The attendees of the workshop were university law department heads and professors from seventeen law departments from across Myanmar and local lawyers.  The workshop, the second in a series (the inaugural workshop was held in July 2013), further explored the CLE pedagogy and methodologies for developing interactive and practical skills-based legal training.  We focused on the practical requirements and potential hurdles that will be faced by the university law department heads and professors as they move to implement CLE programs. We discussed issues such as: how to establish and operate a legal clinic; the development of community teaching curriculum and how to further develop evaluating systems to determine and meet the needs of specific communities.  We also worked with participants as they developed lesson plans using interactive teaching.

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Reflecting on the experience, I was surprised that, not being a professionally trained teacher, I was able to make a contribution which seemed to be useful and was well received. However, on reflection, so much of the content of clinical legal education is the everyday stuff of practising lawyers.  I focused on interviewing skills, counselling skills, and pro bono.  I guess in some way, particularly for the first two, I've been practising them and training in them for 45 years!

Working with and coming to know colleagues from so many different countries in South-east Asia was also an enormous privilege.  I felt as I sat through their presentations and socialised with them at dinners and the like, that I was really in the presence of people who represented the future of our region.  And of course, the more time I spent with them, the more I was reinforced in the view I've held for a long time that we share far more in common than any difference between us.

I hope I get another opportunity to work with BABSEA CLE; it's one of the high points of this part of my career at DLA Piper.