New Directions in ADR and Clinical Legal Education: Assisting Indigent Families in Conflict: A Pro Bono Test Drive for a Family Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Clinic

This volume on ―New Directions in ADR and Clinical Education‖ continues a rich tradition of clinical scholarship, published by the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, in collaboration with the Clinical Education Program. Over the past decade, the Journal of Law & Policy has aspired to become a leading publisher of scholarship on clinical legal education and practice and has published many important articles by top clinical legal educators and practitioners. This collaboration has produced groundbreaking volumes on ―Interdisciplinary Teaching and Practice‖ (volumes 11 and 14); ―Poverty, Justice, and Community Lawyering‖ (volume 20); and ―Access to Justice‖ (volumes 1, 4, 7, 10, 12, 16, 19, 22, 25, 31). In 2008, the Clinical Program and the Journal published ―New Directions in Clinical Legal Education‖ (volume 28), the prequel to this volume. 

In winter 2009, the Washington University Dispute Resolution Program joined forces with the Clinical Education Program and the Journal to host a roundtable on ―New Directions in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Clinical Legal Education.‖ The participants explored exciting, emerging issues in dispute resolution and clinical education, and this remarkable volume is the product of that roundtable. 

The authors in this volume are in the forefront of innovative teaching, practice, and scholarship in dispute resolution and clinical education. In their articles, they eloquently highlight the important goals shared by dispute resolution and clinical legal education—to foster creative problem solving, to empower clients and advance the interests of parties, to promote social justice, and to enhance ethical practice and professionalism. The authors illuminate new and exciting ways in which dispute resolution and clinical education, jointly and severally, can inform, improve, and reform not only legal education, but also the practice of law, the legal profession, and systems of justice.