From the classroom to the real case: the law clinic as a setting for experiental learning in law training
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1806-8930
Legal clinics constitute one of the main settings through which law students approach professional practice, as they enable interaction with real legal problems, clients, and decision-making processes under academic supervision. This article aims to analyze the legal clinic as an experiential learning environment that promotes the articulation between theoretical legal education and the competencies, responsibilities, and situations involved in professional legal practice. The study followed a qualitative approach and a descriptive-interpretive documentary design based on academic, legal, and scientific literature published up to December 2020. The findings identified six central categories: articulation between theory and practice, experiential and reflective learning, development of professional competencies, lawyer-client interaction, ethical education and professional identity, and the social function of lawyers. The study concludes that legal clinics go beyond their role as a curricular requirement and become supervised spaces of professional transition in which students integrate legal knowledge, research, argumentation, communication, reflection, and social responsibility. In this context, real cases do not merely provide opportunities to apply previously acquired knowledge; they also enable students to reconstruct, contextualize, and progressively transform that knowledge into professional capacities for the responsible practice of law.
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