Collaboration between lawyers and social workers: Re-examining the nature and potential of the relationship

Fordham Law Review

Volumn 67, Issue 5, 1999, Pages 2123-2154

  Galowitz, Paula ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0033409470     PISSN: 0015704X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
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References (171)

1. We do consider whether the client is competent and able to relate to the students. For discussions of the criteria that should affect the selection of cases in a clinical program and the design of a clinical program, see Margaret Martin Barry, A Question of Mission: Catholic Law School's Domestic Violence Clinic, 38 How. L.J. 135 (1994), and Susan Bryant & Maria Arias, Case Study: A Battered Women's Rights Clinic: Designing a Clinical Program Which Encourages a Problem-Solving Vision of Lawyering that Empowers Clients and Community, 42 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 207 (1992).
2. We do consider whether the client is competent and able to relate to the students. For discussions of the criteria that should affect the selection of cases in a clinical program and the design of a clinical program, see Margaret Martin Barry, A Question of Mission: Catholic Law School's Domestic Violence Clinic, 38 How. L.J. 135 (1994), and Susan Bryant & Maria Arias, Case Study: A Battered Women's Rights Clinic: Designing a Clinical Program Which Encourages a Problem-Solving Vision of Lawyering that Empowers Clients and Community, 42 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 207 (1992).
3. For a variety of legal reasons, his claims to succeed to the apartment were not strong.
4. For discussions of the deplorable conditions and unfair situations that indigent people regularly confront in the legal system, see Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 Hofstra L. Rev. 533 (1992); Stacy Brustin, Expanding Our Vision of Legal Services Representation - The Hermanas Unidas Project, 1 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 39 (1993); Leigh Goodmark, Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Geo. J. on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997); Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Louise G. Trubek, The Worst of Times . . . and the Best of Times: Lawyering for Poor Clients Today, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1123 (1995).
5. For discussions of the deplorable conditions and unfair situations that indigent people regularly confront in the legal system, see Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 Hofstra L. Rev. 533 (1992); Stacy Brustin, Expanding Our Vision of Legal Services Representation - The Hermanas Unidas Project, 1 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 39 (1993); Leigh Goodmark, Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Geo. J. on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997); Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Louise G. Trubek, The Worst of Times . . . and the Best of Times: Lawyering for Poor Clients Today, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1123 (1995).
6. For discussions of the deplorable conditions and unfair situations that indigent people regularly confront in the legal system, see Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 Hofstra L. Rev. 533 (1992); Stacy Brustin, Expanding Our Vision of Legal Services Representation - The Hermanas Unidas Project, 1 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 39 (1993); Leigh Goodmark, Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Geo. J. on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997); Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Louise G. Trubek, The Worst of Times . . . and the Best of Times: Lawyering for Poor Clients Today, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1123 (1995).
7. For discussions of the deplorable conditions and unfair situations that indigent people regularly confront in the legal system, see Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 Hofstra L. Rev. 533 (1992); Stacy Brustin, Expanding Our Vision of Legal Services Representation - The Hermanas Unidas Project, 1 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 39 (1993); Leigh Goodmark, Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Geo. J. on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997); Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Louise G. Trubek, The Worst of Times . . . and the Best of Times: Lawyering for Poor Clients Today, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1123 (1995).
8. For discussions of the deplorable conditions and unfair situations that indigent people regularly confront in the legal system, see Barbara Bezdek, Silence in the Court: Participation and Subordination of Poor Tenants' Voices in Legal Process, 20 Hofstra L. Rev. 533 (1992); Stacy Brustin, Expanding Our Vision of Legal Services Representation - The Hermanas Unidas Project, 1 Am. U. J. Gender & L. 39 (1993); Leigh Goodmark, Can Poverty Lawyers Play Well with Others? Including Legal Services in Integrated, School-Based Service Delivery Programs, 4 Geo. J. on Fighting Poverty 243 (1997); Gerald P. López, The Work We Know So Little About, 42 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1989); Louise G. Trubek, The Worst of Times . . . and the Best of Times: Lawyering for Poor Clients Today, 22 Fordham Urb. L.J. 1123 (1995).
9. A number of other contacts with the client and other service providers ensued to assess his threat to commit suicide and whether we needed to contact emergency services.
10. The referral was made with great reluctance after many attempts to work with the client with the assistance of the social worker at the community agency. The client eventually refused to cooperate with the agency and would not speak with the students and the agency workers. The students and I were concerned that we were not able to assess his mental health without his interactions with the workers at the community agency and their assessment of his mental status. We felt that the mental health issues irreparably impaired our ability to assist him.
11. I have an M.S.W. and worked as a social worker before and during law school. I have frequently felt that my current role as a clinical teacher draws on my training in both social work and law.
12. The mental health professional need not be a social worker. It is my impression and experience, however, that social workers are the predominant mental health professionals with whom lawyers for the indigent work.
13. Examples include cases in which the testimony of a social worker is necessary to convince the court or the decision maker that a neglected or abused child could safely be returned to the parent in a foster care case, and the report or testimony of a social worker - or that of another mental health professional - to assist a client receive disability benefits based on a psychiatric disability.
14. Collaboration has been defined as a process that "involves shared decision making by fellow collaborators . . . [and] makes maximum use of the experiences and knowledge that each collaborator brings to the joint work." Susan Bryant, Collaboration in Law Practice: A Satisfying and Productive Process for a Diverse Profession, 17 Vt. L. Rev. 459, 460 (1993). The collaborative process has been characterized as one in which "the workers have joint responsibility for carrying out agreed-upon action." Marie Weil, Research on Issues in Collaboration Between Social Workers and Lawyers, 56 Soc. Serv. Rev. 393, 395 (1982).
15. Collaboration has been defined as a process that "involves shared decision making by fellow collaborators . . . [and] makes maximum use of the experiences and knowledge that each collaborator brings to the joint work." Susan Bryant, Collaboration in Law Practice: A Satisfying and Productive Process for a Diverse Profession, 17 Vt. L. Rev. 459, 460 (1993). The collaborative process has been characterized as one in which "the workers have joint responsibility for carrying out agreed-upon action." Marie Weil, Research on Issues in Collaboration Between Social Workers and Lawyers, 56 Soc. Serv. Rev. 393, 395 (1982).
16. In this Article, the term "social worker" refers to those who have a master's degree in social work (M.S.W.).
17. See Lisa A. Stanger, Conflicts Between Attorneys and Social Workers Representing Children in Delinquency Proceedings, 65 Fordham L. Rev. 1123, 1133, 1135 (1996). When the lawyer and social worker function together effectively, the child client is more likely to receive appropriate social services that allow the court to choose less restrictive alternatives at disposition. In addition, a multi-disciplinary approach to delinquency proceedings results in the early intervention that is necessary to prevent criminal behavior from carrying over into adulthood. Thus, attorneys and social workers should operate as a team to provide both legal and social service assistance to alleged delinquents. Id. at 1135 (footnotes omitted).
18. James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976), quoted in Jean Koh Peters, Concrete Strategies for Managing Ethically-Based Conflicts Between Children's Lawyers and Consulting Social Workers Who Serve the Same Client, Ky. Children's Rts. J., Mar. 1991, at 15, 25 n.9. It is important to distinguish between a social work assessment and a mental health intervention. A social work assessment is a psycho-social evaluation of the client's strengths and weaknesses, and outlines appropriate interventions based on those strengths and weaknesses - for example, need for, and means to obtain, day care or therapeutic intervention. A social work assessment is based on the results of a "mental status exam (accounting for one's orientation to person, place, time, situation, mood and affect, content of thought, and perception); the ability to comprehend abstract ideas and make reasoned judgments; a history of mental illness that might affect current judgment; and the client's recent and remote memory." Randye Retkin et al., Attorneys and Social Workers Collaborating in HIV Care: Breaking New Ground, 24 Fordham Urb. L.J. 533, 560-61 (1997) (footnotes omitted).
19. James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976), quoted in Jean Koh Peters, Concrete Strategies for Managing Ethically-Based Conflicts Between Children's Lawyers and Consulting Social Workers Who Serve the Same Client, Ky. Children's Rts. J., Mar. 1991, at 15, 25 n.9. It is important to distinguish between a social work assessment and a mental health intervention. A social work assessment is a psycho-social evaluation of the client's strengths and weaknesses, and outlines appropriate interventions based on those strengths and weaknesses - for example, need for, and means to obtain, day care or therapeutic intervention. A social work assessment is based on the results of a "mental status exam (accounting for one's orientation to person, place, time, situation, mood and affect, content of thought, and perception); the ability to comprehend abstract ideas and make reasoned judgments; a history of mental illness that might affect current judgment; and the client's recent and remote memory." Randye Retkin et al., Attorneys and Social Workers Collaborating in HIV Care: Breaking New Ground, 24 Fordham Urb. L.J. 533, 560-61 (1997) (footnotes omitted).
20. James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976), quoted in Jean Koh Peters, Concrete Strategies for Managing Ethically-Based Conflicts Between Children's Lawyers and Consulting Social Workers Who Serve the Same Client, Ky. Children's Rts. J., Mar. 1991, at 15, 25 n.9. It is important to distinguish between a social work assessment and a mental health intervention. A social work assessment is a psycho-social evaluation of the client's strengths and weaknesses, and outlines appropriate interventions based on those strengths and weaknesses - for example, need for, and means to obtain, day care or therapeutic intervention. A social work assessment is based on the results of a "mental status exam (accounting for one's orientation to person, place, time, situation, mood and affect, content of thought, and perception); the ability to comprehend abstract ideas and make reasoned judgments; a history of mental illness that might affect current judgment; and the client's recent and remote memory." Randye Retkin et al., Attorneys and Social Workers Collaborating in HIV Care: Breaking New Ground, 24 Fordham Urb. L.J. 533, 560-61 (1997) (footnotes omitted).
21. Gary S. Goodpaster, The Human Arts of Lawyering: Interviewing and Counseling, 27 J. Legal Educ. 5, 5 (1975).
22. Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Narrowing the Gap by Narrowing the Field: What's Missing from the MacCrate Report - of Skills, Legal Science and Being a Human Being, 69 Wash. L. Rev. 593, 619-20 (1994) (footnotes omitted). Menkel-Meadow also comments that the client-centered approach of David A. Binder, Paul Bergman, and Susan C. Price, see David A. Binder et al., Lawyers as Counselors: A Client-Centered Approach (1991), "pays insufficient attention to the emotive aspects both of the client's intra-psychic process in decision making and to the complex relationship between lawyer and client, which we now know may vary a great deal depending on the social distance between client and lawyer and other factors." Menkel-Meadow, supra, at 607 n.61.
23. Theresa Glennon, Lawyers and Caring: Building and Ethic of Care into Professional Responsibility, 43 Hastings L.J. 1175, 1175 (1992) (quoting Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development 63 (1982)); see also Stephen Ellmann, The Ethic of Care as an Ethic for Lawyers, 81 Geo. L.J. 2665, 2665-66 (1993) (stating that the ethic of care focuses on "connections between people" and is a form of moral reasoning).
24. Theresa Glennon, Lawyers and Caring: Building and Ethic of Care into Professional Responsibility, 43 Hastings L.J. 1175, 1175 (1992) (quoting Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development 63 (1982)); see also Stephen Ellmann, The Ethic of Care as an Ethic for Lawyers, 81 Geo. L.J. 2665, 2665-66 (1993) (stating that the ethic of care focuses on "connections between people" and is a form of moral reasoning).
25. Theresa Glennon, Lawyers and Caring: Building and Ethic of Care into Professional Responsibility, 43 Hastings L.J. 1175, 1175 (1992) (quoting Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development 63 (1982)); see also Stephen Ellmann, The Ethic of Care as an Ethic for Lawyers, 81 Geo. L.J. 2665, 2665-66 (1993) (stating that the ethic of care focuses on "connections between people" and is a form of moral reasoning).
26. Paul J. Zwier & Dr. Ann B. Hamric, The Ethics of Care and Relmagining the Lawyer/Client Relationship, 22 J. Contemp. L. 383, 387 (1996) (footnotes omitted). "In contrast to the care perspective, the justice perspective values impartial application of abstract, universal principles and emphasizes individual rights and equality in making moral judgments." Id. The concept of the ethic of care originated in feminist writings and moral psychology - for example, the works of Beauchamp & Childress and Carol Gilligan, among others. See id. at 383 n.2 (citing Beauchamp & Childress, Principle of Biomedical Ethics (4th ed. 1994), and Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (1982)).
27. Id. at 388. The "ethic of care" concept has been applied in professional responsibility to include the "ideas that students' professional lives are connected to the lives of those who live in poverty and that, by working for and with people living in poverty, students can create relationships with clients and colleagues that are rewarding and sustaining." Glennon, supra note 15, at 1175. Theresa Glennon taught a civil procedure course in the Legal Theory and Practice program at the University of Maryland School of Law that placed first-year students in the role of counsel for a family in a special education or school discipline matter, and also assigned those students to a project in the area of education law. Students were encouraged to provide emotional support to each other and to share their responses about providing legal services to indigent persons. See id. at 1179-81.
28. Zwier & Hamric, supra note 16, at 402, 407.
29. One of the recommendations for practice guidelines in interviewing and counseling for lawyers for children was that "lawyer[s] should be trained, and take the time to establish rapport with the child client." Recommendations of the Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children, 64 Fordham L. Rev. 1301, 1303 (1996). The recommendations also included that law schools "should mandate training in legal interviewing, counseling, and negotiation skills." Id. at 1306. Moreover, "[a] lawyer . . . has an obligation to become educated about the role of cultures, race, ethnicity, and class in the choices that a child client might make." Id. at 1313.
30. See Peters, supra note 12, at 18-19.
31. "[S]ocial worker and attorney collaborations are not only useful for resolving the client's legal and psychosocial problems; they often help ease some of the professional's personal burden of this particular type of practice. Social workers are often helpful in dealing with the complex feelings that both clients and attorneys experience." Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 549.
32. Bryant, supra note 9, at 470. The author was primarily discussing collaboration among lawyers and law students but it is equally applicable to other areas of collaboration.
33. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
34. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
35. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
36. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
37. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
38. See, e.g., José B. Ashford et al., Advocacy by Social Workers in the Public Defender's Office, 32 Soc. Work 199, 199-203 (1987) (discussing social workers' roles in the Public Defender's office); Preston N. Barton II & Bridget Byrne, Social Work Services in a Legal Aid Setting, 56 Soc. Casework 226 (1975) (discussing the use of the common goals and values of the two professions to develop an integrated approach to socio-legal problems); Franklin B. Fogelson, How Social Workers Perceive Lawyers, 51 Soc. Casework 95, 95-100 (1970) (explaining that, in order to make legal services available to social work clients, social workers must understand the law and its limitations); Harriet L. Goldberg, Social Work and Law, 1 Children 167 (1960) ("Among social workers and lawyers there is a high regard for the dignity and worth of people . . . . Both professions exist to help people, and they recognize that every case differs in some respects from every other. Thus, they share the concept of individualization and its application in daily practice."); James L. Scherer, How Social Workers Help Lawyers, 21 Soc. Work 279, 280 (1976) (arguing that successful lawyer-social worker collaborations can occur only if lawyers recognize that social workers can help them); Audrey D. Smith, The Social Worker in the Legal Aid Setting: A Study of Interprofessional Relationships, 44 Soc. Serv. Rev. 155, 155-68 (1970) (detailing a study of lawyer-social worker relationships at the Chicago Legal Aid Bureau and determining that the most important service of the social workers was evaluating and then making suggestions about the desirability of the legal services that clients requested); Weil, supra note 9, at 397-400 (finding that attitudes toward collaboration between lawyers and social workers were more positive when social workers had received training in court-related work).
39. See, e.g., Frank P. Cervone & Linda M. Mauro, Ethics, Cultures, and Professions in the Representation of Children, 64 Fordham L. Rev. 1975, 1975 (1996) (discussing recommendations of the Fordham Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children that lawyers cooperate with other professions, including social workers, when needed to assist a lawyer's relationship with a child client). But see Sia Arnason et al., The Successful Marriage of Law and Social Work, 23 Clearinghouse Rev. 450 (1989) (exploring, from the social worker's perspective, the interplay between law and social work when working with elderly clients); Heather B. Craige & William G. Saur, The Contribution of Social Workers to Legal Services Programs, 14 Clearinghouse Rev. 1267 (1981) (advocating the increased hiring of social workers for legal services programs).
40. See, e.g., Frank P. Cervone & Linda M. Mauro, Ethics, Cultures, and Professions in the Representation of Children, 64 Fordham L. Rev. 1975, 1975 (1996) (discussing recommendations of the Fordham Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children that lawyers cooperate with other professions, including social workers, when needed to assist a lawyer's relationship with a child client). But see Sia Arnason et al., The Successful Marriage of Law and Social Work, 23 Clearinghouse Rev. 450 (1989) (exploring, from the social worker's perspective, the interplay between law and social work when working with elderly clients); Heather B. Craige & William G. Saur, The Contribution of Social Workers to Legal Services Programs, 14 Clearinghouse Rev. 1267 (1981) (advocating the increased hiring of social workers for legal services programs).
41. See, e.g., Frank P. Cervone & Linda M. Mauro, Ethics, Cultures, and Professions in the Representation of Children, 64 Fordham L. Rev. 1975, 1975 (1996) (discussing recommendations of the Fordham Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children that lawyers cooperate with other professions, including social workers, when needed to assist a lawyer's relationship with a child client). But see Sia Arnason et al., The Successful Marriage of Law and Social Work, 23 Clearinghouse Rev. 450 (1989) (exploring, from the social worker's perspective, the interplay between law and social work when working with elderly clients); Heather B. Craige & William G. Saur, The Contribution of Social Workers to Legal Services Programs, 14 Clearinghouse Rev. 1267 (1981) (advocating the increased hiring of social workers for legal services programs).
42. See, e.g., Goodmark, supra note 3, at 243 (detailing the use of social workers and other professionals in an integrated service delivery model in a school setting); Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 536-65 (examining the roles, responsibilities, and legal and ethical requirements of a social worker-attorney team in the context of HIV clients); Heather A. Wydra, Note, Keeping Secrets Within the Team: Maintaining Client Confidentiality While Offering Interdisciplinary Services to the Elderly Client, 62 Fordham L. Rev. 1517, 1517 (1994) (discussing problems of confidentiality that may arise in interdisciplinary collaboration in the context of elder law).
43. The relationship between law and social work is certainly not new. As early as 1917, Mary Richmond, a key architect of modern social work, acknowledged the role of legal authorities in assisting her in formulating parts of her conceptual framework of casework. "The very structure from which Mary Richmond drew her theoretical base could trace its roots from that landmark legislation, the Elizabethan Poor Law, which was a declaration of the legal rights of the poor." Fogelson, supra note 23, at 96.
44. As observed in an article on social work and law, "[t]he interface between the professions of social work and law is of considerable significance due to the vulnerability of many of the consumers of social services, who require legal assistance or are otherwise forced to become involved in the legal system." Betty Sancier, Observations: Social Work and the Law, Prac. Dig., Fall 1984, at 3, 3.
45. See Memorandum from Jessica Brodey, student intern, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, to Chris Herrling, Deputy Director, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia 1 (July 19, 1996) (on file with the Fordham Law Review) [hereinafter Brodey Memo].
46. Goodmark, supra note 3, at 262.
47. "As a practical matter, poverty law did not exist before 1965." Alan W. Houseman, Political Lessons: Legal Services for the Poor - A Commentary, 83 Geo. L.J. 1669, 1671 (1995).
48. See id. at 1672. Four such programs were funded, each in a different city -New York City (Mobilization for Youth, known as "MFY"), New Haven (Legal Assistance Association), Washington, D.C. (United Planning Organization), and Boston (Action for Boston Community Development). See id. There were three different models of legal services funded in the 1960s as part of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) War on Poverty. In one model, the lawyer was part of a team of professionals, including social workers, who provided social, educational, and legal services. See Matthew Diller, Poverty Lawyering in the Golden Age, 93 Mich. L. Rev. 1401, 1405-06 (1995) (reviewing Martha F. Davis, Brutal Need: Lawyers and the Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973 (1993)). This model was based on the view that "cultural poverty causes economic poverty." Id. at 1406 (internal quotation marks omitted). In the second model, developed by Edgar and Jean Cahn, lawyers were a resource for the community, working to make government more responsive to poor people's needs. See id. The third model, developed by Ed Sparer and Elizabeth Wickenden, called for the planning and filing of test cases to obtain judicial determinations of "a constitutional right to a subsistence income." Id.
49. For a history of legal services, see, for example, Houseman, supra note 30, at 1669-85, which noted that the Office of Economic Opportunity created a unique and effective structure for delivery of legal services, and Earl Johnson, Jr., Justice and Reform: The Formative Years of the American Legal Services Program 1-102 (1978), which discussed the governmental role in legal assistance to the poor and the development of the Legal Services Program. According to Houseman, there are five critical elements of legal services: acceptance of responsibility to all poor people as a "client community"; right of clients to control decisions about solutions to their problems through participation on the board of the legal services office; redress of past inadequacies in legal rights of poor people through reform of law and practice; responsiveness to legal need instead of to demand; and use of the full range of advocacy tools that private attorneys can employ, such as legislative advocacy and rule drafting. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1684-85.
50. See Craige & Saur, supra note 24, at 1268. The New Haven experiment used social worker-lawyer teams in neighborhood law offices to "diagnose, refer, and coordinate" the legal problems of the poor. Id. (quoting Johnson, supra note 32, at 22).
51. At the time that José Nazario, a social worker at Mobilization for Youth in New York City, wrote an article about the uses of social workers at that organization, there were twelve attorneys and seven social workers working in the program. According to Mr. Nazario, the work of a social worker in a legal setting includes "counseling, arranging services for families, preparation of home evaluations, presentation of reports to the court, and appearances as a witness in the hearing." José Nazario, Confronting the System: How Social Workers Can Challenge - and Change - the Laws, Prac. Dig., Fall 1984, at 4, 5.
52. See Craige & Saur, supra note 24, at 1268 ("[D]irect treatment-oriented services to individuals, families and groups in order to enhance their problem-solving capacities and social functioning, build personal relationships and establish links between people and resource systems.").
53. See id. [Crisis intervention] is a well-established clinical method for managing emotional reactions to loss or threats of loss. Legal services clients are often deeply upset when they seek help, as their legal problems typically involve significant loss or threat to survival [i.e., loss of apartment]. . . . Without the availability of a skilled social worker, the emotional and social aspects of a case might be ignored; more likely, they will be handled (or mishandled) by an attorney with no training in crisis intervention. Legal services clients in crisis are better served if the psychosocial as well as the legal aspects of their problems are addressed by skilled professionals. Attorneys benefit from the presence of an in-house social worker by having more time to concentrate on legal issues. In addition, they are less likely to experience the frustration that comes with encountering repeated crises for which they have neither the time nor the training to respond adequately. Id.
54. See id. at 1268-69. [S]tudy of a client's emotional and social situation . . . . typically involves indepth interviews with the client, relevant family members and individuals from the social environment and the review of medical, psychiatric and social work reports from other agencies . . . . Problems in the areas of family and juvenile law, for example, rarely present clear-cut legal issues. Id.
55. See id. at 1269 (stating that social workers can help clients obtain benefits from social welfare systems inasmuch as "[s]ocial workers have proven to be particularly effective at informal advocacy, when the 'other side' is another social worker").
56. See id. ("Skilled community-oriented social workers are not only able to identify natural community networks and develop viable issue-oriented groups, but they can also analyze community problems from a broad perspective and develop strategies for social change which will have an impact on whole communities.").
57. See id. Community development involves the building of issue-oriented groups which work for changes in the social, economic and political structures of the community. Skills in community development are useful in a variety of activities in which legal services programs are involved such as facilitating lay advocacy groups, developing client advisory councils, and bringing together clients with similar problems for community legal education and to testify at public hearings. Id.
58. See id. (observing that, as nonlawyers, social workers may find it easier to write community education materials).
59. See id.
60. See id. at 1270 (noting that social workers can assess community needs and analyze community problems).
61. See id. ("[A] specialized area of social work practice in which proposed legislation and regulations in the area of social welfare, including health, mental health, education, family services and public benefits, are studied for their probable effects on low-income people.").
62. See id. ("[S]uch nonlegal aspects of program management as staff training and development, strategic planning and priority setting, personnel and grievance concerns, alternative service delivery systems, and program evaluation.").
63. See id. at 1271 (stating that social workers can train legal services staff in interviewing and crisis intervention skills).
64. Id. at 1267 (footnotes omitted).
65. See, e.g., Edgar S. Cahn, Reinventing Poverty Law, 103 Yale L.J. 2133, 2144-54 (1994) (discussing the use of "Time Dollars" by poor clients to pay for legal services); Marc Feldman, Political Lessons: Legal Services for the Poor, 83 Geo. L.J. 1529, 1621- 32 (1995) (advancing a model that a lawyer should be an agent of social change through the legal services program); Houseman, supra note 30, at 1706-09 (advocating a vision in which the legal services program focuses on helping economically deprived communities solve the problems they face); Paul R. Tremblay, Toward a Community- Based Ethic for Legal Services Practice, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 1101, 1130-34 (1990) (discussing the idea that a community-based model might diminish the tensions inherent in legal services practice).
66. See, e.g., Edgar S. Cahn, Reinventing Poverty Law, 103 Yale L.J. 2133, 2144-54 (1994) (discussing the use of "Time Dollars" by poor clients to pay for legal services); Marc Feldman, Political Lessons: Legal Services for the Poor, 83 Geo. L.J. 1529, 1621-32 (1995) (advancing a model that a lawyer should be an agent of social change through the legal services program); Houseman, supra note 30, at 1706-09 (advocating a vision in which the legal services program focuses on helping economically deprived communities solve the problems they face); Paul R. Tremblay, Toward a Community- Based Ethic for Legal Services Practice, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 1101, 1130-34 (1990) (discussing the idea that a community-based model might diminish the tensions inherent in legal services practice).
67. See, e.g., Edgar S. Cahn, Reinventing Poverty Law, 103 Yale L.J. 2133, 2144-54 (1994) (discussing the use of "Time Dollars" by poor clients to pay for legal services); Marc Feldman, Political Lessons: Legal Services for the Poor, 83 Geo. L.J. 1529, 1621- 32 (1995) (advancing a model that a lawyer should be an agent of social change through the legal services program); Houseman, supra note 30, at 1706-09 (advocating a vision in which the legal services program focuses on helping economically deprived communities solve the problems they face); Paul R. Tremblay, Toward a Community-Based Ethic for Legal Services Practice, 37 UCLA L. Rev. 1101, 1130-34 (1990) (discussing the idea that a community-based model might diminish the tensions inherent in legal services practice).
68. See infra Part II.
69. See Feldman, supra note 48, at 1621-32. In Alan Houseman's response to Feldman, Houseman critiques Feldman's vision as resting on a flawed view of what can be achieved in the courts, agencies and legislatures; on a view that will deter funding from the government and foundations; and on a "notion that legal services lawyers should lead the charge [which] reinforces lawyer domination and does little or nothing to empower the poor to assert their own rights and interests." Houseman, supra note 30, at 1705. Paul Tremblay suggests that legal services lawyers should consider the interests of the client community in selecting cases. See Tremblay, supra note 48, at 1129-49.
70. Cahn, supra note 48, at 2151. Cahn and others have suggested that there is a crisis in poverty law. See, e.g., Anthony V. Alfieri, The Antinomies of Poverty Law and a Theory of Dialogic Empowerment, 16 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 659, 660-63 (1987-88) [hereinafter Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty law] (asserting that there is a need for a recasting of our conceptual and methodological understanding of poverty law); Cahn, supra note 48, at 2134 (stating that there is a fundamental need to reinvent poverty law). Two of the criticisms of recent poverty law practice are that lawyers fail to appreciate the need for grassroots organizing and that "the traditional relationships between poverty lawyers and their clients contribute to the disempowerment of poor clients and thereby bolster the status quo." Diller, supra note 31, at 1425 (footnote omitted).
71. Houseman, supra note 30, at 1706-07.
72. Id. at 1689.
73. Martha Minow notes: [P]olitical lawyering involves deliberate efforts to use law to change society or to alter allocations of power. Political lawyers use litigation, legislation, mass media, and social science research, assessing the consequences of each particular approach by reference to long-term visions of freedom, equality, and solidarity. Political lawyers are partners, for the long haul, with clients and client communities in struggles for social justice. Martha Minow, Political Lawyering: An Introduction, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 287, 289 (1996) (footnotes omitted).
74. See infra Part II.
75. Some have suggested that the lack of collaboration may be due to psychological pre-conditions: lawyers and social workers might tend to operate out of different hemispheres in the brain (lawyers from the left side and social workers from the right side). See Judith Alphson Lau, Lawyers vs. Social Workers: Is Cerebral Hemisphericity the Culprit?, 62 Child Welfare 21, 27-28 (1983).
76. See Brodey Memo, supra note 28, at 2.
77. Peters, supra note 12, at 15 (addressing and suggesting strategies for dealing with professional conflicts with consulting social workers hired or retained by a law firm, although, as suggested by the author, the strategies could apply to inter-agency situations where each professional is employed by a separate agency).
78. "[C]onfidentiality restricts the professional's ability to disclose while a privilege restricts the states right to compel disclosures." Gerard F. Glynn, Multidisciplinary Representation of Children: Conflicts over Disclosures of Client Communications, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 617, 626 (1994). The attorney-client privilege prevents the disclosure of evidence in litigation; confidentiality is an "overall ethical obligation." Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 552.
79. See New York Code of Professional Responsibility Canon 4 (1998); id. DR 4-101.
80. Confidences include all information protected by the attorney-client privilege while secrets include all other information gathered through the professional relationship that the client wishes to remain private or that could be embarrassing or detrimental to the client if disclosed. See id. DR 4-101. Lawyers can be forced to reveal secrets in judicial proceedings, but not confidences. See N.Y. C.P.L.R. 4503(a) (McKinney 1997); New York Code of Professional Responsibility DR 4-101(c)(2) & cmt. (1998).
81. See Wydra, supra note 25, at 1519.
82. Id. at 1533 (quoting Gary A. Munneke, Dances with Nonlawyers: A New Perspective on Law Firm Diversification, 61 Fordham L. Rev. 559, 573 (1992)). Heather A. Wydra suggests modifying the confidentiality provisions to create an exception for interdisciplinary communications and to allow for the creation of lawyer-nonlawyer partnerships. See id. at 1537-41.
83. See National Ass'n of Soc. Workers, Code of Ethics (1996) [hereinafter NASW Code of Ethics]. Ethical Standard 1.07 (Privacy and Confidentiality) provides, in relevant part: (c) Social workers should protect the confidentiality of all information obtained in the course of professional service, except for compelling professional reasons. The general expectation that social workers will keep information confidential does not apply when disclosure is necessary to prevent serious, foreseeable, and imminent harm to a client or other identifiable person or when laws or regulations require disclosure without a client's consent. In all instances, social workers should disclose the least amount of confidential information necessary to achieve the desired purpose; only information that is directly relevant to the purpose for which the disclosure is made should be revealed. (d) Social workers should inform clients, to the extent possible, about the disclosure of confidential information and the potential consequences, when feasible before the disclosure is made. This applies whether social workers disclose confidential information on the basis of a legal requirement or client consent. (e) Social workers should discuss with clients and other interested parties the nature of confidentiality and limitations of clients' right to confidentiality. Social workers should review with clients circumstances where confidential information may be requested and where disclosure of confidential information may be legally required. This discussion should occur as soon as possible in the social worker-client relationship and as needed throughout the course of the relationship. Id. Ethical Standard 1.07. Most mental health professionals have ethical standards, including ones relating to confidentiality. See, e.g., Jaffee v. Redmond, 518 U.S. 1, 13 n.12 (1996) (stating that a therapist must disclose the relevant confidentiality limits (citing American Counseling Ass'n, Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice A.3.a (1995); American Psychological Ass'n, Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Standard 5.01 (1992); National Fed'n of Societies for Clinical Soc. Work, Code of Ethics V(a) (1988))).
84. 518 U.S. 1.
85. See id. at 15. Confidential communications between a licensed psychotherapist and patient in the course of diagnosis or treatment are privileged under Rule 501 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the privilege extends to confidential communications made to a licensed social worker in the course of psychotherapy. See id. In extending the privilege to social workers, the Supreme Court noted that "social workers provide a significant amount of mental health treatment. . . . Their clients often include the poor and those of modest means who could not afford the assistance of a psychiatrist or psychologist . . . but whose counseling sessions serve the same public goals." Id. at 15-16 (footnote omitted).
86. Historically, social workers have been accorded less respect and fewer legal protections than psychiatrists and psychologists. See id. at 16 n.16. This is slowly changing as there is an increasing recognition that all approaches to mental health care are important and that a large percentage of the public receives mental health assistance from social workers. See id. at 15-16.
87. These potential conflicts in the child welfare context highlight the differences that can arise in other areas.
88. N.Y. Soc. Serv. Law § 413(1) (McKinney 1992). The categories of professionals are: any physician; registered physician assistant; surgeon; medical examiner; coroner; dentist; dental hygienist; osteopath; optometrist; chiropractor; podiatrist; resident; intern; psychologist; registered nurse; hospital personnel engaged in the admission, examination, care or treatment of persons; a Christian Science practitioner; school official; social services worker; day care center worker; provider of family or group family day care; employee or volunteer in a residential care facility defined in subdivision seven of section four hundred twelve of this chapter or any other child care or foster care worker; mental health professional; substance abuse counselor; alcoholism counselor; peace officer; police officer; district attorney or assistant district attorney; investigator employed in the office of a district attorney; or other law enforcement official. Id.
89. See New York Code of Professional Responsibility EC 7-1 (1998).
90. Id. EC 4-5.
91. For example, clinics at Northwestern Law School and New York University School of Law follow this approach. Other schools, however, take the view that social work students are mandated reporters even when working with an attorney on a civil matter; clients are informed of this when the client begins working with the social work student and is required to sign a "Contract of Confidentiality" which explains the circumstances under which confidential information must be reported. See E-mail from Andrew Reese, University of Maryland Law Clinic, to the Clinical Listserv (June 11, 1996) (on file with the Fordham Law Review).
92. New York Code of Professional Responsibility DR 4-101(D) (1998).
93. See Committee on Prof'l and Judicial Ethics, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Formal Op. 1997-2 (1997) [hereinafter Formal Op. 1997-2], available in N.Y. L.J., Aug. 21, 1997, at 7.
94. See New York Code of Professional Responsibility Canon 4 (1998) ("A Lawyer Should Preserve the Confidences and Secrets of a Client"); id. Canon 5 ("A Lawyer Should Exercise Independent Professional Judgment on Behalf of a Client"); id. Canon 6 ("A Lawyer Should Represent a Client Competently"); id. Canon 7 ("A Lawyer Should Represent a Client Zealously Within the Bounds of the Law").
95. See Formal Op. 1997-2, supra note 74; cf. New York Code of Professional Responsibility DR 5-107(B) (1998) ("A lawyer shall not permit a person who . . . employs, or pays the lawyer to render legal service for another to direct or regulate his or her professional judgment in rendering such legal services.").
96. See Formal Op. 1997-2, supra note 74. According to the opinion, there are three exceptions. The first is that the disclosure may be made if required by law. See id. The opinion states that even though Social Services Law section 413 does not include lawyers among those who are required to report cases of child abuse or maltreatment, it is an issue of law beyond the Committee's jurisdiction as to whether lawyers must generally report suspicions of child abuse or maltreatment under Social Services Law section 413, or whether lawyers employed by a social services agency must do so. See id. The second exception is if the disclosure is necessary to save the client's life. See id. The opinion states that "[a]lthough DR 4-101(c) does not explicitly so provide, we believe that a lawyer has latitude to report information concerning child abuse or mistreatment in the rare case in which the lawyer honestly concludes, after full consideration, that disclosure is necessary to save the client from being killed or maimed." Id. The third exception is client incapacity; generally, minors twelve or older are capable of making a reasoned judgment. See id.
97. The opinion stated: The circumstances under which a lawyer in the agency may provide client confidences to an agency employee consistent with the attorney-client privilege, as well as the circumstances under which an agency employee will have a fiduciary duty to preserve such confidences, are questions of law. These questions implicate not only the attorney-client privilege and employment and/or agency law, but also § 413 of the Social Services Law. Id. On a related issue, the opinion concluded that a lawyer may advise minor clients prior to undertaking representation that the lawyer will disclose confidences and secrets concerning the client's intention to maim or kill himself or another. See id. Because a lawyer may make a disclosure under such circumstances, it does not necessarily follow that a lawyer must make such a disclosure. See id.
98. See Peters, supra note 12, at 18. Ethical Standard 1.01 of the Code states that "[s]ocial workers' primary responsibility is to promote the well-being of clients" and Ethical Standard 1.02 requires social workers to "respect and promote the right of clients to self-determination . . . ." NASW Code of Ethics, supra note 64, Ethical Standard 1.01-.02.
99. It is, of course, overly simplistic to talk about "the role" of social workers as if there is only a single role. Within social work itself, there are differing views of the role of the social worker. As stated by one commentator: Although there is no doubt that social workers have an ethical obligation to be advocates, the social work profession still debates the proper role of advocacy in their practice. There is a conflict between those who argue that social workers should fill a pure advocate role and those who argue that they should work in the best interests of the client and community. Due to the vagueness of the professional regulations for social workers, they, and many of their professional colleagues, are left with the discretion to define their role when representing clients, deciding for themselves whether or not to respect confidentiality if it goes against clients' best interests. Glynn, supra note 59, at 645 (footnotes omitted).
100. NASW Code of Ethics, supra note 64, pmbl. The NASW Code further provides: The mission of the social work profession is rooted in a set of core values. These core values, embraced by social workers throughout the profession's history, are the foundation of social work's unique purpose and perspective: -service -social justice -dignity and worth of the person -importance of human relationships -integrity -competence Id. For the value of social justice, the ethical principle is: Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers' social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people. Id. Ethical Principles.
101. Ethical Standard 1.01 (Commitment to Clients) states: Social workers' primary responsibility is to promote the well-being of clients. In general, clients' interests are primary. However, social workers' responsibility to the larger society or specific legal obligations may on limited occasions supersede the loyalty owed clients, and clients should be so advised. (Examples include when a social worker is required by law to report that a client has abused a child or has threatened to harm self or others.) Id. Ethical Standard 1.01. Ethical Standard 1.02 (Self-Determination) provides: Social workers respect and promote the right of clients to self-determination and assist clients in their efforts to identify and clarify their goals. Social workers may limit clients' right to self-determination when, in the social workers' professional judgment, clients' actions or potential actions pose a serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk to themselves or others. Id. Ethical Standard 1.02.
102. Peters, supra note 12, at 18.
103. Sandra Nye, From a Lawyer-Social Worker - Some Thoughts on Confidentiality and Other Matters, Prac. Dig., Fall 1984, at 33, 34 (1984). Nye, who is a lawyer and social worker, observed that she cannot practice both as a lawyer and social worker for the same client. See id. According to Nye, the lawyer's goal is to win the case, and the lawyer would not hesitate to give advice to the client to achieve that objective; the social worker's goal is not to give advice to the client but to help the client to think and act for himself or herself. See id. Nye concluded that working with the same client with these two different objectives "doesn't work clinically." Id.
104. Stanger, supra note 11, at 1125-26 (footnotes omitted). Stanger describes the two models that social workers employed in legal settings: the "pure advocate" model and "best interests" model. She concludes that social workers should adopt the "pure advocate" model since the "adversarial system used in juvenile adjudication procedures demands zealous advocacy, social workers must acknowledge this reality and accept a more restricted role of social work services in delinquency proceedings." Id. at 1126.
105. Arnason et al., supra note 24, at 450; see also Katherine van Wormer, No Wonder Social Workers Feel Uncomfortable in Court, 9 Child & Adolescent Soc. Work J. 117, 118 (1992) (positing that the adversary model is contrary to social work principles of cooperation and negotiation).
106. For example, New York Code of Professional Responsibility DR 5-105(A) provides that "[a] lawyer shall decline proffered employment if the exercise of independent professional judgement in behalf of a client will be or is likely to be adversely affected by the acceptance of the proffered employment, or if it [is] likely to involve the lawyer in representing differing interests." New York Code of Professional Responsibility DR 5-105(A) (1998). DR 5-105(B) further provides that "[a] lawyer shall not continue multiple employment if the exercise of independent professional judgment in behalf of a client will be or is likely to be adversely affected by the lawyer's representation of another client, or if it would be likely to involve the lawyer in representing differing interests." Id. DR 5-105(B).
107. Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 538-39.
108. Id. at 544 (footnotes omitted).
109. Social work uses the school of systems theory to help explain the relationship of the parts to the whole. According to Naomi Brill, "[a] system is defined simply as a whole made up of interrelated and interdependent parts." . . . . The systems approach, as well as viewing the person in her environment, is evident in the social worker's use of multidimensional assessment. A nonlinear diagnostic approach, multidimensional assessment is a dialogic process between client and worker - as well as other significant participants - that identifies the relevant information in, and solutions to, the situation. Cervone & Mauro, supra note 24, at 1977-78 (footnotes omitted).
110. "The norms of legal education and the profession are patterned after the image of the solo practitioner representing individual clients. This atomistic image belies the increasingly collective nature of the practice of law." Bryant, supra note 9, at 463 (footnote omitted).
111. Id. at 459 (footnote omitted). The article is primarily about law students and lawyers collaborating within their own profession.
112. Some have noted that social workers, as well as lawyers, need more in their educational background to prepare them for working with people in other professions. See Cervone & Mauro, supra note 24, at 1976 ("[M]ost graduate level educational programs are unidisciplinary, in contrast to undergraduate education where students are required to take courses outside of their major field of study.").
113. Collaborative pedagogy is "currently enjoying a much-deserved respect and acceptance among legal educators." Catherine Gage O'Grady, Preparing Students for the Profession: Clinical Education, Collaborative Pedagogy, and the Realities of Practice for the New Lawyer, 4 Clinical L. Rev. 485, 487 (1998).
114. See Joan L. O'Sullivan et al., Ethical Decisionmaking and Ethics Instruction in Clinical Law Practice, 3 Clinical L. Rev. 109, 167-68 (1996); see also Gay Gellhorn et al., Law and Language: An Interdisciplinary Study of Client Interviews, 1 Clinical L. Rev. 245 (1994) (discussing the collaboration of law students and anthropology students on a study of interviews in a clinical program).
115. See Joan L. O'Sullivan et al., Ethical Decisionmaking and Ethics Instruction in Clinical Law Practice, 3 Clinical L. Rev. 109, 167-68 (1996); see also Gay Gellhorn et al., Law and Language: An Interdisciplinary Study of Client Interviews, 1 Clinical L. Rev. 245 (1994) (discussing the collaboration of law students and anthropology students on a study of interviews in a clinical program).
116. See O'Sullivan et al., supra note 95, at 168.
117. Id.
118. See Phillips v. Washington Legal Foundation, 118 S. Ct. 1925 (1998). In this case, the Supreme Court decided that the interest earned on client funds that are held in IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts) accounts is the "private property" of the client for the purposes of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Id. at 1934. The interest earned on IOLTA accounts is used to finance legal services for low-income persons in 49 states and the District of Columbia. See id. at 1927-28. The Court left open for consideration on remand whether the IOLTA funds have been "taken" by the State and, if so, the amount of "just compensation," if any, due to the individuals. Id. at 1934.
119. There are various models for providing a lesser degree, or different kind, of service. For example, in the State of Washington, the legal services-funded program has created a telephone network advice and triage system. See, e.g., David Barringer, Downsized Justice, A.B.A. J., July 1996, at 60, 64, 66 (establishing a companion-delivery system to provide legal services in response to cutbacks in state funding). In another example, there has been a focus on the concept of the "unbundling" of legal services (the partitioning of legal issues or problems into their component parts) so that clients can choose particular aspects for a lawyer's representation or advice. See, e.g., Mary Helen McNeal, Redefining Attorney-Client Roles: Unbundling and Moderate-Income Elderly Clients, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 295, 296 (1997) (discussing the spectrum of professional responsibility issues in the context of the technique of bundling legal problems). Another idea is to use an internet-based technology system to connect government benefits specialists with lawyers. See Mark E. Doremus, Wisconsin's Elderlinks Initiative: Using Technology to Provide Legal Services to Older Persons, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 545, 546 (1997). There are also plans to provide preventive services. See, e.g., Wayne Moore, Improving the Delivery of Legal Services for the Elderly: A Comprehensive Approach, 41 Emory L.J. 805, 828 (1992) (suggesting three ways to increase the provision of preventive legal services: statewide legal hotlines to give free preventive services and resolve legal problems; free group plans; and seminars to provide high-volume and low-cost preventive legal services). In addition, the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP") has funded toll-free legal hotlines in some states that provide assistance and advice by lawyers and paralegals, with referrals to legal services, if needed. See Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective: Alternative Approaches to Nonlaywer Practice, 22 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 701, 714 (1996). Similarly, some programs, sometimes in partnerships with local bar associations, provide a telephone hotline using pro bono attorneys. Cook County, Illinois has started the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ("CARPLS"), as has the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society with the Virginia Bar. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1694.
120. There are various models for providing a lesser degree, or different kind, of service. For example, in the State of Washington, the legal services-funded program has created a telephone network advice and triage system. See, e.g., David Barringer, Downsized Justice, A.B.A. J., July 1996, at 60, 64, 66 (establishing a companion-delivery system to provide legal services in response to cutbacks in state funding). In another example, there has been a focus on the concept of the "unbundling" of legal services (the partitioning of legal issues or problems into their component parts) so that clients can choose particular aspects for a lawyer's representation or advice. See, e.g., Mary Helen McNeal, Redefining Attorney-Client Roles: Unbundling and Moderate-Income Elderly Clients, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 295, 296 (1997) (discussing the spectrum of professional responsibility issues in the context of the technique of bundling legal problems). Another idea is to use an internet-based technology system to connect government benefits specialists with lawyers. See Mark E. Doremus, Wisconsin's Elderlinks Initiative: Using Technology to Provide Legal Services to Older Persons, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 545, 546 (1997). There are also plans to provide preventive services. See, e.g., Wayne Moore, Improving the Delivery of Legal Services for the Elderly: A Comprehensive Approach, 41 Emory L.J. 805, 828 (1992) (suggesting three ways to increase the provision of preventive legal services: statewide legal hotlines to give free preventive services and resolve legal problems; free group plans; and seminars to provide high-volume and low-cost preventive legal services). In addition, the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP") has funded toll-free legal hotlines in some states that provide assistance and advice by lawyers and paralegals, with referrals to legal services, if needed. See Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective: Alternative Approaches to Nonlaywer Practice, 22 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 701, 714 (1996). Similarly, some programs, sometimes in partnerships with local bar associations, provide a telephone hotline using pro bono attorneys. Cook County, Illinois has started the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ("CARPLS"), as has the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society with the Virginia Bar. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1694.
121. There are various models for providing a lesser degree, or different kind, of service. For example, in the State of Washington, the legal services-funded program has created a telephone network advice and triage system. See, e.g., David Barringer, Downsized Justice, A.B.A. J., July 1996, at 60, 64, 66 (establishing a companion-delivery system to provide legal services in response to cutbacks in state funding). In another example, there has been a focus on the concept of the "unbundling" of legal services (the partitioning of legal issues or problems into their component parts) so that clients can choose particular aspects for a lawyer's representation or advice. See, e.g., Mary Helen McNeal, Redefining Attorney-Client Roles: Unbundling and Moderate-Income Elderly Clients, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 295, 296 (1997) (discussing the spectrum of professional responsibility issues in the context of the technique of bundling legal problems). Another idea is to use an internet-based technology system to connect government benefits specialists with lawyers. See Mark E. Doremus, Wisconsin's Elderlinks Initiative: Using Technology to Provide Legal Services to Older Persons, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 545, 546 (1997). There are also plans to provide preventive services. See, e.g., Wayne Moore, Improving the Delivery of Legal Services for the Elderly: A Comprehensive Approach, 41 Emory L.J. 805, 828 (1992) (suggesting three ways to increase the provision of preventive legal services: statewide legal hotlines to give free preventive services and resolve legal problems; free group plans; and seminars to provide high-volume and low-cost preventive legal services). In addition, the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP") has funded toll-free legal hotlines in some states that provide assistance and advice by lawyers and paralegals, with referrals to legal services, if needed. See Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective: Alternative Approaches to Nonlaywer Practice, 22 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 701, 714 (1996). Similarly, some programs, sometimes in partnerships with local bar associations, provide a telephone hotline using pro bono attorneys. Cook County, Illinois has started the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ("CARPLS"), as has the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society with the Virginia Bar. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1694.
122. There are various models for providing a lesser degree, or different kind, of service. For example, in the State of Washington, the legal services-funded program has created a telephone network advice and triage system. See, e.g., David Barringer, Downsized Justice, A.B.A. J., July 1996, at 60, 64, 66 (establishing a companion-delivery system to provide legal services in response to cutbacks in state funding). In another example, there has been a focus on the concept of the "unbundling" of legal services (the partitioning of legal issues or problems into their component parts) so that clients can choose particular aspects for a lawyer's representation or advice. See, e.g., Mary Helen McNeal, Redefining Attorney-Client Roles: Unbundling and Moderate-Income Elderly Clients, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 295, 296 (1997) (discussing the spectrum of professional responsibility issues in the context of the technique of bundling legal problems). Another idea is to use an internet-based technology system to connect government benefits specialists with lawyers. See Mark E. Doremus, Wisconsin's Elderlinks Initiative: Using Technology to Provide Legal Services to Older Persons, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 545, 546 (1997). There are also plans to provide preventive services. See, e.g., Wayne Moore, Improving the Delivery of Legal Services for the Elderly: A Comprehensive Approach, 41 Emory L.J. 805, 828 (1992) (suggesting three ways to increase the provision of preventive legal services: statewide legal hotlines to give free preventive services and resolve legal problems; free group plans; and seminars to provide high-volume and low-cost preventive legal services). In addition, the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP") has funded toll-free legal hotlines in some states that provide assistance and advice by lawyers and paralegals, with referrals to legal services, if needed. See Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective: Alternative Approaches to Nonlaywer Practice, 22 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 701, 714 (1996). Similarly, some programs, sometimes in partnerships with local bar associations, provide a telephone hotline using pro bono attorneys. Cook County, Illinois has started the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ("CARPLS"), as has the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society with the Virginia Bar. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1694.
123. There are various models for providing a lesser degree, or different kind, of service. For example, in the State of Washington, the legal services-funded program has created a telephone network advice and triage system. See, e.g., David Barringer, Downsized Justice, A.B.A. J., July 1996, at 60, 64, 66 (establishing a companion-delivery system to provide legal services in response to cutbacks in state funding). In another example, there has been a focus on the concept of the "unbundling" of legal services (the partitioning of legal issues or problems into their component parts) so that clients can choose particular aspects for a lawyer's representation or advice. See, e.g., Mary Helen McNeal, Redefining Attorney-Client Roles: Unbundling and Moderate-Income Elderly Clients, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 295, 296 (1997) (discussing the spectrum of professional responsibility issues in the context of the technique of bundling legal problems). Another idea is to use an internet-based technology system to connect government benefits specialists with lawyers. See Mark E. Doremus, Wisconsin's Elderlinks Initiative: Using Technology to Provide Legal Services to Older Persons, 32 Wake Forest L. Rev. 545, 546 (1997). There are also plans to provide preventive services. See, e.g., Wayne Moore, Improving the Delivery of Legal Services for the Elderly: A Comprehensive Approach, 41 Emory L.J. 805, 828 (1992) (suggesting three ways to increase the provision of preventive legal services: statewide legal hotlines to give free preventive services and resolve legal problems; free group plans; and seminars to provide high-volume and low-cost preventive legal services). In addition, the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP") has funded toll-free legal hotlines in some states that provide assistance and advice by lawyers and paralegals, with referrals to legal services, if needed. See Deborah L. Rhode, Professionalism in Perspective: Alternative Approaches to Nonlaywer Practice, 22 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 701, 714 (1996). Similarly, some programs, sometimes in partnerships with local bar associations, provide a telephone hotline using pro bono attorneys. Cook County, Illinois has started the Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services ("CARPLS"), as has the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society with the Virginia Bar. See Houseman, supra note 30, at 1694.
124. See Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-134, § 504, 110 Stat. 1321, 1321-53, which was re-enacted by the Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 104-208, § 502, 110 Stat. 3009, 3009-59 (1996) (the "Act"). For example, legal services programs that receive funding from the Legal Services Corporation cannot lobby, participate in class action litigation, or participate in efforts to reform the welfare system. The restrictions were unsuccessfully challenged in Legal Aid Soc'y v. Legal Servs. Corp., 145 F.3d 1017, 1020 (9th Cir. 1998).
125. See Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 § 504(a); 45 C.F.R. 1610.7, 1610.8 (1997). The statutory and subsequent regulatory restrictions on the use of non-LSC funds were unsuccessfully challenged in Velazquez v. Legal Servs. Corp., 985 F. Supp. 323, 326 (E.D.N.Y. 1997), aff'd in part and rev'd in part, No. 98-6006, 1999 WL 5300 (2d Cir. Jan. 7, 1999).
126. Peters, supra note 12, at 15.
127. A number of health and human services professionals have codes of ethics. See Donald T. Dickson, Law in the Health and Human Services: A Guide for Social Workers, Psychologists, Psychiatrists, and Related Professionals 83 (1995).
128. NASW Code, supra note 64, Ethical Standard 2.01(a)-(c).
129. See id. Ethical Standard 2.01-02.
130. Id. Ethical Standard 2.03(a). Ethical Standard 2.03 provides: (a) Social workers who are members of an interdisciplinary team should participate in and contribute to decisions that affect the well-being of clients by drawing on the perspectives, values, and experiences of the social work profession. Professional and ethical obligations of the interdisciplinary team as a whole and of its individual members should be clearly established. (b) Social workers for whom a team decision raises ethical concerns should attempt to resolve the disagreement through appropriate channels. If the disagreement cannot be resolved, social workers should pursue other avenues to address their concerns consistent with client well-being. Id. Ethical Standard 2.03(a), (b). The Code also provides for consultation: "Social workers should seek the advice and counsel of colleagues whenever such consultation is in the best interests of clients." Id. Ethical Standard 2.05(a). Additionally, it provides for referral for services: "Social workers should refer clients to other professionals when the other professionals' specialized knowledge or expertise is needed to serve clients fully or when social workers believe that they are not being effective or making reasonable progress with clients and that additional service is required." Id. Ethical Standard 2.06(a).
131. See Goodmark, supra note 3, at 266-67. Various examples of integrated service delivery programs are discussed in the article, including the Bread for the City and Zacchaeus Free Clinic (a neighborhood-based service program which has food, clothing, medical, legal, and social work services), the Medical-Legal Services Project (legal "check-ups" in a hospital waiting room, staffed by physician, lawyer and patient advocate, in conjunction with the Legal Services Center in Boston), and the Clayton/ Mile-High Family Futures Project (twenty-three community agencies provide comprehensive services, including child care, medical clinic, job readiness classes, literacy and GED programs, vocational education, and college classes). See id. at 245-46, 265-66.
132. See id. at 267.
133. Although beyond the scope of this Article, it is important to study various models of collaboration. I plan to do so in a subsequent article.
134. For example, topics discussed were the procedures for a legal separation and divorce; custody evaluations; the mediation process; training law enforcement officials on stress management; the subpoena process and if and when therapists need to respond to subpoenas; and issues relating to confidentiality.
135. See Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 562-65.
136. Id. at 564.
137. Id. at 563.
138. Id. at 565.
139. "Lawyers should be knowledgeable about relevant psychosocial aspects of legal problems . . . . Without such an understanding, they may not, in reality, help the client reach an optimal resolution. Moreover, discussions of interpersonal and family issues are often a critical part of formulating an effective legal custody plan." Id. at 546. However, "[a]s the legal experts, attorneys should not try to resolve psychosocial issues that are beyond their training. These situations require partnerships with social workers and other mental health professionals." Id. at 546-47.
140. This ethical duty is "based on readings of the legal ethical codes, the lawyers' statutory mandates and other factors intrinsic to the legal role." Peters, supra note 12, at 15.
141. See Glynn, supra note 59, at 649. Concerns have been raised, however, that applying the more restrictive lawyer standard, at least in the context of children, is problematic: It might affect the collegiality and parity of the professional relationship, and it may be inappropriate in some situations in which the client is a child. See Cervone & Mauro, supra note 24, at 1984-85.
142. As stated by some commentators, "[a]lthough untested, one of the best hopes of maintaining the privilege for clients after the disclosure of confidential information to social workers and others, would be to characterize such disclosure as necessary for the provision of legal services, i.e., their technical knowledge is necessary to resolve the legal matter." Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 553.
143. There would probably be situations in which it is not clear which profession is the primary service provider. In those circumstances, the professional whose confidentiality protections are the broadest (typically the lawyer's) should govern.
144. See Brodey Memo, supra note 28, at 9-10.
145. See Glynn, supra note 59, at 648-49.
146. See Retkin et al., supra note 12, at 541.
147. To prevent confusion, lawyers and social workers in the two different agencies should: predetermine how referrals will be handled, what information will be shared, and how conflicts will be handled. Most of the confusion is caused by a lack of understanding of the roles each professional plays. Distrust may arise when role clarification is not carried out by the agencies and professionals. Each professional had expectations that were based on their [sic] own body of knowledge, rather than an explicit written understanding between themselves, which may have prevented discord and result in enhanced services to the families. Id. at 542.
148. See Peters, supra note 12, at 19-20. If the conflict cannot be resolved after the counseling, she suggested presenting the child's conflicting positions to the court and reassessing the case. See id. at 20. In the parameters of case assessment, she recommended: (a) viewing the case from the client's point of view; (b) meeting with a mutually trusted third party or perhaps establishing a group of professionals who can be called on as need arises (keeping in mind that ground rules are needed to safeguard confidentiality, such as use of redacted materials); (c) case review; (d) role clarification (the primary service objective of the agency); (e) issue identification; (f) addressing the relationship between the lawyers and social workers; (g) brainstorming about all possible directions in the case before choosing a strategy; (h) acknowledging the ethical bases of the dilemma and agreeing to disagree; and (i) designing a solution to the dilemma for the future. See id. at 20-22.
149. See id. at 22-23.
150. See Glynn, supra note 59, at 651-52 ("The professional either can be made responsible for all the work of her co-workers regardless of their status as independent professionals, or the professionals can be exempt from responsibility for another co-worker who is an independently-licensed professional regulated by another professional organization." (footnote omitted)).
151. See id. at 653. His proposed statute is: (a) A licensed professional shall not reveal information relating to a client relationship unless the client consents in writing after consultation, except as stated in paragraph (b). (b) A professional may reveal information relating to a client relationship to the extent the professional reasonably believes necessary: (1) to provide needed professional services to the client, such as a disclosure to a co-worker or subordinate of the professional; (2) to protect the client or others from imminent death or substantial bodily harm, provided such disclosures are limited to that necessary to accomplish the protection; (3) to report to the state's child abuse registry that the client has abused or neglected a child, or if the client is a minor, that the client has been abused or neglected, provided such a disclosure is limited to the initial report and investigation; or (4) to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the professional in a controversy between the professional and the client, to establish a defense to a criminal charge or civil claim against the professional based upon conduct in which the client was involved, or to respond to allegations in any proceeding concerning the professional's relationship with the client, provided such disclosures are limited to that necessary to achieve the stated purpose. Id. at 653-54. The statute would be a shift to discretionary reporting, instead of mandatory reporting. See id. at 654.
152. Id. at 656.
153. The theoretics of practice: refocuses legal thought on clients who are disempowered. . . . It also renews the search for a self-critical understanding of the meaning of legal work with clients, and it develops forms of practice that reflect such an understanding. . . . [It] takes care to situate clients within the social world, taking into account the particularities of the clients' experiences and circumstances. Ann Shalleck, Constructions of the Client Within Legal Education, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1731, 1748 (1993); see also Gerald P. López, Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice 47-51 (1992) (exploring the advantages of "putting overlapping practical knowledges to work"); Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 Yale L.J. 2107, 2146 (1991) [hereinafter Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice] (recommending a commitment to integrate "client narratives into the storytelling of advocacy"); Symposium, Theoretics of Practice: The Integration of Progressive Thought and Action, 43 Hastings L.J. 717 (1992) (addressing the realities of societally disempowered people and their interactions with the lawyers working with them); Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. 38 Buff. L. Rev. 1, 57-58 (1990) (discussing the possibility of "constitutional revolution" in order to afford the disempowered equal representation).
154. The theoretics of practice: refocuses legal thought on clients who are disempowered. . . . It also renews the search for a self-critical understanding of the meaning of legal work with clients, and it develops forms of practice that reflect such an understanding. . . . [It] takes care to situate clients within the social world, taking into account the particularities of the clients' experiences and circumstances. Ann Shalleck, Constructions of the Client Within Legal Education, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1731, 1748 (1993); see also Gerald P. López, Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice 47-51 (1992) (exploring the advantages of "putting overlapping practical knowledges to work"); Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 Yale L.J. 2107, 2146 (1991) [hereinafter Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice] (recommending a commitment to integrate "client narratives into the storytelling of advocacy"); Symposium, Theoretics of Practice: The Integration of Progressive Thought and Action, 43 Hastings L.J. 717 (1992) (addressing the realities of societally disempowered people and their interactions with the lawyers working with them); Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. 38 Buff. L. Rev. 1, 57-58 (1990) (discussing the possibility of "constitutional revolution" in order to afford the disempowered equal representation).
155. The theoretics of practice: refocuses legal thought on clients who are disempowered. . . . It also renews the search for a self-critical understanding of the meaning of legal work with clients, and it develops forms of practice that reflect such an understanding. . . . [It] takes care to situate clients within the social world, taking into account the particularities of the clients' experiences and circumstances. Ann Shalleck, Constructions of the Client Within Legal Education, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1731, 1748 (1993); see also Gerald P. López, Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice 47-51 (1992) (exploring the advantages of "putting overlapping practical knowledges to work"); Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 Yale L.J. 2107, 2146 (1991) [hereinafter Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice] (recommending a commitment to integrate "client narratives into the storytelling of advocacy"); Symposium, Theoretics of Practice: The Integration of Progressive Thought and Action, 43 Hastings L.J. 717 (1992) (addressing the realities of societally disempowered people and their interactions with the lawyers working with them); Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. 38 Buff. L. Rev. 1, 57-58 (1990) (discussing the possibility of "constitutional revolution" in order to afford the disempowered equal representation).
156. The theoretics of practice: refocuses legal thought on clients who are disempowered. . . . It also renews the search for a self-critical understanding of the meaning of legal work with clients, and it develops forms of practice that reflect such an understanding. . . . [It] takes care to situate clients within the social world, taking into account the particularities of the clients' experiences and circumstances. Ann Shalleck, Constructions of the Client Within Legal Education, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1731, 1748 (1993); see also Gerald P. López, Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice 47-51 (1992) (exploring the advantages of "putting overlapping practical knowledges to work"); Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 Yale L.J. 2107, 2146 (1991) [hereinafter Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice] (recommending a commitment to integrate "client narratives into the storytelling of advocacy"); Symposium, Theoretics of Practice: The Integration of Progressive Thought and Action, 43 Hastings L.J. 717 (1992) (addressing the realities of societally disempowered people and their interactions with the lawyers working with them); Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. 38 Buff. L. Rev. 1, 57-58 (1990) (discussing the possibility of "constitutional revolution" in order to afford the disempowered equal representation).
157. The theoretics of practice: refocuses legal thought on clients who are disempowered. . . . It also renews the search for a self-critical understanding of the meaning of legal work with clients, and it develops forms of practice that reflect such an understanding. . . . [It] takes care to situate clients within the social world, taking into account the particularities of the clients' experiences and circumstances. Ann Shalleck, Constructions of the Client Within Legal Education, 45 Stan. L. Rev. 1731, 1748 (1993); see also Gerald P. López, Rebellious Lawyering: One Chicano's Vision of Progressive Law Practice 47-51 (1992) (exploring the advantages of "putting overlapping practical knowledges to work"); Anthony V. Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice: Learning Lessons of Client Narrative, 100 Yale L.J. 2107, 2146 (1991) [hereinafter Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice] (recommending a commitment to integrate "client narratives into the storytelling of advocacy"); Symposium, Theoretics of Practice: The Integration of Progressive Thought and Action, 43 Hastings L.J. 717 (1992) (addressing the realities of societally disempowered people and their interactions with the lawyers working with them); Lucie E. White, Subordination, Rhetorical Survival Skills, and Sunday Shoes: Notes on the Hearing of Mrs. G. 38 Buff. L. Rev. 1, 57-58 (1990) (discussing the possibility of "constitutional revolution" in order to afford the disempowered equal representation).
158. See, e.g., Ann Southworth, Lawyer-Client Decisionmaking in Civil Rights and Poverty Practice: An Empirical Study of Lawyers' Norms, 9 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 1101, 1148 (1996) (researching the allocation of power between poor clients and their lawyers). Southworth conducted a study to assess whether civil rights and poverty lawyers assume too much control in their relationships with clients. See id. at 1102-03. Southworth found that lawyers' views on proper allocation of decisionmaking roles between lawyer and client vary substantially by types of practice settings. See id. at 1105. She concluded that legal services lawyers played significant roles and sometimes chose strategies without consulting with clients; lawyers in law school clinics typically created strategies on their own or with other lawyers and community groups; lawyers in advocacy groups often decided positions on their own; lawyers in civil rights firms participated aggressively in choosing strategies but consulted with clients on all important decisions; lawyers in grass roots organizations allowed clients to make decisions as an end in itself, in order to empower clients. See id.
159. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with clients have been discussed by many scholars. See Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty Law, supra note 51, at 665; Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice supra note 129, at 2119, 2140-41; Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 297, 303 (1996); Brustin, supra note 3, at 44-46; Stephen Ellmann, Lawyers and Clients, 34 UCLA L. Rev. 717, 776-78 (1987); Louise G. Trubek, Critical Lawyering: Toward a New Public Interest Practice, 1 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 49, 49-56 (1991). But see Ann Southworth, Taking the Lawyer Out of Progressive Lawyering, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 224-25 (1993) (critiquing López's rebellious lawyer- ing for underestimating the ways lawyers can help facilitate the client's assertion of control, for assuming that clients benefit by participating in all aspects of the lawyer's work, and for underestimating the range of activities lawyers can perform for clients). Bellow views his concept of "alliance" between a lawyer and client as approximating López's view of "rebellious" practice. See Bellow, supra, at 303 n.11. Bellow selected the concept of alliance because alliance generates bonds and dependencies and is grounded, at least in aspiration, in forms of respect and mutuality that are far more personal and compelling, for many of us who do political legal work, than the demands of some notion of client-centered lawyering, no matter how strongly held. Alliance also seems to offer an ideal that permits us to talk seriously about purposive judgment - when and whether to intervene or to seek influence - in situations in which one has unequal power in a relationship. The ideal of alliance avoids oversentimentalized and categorical attitudes - my client, the victims, the hero - toward clients. Such an orientation seems necessary in any honestly mutual relationship and is especially important when working with groups in which issues of which faction one serves constantly arise, and where humor, patience, and a genuine fondness for and realism about the individuals involved are often all one has to maintain one's bearings until some particular storm subsides. Id. at 303 (footnotes omitted).
160. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with clients have been discussed by many scholars. See Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty Law, supra note 51, at 665; Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice supra note 129, at 2119, 2140-41; Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 297, 303 (1996); Brustin, supra note 3, at 44-46; Stephen Ellmann, Lawyers and Clients, 34 UCLA L. Rev. 717, 776-78 (1987); Louise G. Trubek, Critical Lawyering: Toward a New Public Interest Practice, 1 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 49, 49-56 (1991). But see Ann Southworth, Taking the Lawyer Out of Progressive Lawyering, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 224-25 (1993) (critiquing López's rebellious lawyer- ing for underestimating the ways lawyers can help facilitate the client's assertion of control, for assuming that clients benefit by participating in all aspects of the lawyer's work, and for underestimating the range of activities lawyers can perform for clients). Bellow views his concept of "alliance" between a lawyer and client as approximating López's view of "rebellious" practice. See Bellow, supra, at 303 n.11. Bellow selected the concept of alliance because alliance generates bonds and dependencies and is grounded, at least in aspiration, in forms of respect and mutuality that are far more personal and compelling, for many of us who do political legal work, than the demands of some notion of client-centered lawyering, no matter how strongly held. Alliance also seems to offer an ideal that permits us to talk seriously about purposive judgment - when and whether to intervene or to seek influence - in situations in which one has unequal power in a relationship. The ideal of alliance avoids oversentimentalized and categorical attitudes - my client, the victims, the hero - toward clients. Such an orientation seems necessary in any honestly mutual relationship and is especially important when working with groups in which issues of which faction one serves constantly arise, and where humor, patience, and a genuine fondness for and realism about the individuals involved are often all one has to maintain one's bearings until some particular storm subsides. Id. at 303 (footnotes omitted).
161. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with clients have been discussed by many scholars. See Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty Law, supra note 51, at 665; Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice supra note 129, at 2119, 2140-41; Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 297, 303 (1996); Brustin, supra note 3, at 44-46; Stephen Ellmann, Lawyers and Clients, 34 UCLA L. Rev. 717, 776-78 (1987); Louise G. Trubek, Critical Lawyering: Toward a New Public Interest Practice, 1 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 49, 49-56 (1991). But see Ann Southworth, Taking the Lawyer Out of Progressive Lawyering, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 224-25 (1993) (critiquing López's rebellious lawyer- ing for underestimating the ways lawyers can help facilitate the client's assertion of control, for assuming that clients benefit by participating in all aspects of the lawyer's work, and for underestimating the range of activities lawyers can perform for clients). Bellow views his concept of "alliance" between a lawyer and client as approximating López's view of "rebellious" practice. See Bellow, supra, at 303 n.11. Bellow selected the concept of alliance because alliance generates bonds and dependencies and is grounded, at least in aspiration, in forms of respect and mutuality that are far more personal and compelling, for many of us who do political legal work, than the demands of some notion of client-centered lawyering, no matter how strongly held. Alliance also seems to offer an ideal that permits us to talk seriously about purposive judgment - when and whether to intervene or to seek influence - in situations in which one has unequal power in a relationship. The ideal of alliance avoids oversentimentalized and categorical attitudes - my client, the victims, the hero - toward clients. Such an orientation seems necessary in any honestly mutual relationship and is especially important when working with groups in which issues of which faction one serves constantly arise, and where humor, patience, and a genuine fondness for and realism about the individuals involved are often all one has to maintain one's bearings until some particular storm subsides. Id. at 303 (footnotes omitted).
162. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with clients have been discussed by many scholars. See Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty Law, supra note 51, at 665; Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice supra note 129, at 2119, 2140-41; Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 297, 303 (1996); Brustin, supra note 3, at 44-46; Stephen Ellmann, Lawyers and Clients, 34 UCLA L. Rev. 717, 776-78 (1987); Louise G. Trubek, Critical Lawyering: Toward a New Public Interest Practice, 1 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 49, 49-56 (1991). But see Ann Southworth, Taking the Lawyer Out of Progressive Lawyering, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 224-25 (1993) (critiquing López's rebellious lawyer- ing for underestimating the ways lawyers can help facilitate the client's assertion of control, for assuming that clients benefit by participating in all aspects of the lawyer's work, and for underestimating the range of activities lawyers can perform for clients). Bellow views his concept of "alliance" between a lawyer and client as approximating López's view of "rebellious" practice. See Bellow, supra, at 303 n.11. Bellow selected the concept of alliance because alliance generates bonds and dependencies and is grounded, at least in aspiration, in forms of respect and mutuality that are far more personal and compelling, for many of us who do political legal work, than the demands of some notion of client-centered lawyering, no matter how strongly held. Alliance also seems to offer an ideal that permits us to talk seriously about purposive judgment - when and whether to intervene or to seek influence - in situations in which one has unequal power in a relationship. The ideal of alliance avoids oversentimentalized and categorical attitudes - my client, the victims, the hero - toward clients. Such an orientation seems necessary in any honestly mutual relationship and is especially important when working with groups in which issues of which faction one serves constantly arise, and where humor, patience, and a genuine fondness for and realism about the individuals involved are often all one has to maintain one's bearings until some particular storm subsides. Id. at 303 (footnotes omitted).
163. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with
164. See López, supra note 129, at 48-50. The possible abuse of power relations in political lawyering and the need for collaborative lawyering with clients have been discussed by many scholars. See Alfieri, Antinomies of Poverty Law, supra note 51, at 665; Alfieri, Reconstructive Poverty Law Practice supra note 129, at 2119, 2140-41; Gary Bellow, Steady Work: A Practitioner's Reflections on Political Lawyering, 31 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 297, 303 (1996); Brustin, supra note 3, at 44-46; Stephen Ellmann, Lawyers and Clients, 34 UCLA L. Rev. 717, 776-78 (1987); Louise G. Trubek, Critical Lawyering: Toward a New Public Interest Practice, 1 B.U. Pub. Int. L.J. 49, 49-56 (1991). But see Ann Southworth, Taking the Lawyer Out of Progressive Lawyering, 46 Stan. L. Rev. 213, 224-25 (1993) (critiquing López's rebellious lawyer-ing for underestimating the ways lawyers can help facilitate the client's assertion of control, for assuming that clients benefit by participating in all aspects of the lawyer's work, and for underestimating the range of activities lawyers can perform for clients). Bellow views his concept of "alliance" between a lawyer and client as approximating López's view of "rebellious" practice. See Bellow, supra, at 303 n.11. Bellow selected the concept of alliance because alliance generates bonds and dependencies and is grounded, at least in aspiration, in forms of respect and mutuality that are far more personal and compelling, for many of us who do political legal work, than the demands of some notion of client-centered lawyering, no matter how strongly held. Alliance also seems to offer an ideal that permits us to talk seriously about purposive judgment - when and whether to intervene or to seek influence - in situations in which one has unequal power in a relationship. The ideal of alliance avoids oversentimentalized and categorical attitudes - my client, the victims, the hero - toward clients. Such an orientation seems necessary in any honestly mutual relationship and is especially important when working with groups in which issues of which faction one serves constantly arise, and where humor, patience, and a genuine fondness for and realism about the individuals involved are often all one has to maintain one's bearings until some particular storm subsides. Id. at 303 (footnotes omitted).
165. See, e.g., Houseman, supra note 30, at 1698-99 (discussing the complications of poverty law practice). [A] number of scholars have identified the difficulties of developing a lawyer-client relationship that is based on mutual respect and responsibility, instead of lawyer domination and client subordination. They point out that current practice excludes client voices and the power of clients to speak for themselves, both in terms of client-attorney interaction and in terms of the way pleadings are prepared and cases handled, which reflect only the lawyer's perspective. Id.
166. Brustin, supra note 3, at 58. The author notes that some might question whether the Hermanas Unidas, a project which began as a series of workshops and support sessions to deal with domestic violence in the Latino community, was appropriate for social workers or community activists, instead of lawyers. See id. at 59. Her response is that these projects "offer new vehicles for expanding the boundaries of legal services representation, legal education, and conceptions of lawyering . . . [and that they] challenge lawyers to engage in a multidisciplinary effort to affect institutional change." Id.
167. Goodmark, supra note 3, at 267.
168. See id. at 259. As noted by Goodmark, the problems of the poor are "multi-faceted and require multi-faceted solutions." Id. Having professionals work together in an integrated service program "helps combat a natural (though unfortunate) tendency to focus solely on the problems that fall within the professional's field of expertise." Id.
169. In that case, collaboration with a social worker at an earlier stage, preferably with a social worker in the clinical program, would probably have resulted in a better relationship with the client, perhaps the ability to continue working with the client, and certainly less stress for the students (and myself).
170. Minna J. Kotkin, My Summer Vacation: Reflections on Becoming a Critical Lawyer and Teacher, 4 Clinical L. Rev. 235, 245 (1997); see also Gary Bellow & Earl Johnson, Reflections on the University of Southern California Clinical Semester, 44 S. Cal. L. Rev. 664, 695 (1971) (observing that although no definitive conclusions could be drawn from the one-year clinical semester, perhaps the most important contribution that such programs can make is the dialogue over clinical education itself).
171. Minna J. Kotkin, My Summer Vacation: Reflections on Becoming a Critical Lawyer and Teacher, 4 Clinical L. Rev. 235, 245 (1997); see also Gary Bellow & Earl Johnson, Reflections on the University of Southern California Clinical Semester, 44 S. Cal. L. Rev. 664, 695 (1971) (observing that although no definitive conclusions could be drawn from the one-year clinical semester, perhaps the most important contribution that such programs can make is the dialogue over clinical education itself).