Catholic Law's Professor Emerita Leah Wortham led clinical teachers from Ukraine, Poland, Italy, and the US for a session at the 11th Global Alliance for Justice Education (GAJE) conference on The Clinic Go Bag: Preparing for Crises and Useful Inter-Clinic Support. The session reflected on what can be learned about preparation to respond quickly with rapidly arising or escalating crises, what outside help can be useful versus being another obstacle in effective response, and educational decisions about switching a clinic focus to respond.
Wortham has worked with Catholic Law's Professor Catherine Klein since 1996 on the establishment of clinics in Central and Eastern Europe. Ukraine was one of the earliest adopters of clinical education, and many programs there have long histories despite some being forced to relocate in the 2014 invasion and hostilities since in some parts of the country. Wortham returned to work with the Association of Legal Clinics in Ukraine (ALCU) in 2017 through the USAID Contractor Justice for All, based in Kyiv. Through her contacts in Ukraine and Poland, Wortham has supported Professor Davida Finger, from Loyola New Orleans and ALCU Board Member Mariia Tsypiashchuk in the Ad Hoc Committee on Ukraine that has organized online training in skills and international criminal law for law students in Ukraine that was requested by Ukrainian clinics. In this and other GAJE presentations, Professor Tsypiashchuk shared how law schools and legal clinics are continuing to work in Ukraine during the war.
This GAJE session reflecting on lessons learned drew on Professor Finger’s experience with disaster relief from the devastating 2005 hurricanes and subsequent natural disasters in New Orleans. Professor Maurizio Veglio (International University College, Turin Italy) talked about Italian clinics' experience in responding to Tunisian refugees in Italy since 2015. Filip Czernicki, President of the Polish Legal Clinics Association, described the Association’s work with Polish clinics to support Ukrainian clinics and those of the eight million Ukrainians coming through Poland who sought legal help from Polish clinics. The Polish and Ukrainian clinical cooperation includes development of a phone application so Polish clinical students and lawyers (as well as those in other countries) can reach a Ukrainian clinic for a quick answer or client conference related to a question regarding Ukrainian law or vice versa.
Professor Klein was on the planning committee for the Training of Trainers Program, a GAJE Conference tradition. The 2 day program featured interactive workshops focused on important aspects of clinical legal education pedagogy. She also presented a workshop on Trauma-Informed Lawyering: Tools for Socially Relevant Justice Education, with Marzia Barbera (Univ. of Brescia, Italy), Daven Dass, (University of Witwatersrand, South Africa) and Paula Galowitz (NYU, USA).
After a virtual conference in 2021, GAJE returned for the eleventh live international conference held at Stellenbosch University in Stellenbosch, South Africa near Cape Town. Founded in 1999, GAJE is the preeminent organization supporting the spread and enhancement of quality of clinical education directed to serve marginalized and underrepresented people and, as the organization motto says, “Make legal education justice education.”
Professors Wortham and Klein have been active in GAJE since its founding with Professor Klein serving on the Board and as a former conference chair. Wortham and Klein chaired proposal review for several conferences, and Wortham led a by-law review and revision to help sustain the organization as its scope and reach grew.
The eleventh conference comprised 375 registered participants from 49 countries.
(Photo Above, L to R: Mariia Tsypiashchuk, The Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine | Ukraine; Davida Finger, Loyola University New Orleans | New Orleans, Louisiana; Filip Czernicki, Polish Legal Clinics Foundation | Poland; Leah Wortham, The Catholic University of America | Washington, DC; and Maurizio Veglio, International University College of Turin | Italy)