Family law with skills ten years later: Experiential education in the introductory family law course

• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Andrew Schepard
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12678

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

Family law with skills ten years later: Experiential

education in the introductory family law course

Andrew Schepard

Correspondence

Andrew Schepard

Email: andrew.i.schepard@hofstra.edu

Abstract

Hofstra's Law School's Family Law with Skills Course

(FLWS) incorporates experiential education into an intro-

ductory family law course. This article describes FLWS'

recent experiential curricular innovations: (1) a transition to

online learning; (2) the Navigator Program in which students

provide legal information (in contrast to legal advice) to self-

represented litigants in divorce actions; (3) a forum with

leadership from the divorce bar nationwide that introduces

law students to the nature and future of family law practice;

and (4) a divorce representation simulation in which law stu-

dents counsel a client with consulting help from a psycholo-

gist, asset valuator and dispute resolution expert. This

article describes the contribution each of these innovations

makes to the education of family law students and how they

are organized. It concludes that experiential education

should be part of the education of future family lawyers in

the interests of improving the quality of the representation

they provide and their commitment to the field.

KEYWORDS

counseling simulation, experiential education, family law bar, family

law course, navigator program for self-represented litigants, online

education, student consultation with experts

Key points for the family court community

•Hofstra Law School's Family Law with Skills (FLWS)

course integrates teaching of traditional family law doc-

trine with experiential learning.

© 2022 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

836 Family Court Rev. 2022;60:836–854.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fcre

DOI: 10.1111/fcre.12678

•Recent innovations in FLWS' experiential education

activities involving stakeholders in the family court com-

munity include:

Integration of remote learning to enable guest participa-

tion by family lawyers and other stakeholders in provid-

ing feedback on student performances from anywhere,

and conveys to students that their technological skills

will be an advantage in their future practice.

Town hall forums with leaders from the practicing family

law bar that broaden student perspectives on the nature

and future of family law practice.

A Navigator Program in which law students provide legal

information to self-represented divorce litigants to help

complete required forms.

A focus on developing student counseling skills, a central

function of family lawyers. Students draft a counseling

plan for a simulated divorce client. Prior to doing so they

engage in interdisciplinary consultations with experts in

mental health, asset valuation and dispute resolution

They also receive feedback on simulated counseling per-

formances from experienced family lawyers and

mediators.

•Ten years of experience with FLWS establishes that inte-

gration of experiential learning into the basic family law

course is feasible and improves student understanding of

family law doctrine and the nature of family law practice.

Experiential education encourages students to under-

stand the satisfactions and challenges of representing

family law clients and to value the professionals who are

part of the modern family law system.

TEN YEARS LATER

Over a decade ago, my late colleague and friend Herbie DiFonzo

1

and I asked the Hofstra Law School Faculty to

authorize an additional credit for our traditional, three-credit family law course. Our request had a particular

1

See Special Tributes to J. Herbie DiFonzo,56FAM.CT.REV.8 (2018) (articles by Hon. Gail Prudenti, Peter Salem, Andrew Schepard, Marsha Kline Pruett, and

Alexandra Faver).

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