Law Students on Interdisciplinary, Problem‐Solving Teams: An Empirical Evaluation of Educational Outcomes at the University Of Denver's Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families

• Author: Logan Cornett,Corina Gerety,Marsha Kline Pruett,Andrew Schepard,Rebecca Love Kourlis
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12325

LAW STUDENTS ON INTERDISCIPLINARY, PROBLEM-SOLVING

TEAMS: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL

OUTCOMES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER’S RESOURCE

CENTER FOR SEPARATING AND DIVORCING FAMILIES

Marsha Kline Pruett, Andrew Schepard, Logan Cornett, Corina Gerety, and Rebecca Love Kourlis

Models of lawyering in separation and divorce disputes are evolving to emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, problem

solving, alternative dispute resolution, and changes in legal education that reflect these changes in practice. At the University

of Denver’s Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (Center), supervised law and mental health graduate stu-

dents worked as a team to provide assessment and service planning, mediation, therapy, and agreement drafting to parents.

Evaluation results showed client satisfaction, and that students acquired new knowledge, skills, and values in line with a col-

laborative, problem-solving orientation. Strengths and weaknesses of the model are considered.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Modern family law representation requires collaboration and problem-solving skills.

The Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (RCSDF) is a model designed to educate law students

into the practice of interdisciplinary, coordinated legal services that minimize the risks of the adversarial legal process

for family well-being after separation/divorce.

An evaluation indicated that students increased in certain knowledge and skills (e.g., mediation, interviewing, financial

planning, drafting agreements, preparing parenting plans) and in their comfort working in interdisciplinary teams.

The evaluation also established that the interns provided competent services to clients who were very satisfied with the

services rendered.

If law schools want to be in the forefront of legal education, they should move in an interdisciplinary, problem-solving

direction that provides hands-on opportunities for education and training.

Keywords: Divorce; Interdisciplinary; Legal Education; and Separating Families.

INTRODUCTION

This article reports on an empirical evaluation of what law students learned as members of an

interdisciplinary team composed of graduate students in psychology and social work who provided

coordinated services to separating and divorcing families. The team was formed at the University of

Denver’s (DU) Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (RCSDF or Center) and pro-

vided assessment, legal information, dispute resolution (mediation), therapy, legal drafting, and filed

documents with the court. We first briefly describe the evolution of models of lawyering in separa-

tion and divorce, which led to the formation of the Center’s service plan and educational goals. We

also discuss calls for reform in the education of future family lawyers that were central in shaping the

interdisciplinary educational mission of the Center. We then summarize results of the evaluation of

Center services and the education of the Center law students. The final section focuses on lessons

learned and hopes for the future.

Correspondence: mpruett@smith.edu; Andrew.I.schepard@hofstra.edu; logan.cornett@du.edu; corina.gerety@du.edu;

rebecca.kourlis@du.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 1, January 2018 100–118

V

C2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

I. CHANGING GOALS FOR EDUCATING FUTURE FAMILY LAWYERS

A. THE EVOLUTION OF FAMILY LAW REPRESENTATION TOWARDS COLLABORATION

AND PROBLEM SOLVING

The Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) at the DU developed the

RCSDF to provide comprehensive interdisciplinary legal and psychological services to families in a

supportive and cost-efficient model that enables families to separate and complete the legal process

without exacerbating family conflict and disharmony. The Center’s goals included educating law stu-

dents about the value of coordinated, collaborative, problem-solving interdisciplinary services to sepa-

rating and divorcing families. IAALS believes that providing such services at a reasonable cost is an

effective way to address the complex and interrelated needs of many separating and divorcing families

while focusing on their planning for the future and maintaining as much stability as possible.

Divorce is, in part, a legal event that requires resolution of disputes, drafting of agreements, and

filing appropriate documents with the court. However, those are hardly the only needs of parents and

children in reorganizing families. Parents need financial planning to manage the pressures of setting

up two households. Their children sometimes need a mental health assessment and support to deal

with their acting out and educational difficulties in reaction to parental conflict. Parents, in some

cases, need mental health therapy for depression or treatment for alcoholism. Couples need assistance

in moving past their anger and hurt to resolve financial issues pertaining to the divorce and to

develop a strategy for co-parenting in the future.

Traditional models of lawyering focus on courtroom advocacy and decisions by a judge. For

many families, however, the courtroom-based model is too emotionally and economically expensive

and takes longer than is tolerable.

1

Caseloads in family courts are overwhelming. The expense of rep-

resentation is increasing. Middle-class separating and divorcing couples—who receive no legal

aid—have been largely priced out of the market for legal services. More and more family law liti-

gants are self-represented mostly because they cannot afford to pay lawyers’ fees

2

but also because

they question whether the lawyers’ input will increase the adversarial nature of the case in the long

run.

Even more concerning is the impact of the adversarial, courtroom-based model for decision mak-

ing on the children involved in family court proceedings. Parents can put a child’s economic, emo-

tional, and educational welfare at risk with ongoing conflict between each other. A recent convening

of social science and legal experts organized by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts

(AFCC) reviewed the available empirical evidence on the needs of children in reorganizing families

and concluded:

Promotion of shared parenting constitutes a public health issue that extends beyond a mere legal concern.

Parents who collaborate in childrearing have a positive effect on their children’s development and well-

being. Parents who engage in protracted and/or severe conflict that includes rejecting or undermining the

other parent have a negative impact. The potential for shared parenting is present for children regardless

of the family structure in which they live, and it represents a key protective factor in (a) helping children

adjust to separation and divorce and (b) establishing an ongoing healthy family environment in which to

rear children and facilitate high-quality parenting.

3

Recognition of the public health effects on children from conflict in separating and divorcing fam-

ilies is part of a broader recognition that family reorganization is not just a legal problem but also a

challenge to the family’s total economic and emotional well-being. Separation and divorce, for exam-

ple, create significant emotional stress on those who experience it, often resulting in declining perfor-

mance at work. As described in a recent article by Rebecca Love Kourlis:

Family conflict also has been linked to individual problems—mental health, domestic violence, impaired

immune function, addiction—that have known links to diminished job performance and absenteeism.

Pruett et al./LAW STUDENTS ON INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS 101