Stakeholder perceptions of Clinical Legal Education within an employability context

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how clinical legal education is perceived by current students, alumni, employers and clinic supervisors. The paper considers clinical legal education within the employability discourse in higher education and interrogates its place in the curriculum. With ever growing pressure on Higher Education providers to produce employable graduates in a challenging graduate marketplace this qualitative study seeks new insights into the role clinical legal education can play in preparing students for their transition from university into graduate careers.There has been little empirical research in this area and so this article explores the literature around the employability discourse, with particular focus on the impact of clinical legal education on employability before reporting on the findings from the focus groups and reaching conclusions about the implications of the impact of clinical legal education on employability.