Simulated Clients (SCs) in Legal Education Showcased at International Conference

Simulated clients (SCs) improve legal education by enhancing the client-facing skills of students and practitioners. Under the leadership of Professor Paul Maharg, a number of SC projects have been established over the last six years at Osgoode Professional Development (OsgoodePD) and Osgoode Hall Law School. 

In July, the latest international workshop on the method took place in the University of Amsterdam Law School in the Netherlands, co-sponsored by OsgoodePD. Around 50 international participants from 26 countries signed up to learn about the method, its successes and how it challenges conventional legal education. They watched a demonstration interview with an OsgoodePD lawyer and an Osgoode SC, and afterwards discussed how they could form their own SC projects.  More European workshops are planned to stimulate further interest.

The SC approach mirrors a long-established practice in medical education, where simulated patients play a crucial role. For many years now medical students have learned patient-facing skills and ethics through simulation.  People with no medical knowledge are trained to simulate being patients, and to do two things well: to simulate a medical condition, and to assess and give feedback on the patient-facing skills of student doctors.

In 2004 the method was adapted to law and legal studies.  Strathclyde University Law School in Scotland trained SCs and used them to assess the client-facing skills of around 250 law students on a professional course.  The effect was transformational.  Students learned more and the assessment was fairer and more rigorous than using actors as clients and instructors as assessors.  SCs, it was proven statistically, were actually better at assessing students than instructors.

These results have been achieved since 2004 in a range of 16 international projects involving law schools, regulators and others.  Most of the projects were started by Professor Paul Maharg, one of the founders of the method and until recently on faculty at OHLS. Projects have taken place in Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, the U.S. and Canada.

Osgoode students have been learning from SCs since the first pilot of their use in 2018.  And not only JD students – lawyers taking professional development courses at OsgoodePD have also gained much valuable experience from SCs playing a variety of roles and giving feedback.  The method has since expanded to four other provinces in Canada.  The Centre for Canadian Professional Legal Education, comprising regulators from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, invited Paul to develop the use of SCs for their annual intake of 800 or so students on the PREP (Practice Readiness Education Program) across the four provinces. 

Students love learning from the encounter with SCs.  Some comments from Osgoode students:

• One of my favourite and most worthwhile opportunities all year.
• I loved the feedback that the simulated client gave me. She was honest (but also very kind).
• The feedback was splendid. I see where I need to improve and at the same time, I was made aware of my strengths that I need to hone.
• I feel like it was worthwhile and that we should have more opportunities to participate in similar activities.

There have been independent reports on the effectiveness of the method.  The US Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS), for example, reported on an innovative bar exemption program in New Hampshire that uses SCs extensively.  Amongst their findings, they observed that students in the program outperformed lawyers who had been admitted to practice within the last two years. 

For further information about SCs, please contact Professor Paul Maharg at pmaharg@osgoode.yorku.ca, or visit his blog at paulmaharg.com