Enhancing civic consciousness through student pro bono in legal education

A key aim of encouraging law students to participate in student pro bono, a form of experiential learning in legal education, is to develop their commitment to volunteer lawyering after graduation. This paper examines student pro bono in legal education in Australia and the United States. A critical review of the current approaches to student pro bono in both jurisdictions demonstrates that although student pro bono exposes students to lawyering skills, the absence of structured follow-up as part of student pro bono, results in limited changes to students’ attitudes to commit to volunteer lawyering. The benefits of adopting reflective activities as part of student pro bono are discussed. It is argued that transformative pedagogies can encourage critical consciousness and social transformation necessary for active involvement in volunteer lawyering after graduation. Teaching and learning strategies are suggested to simultaneously enhance social and personal transformation and to develop lawyering skills through student pro bono.