Teaching non-adversarial practice in the first year of law: A proposed strategy for addressing high levels of psychological distress in law students

In this article we discuss a need for strategic change in the curriculum of the first year of legal education. This need arises due to high levels of psychological distress being experienced by law students. This psychological distress starts in the first year of students' experience of law school. We argue for non-adversarial practice to be taught as a critical component of a curriculum-based strategy that will work to address this issue. We sketch out a model for a possible first year unit on non-adversarial practice for these purposes