Conferring on the MacCrate Report: A Clinical Gaze

The MacCrate Report\u27 provides a strong statement about the need for legal education to take seriously its responsibility for training students in the values of the profession and skills of legal practice. It is this central focus of the Report that makes it of interest to those of us who recognize the particular contribution clinical education makes to legal training. The Task Force, appointed and supported by the American Bar Association\u27s influential Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, affirmed in its Report the importance of clinical education and the vital role it can play in the training of future attorneys. It recognized the last twenty-five years of work by many clinical and nonclinical teachers to improve and make available clinical opportunities for law students. Perhaps even more impor- tantly, the Report\u27s publication promised to serve as a catalyst for re- examination of legal education in which the benefits of teaching professional values and practice skills would be the starting point for discussions about curriculum reform