Legal Education without the law - Lay Clients as Teachers and Assessors in Communication Skills in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study of the use of simulated clients to teach and assess the interviewing skills and communicative competence of law students at the University of Hong Kong. In 2013, nearly 400 Postgraduate Certificate in Laws students (“PCLL”, similar to Legal Practice Course in England and Wales) from two courses, namely Will, Trust and Estate Planning (elective course), and Civil Litigation (compulsory course), participated in interviewing exercises with simulated clients, who are lay persons trained to portray clients in a realistic manner by adopting the standardized clients training program initiated in Scotland since 2006. The paper will present the data analysis of assessment results of the students and their evaluation of this experiential learning program. While our analysis confirms the reliability and validity of using standardized clients as teachers and assessors of interviewing skills, it also reveals the necessity of modification of the original design of standardized client program according to specific cultural and commercial needs of legal education and legal profession in an Asian business city like Hong Kong.