Control social

than four to six members per ‘firm’), and the drawing up of a detailed daily and weekly timetable regulating the attendance of students at live-client clinics, firm meetings, staff consultations, and follow-up meetings. An example of a student timetable used at the University of Natal Howard College Campus Law Clinic in 1994 is attached as Annexure Q. Client files may be kept either in paper (hard copy) or electronic format. It is suggested that a hard copy paper file be opened for each client, and that any electronic copy be kept as a backup for the electronic copy. The usual format of a client file, a cardboard cover folded in three parts, is as follows:

(1) Outside front cover: The outside front cover will contain the client name, the student firm, the name and number of the student responsible for the file, the name of the staff member supervising the student, a column for diarised dates, and a block in which the prescription or statute of limitation deadline for legal action of the file is entered. This latter block should also be large enough to accommodate any other legislative deadlines, like the deadlines for statutory letters of demand or other notices.

(2) Inside front cover (Part A of the file): the inside front cover is where all statements taken from the client and possible witnesses are kept. All formal reports obtained are also pinned to the inside front cover of the file. All statements and reports kept here must be marked from A1 (first statement) to A…in sequential order.

(3) Middle part of file (Part B of the file): The middle portion of the file is where all correspondence is pinned. This is correspondence written by the student or supervisor, or received from the client or any other person. This correspondence must be B1 to B… in date order of receipt. (4) Inside back cover (Part C of the file): The inside back cover of the file is a diary, which contains

sheets of paper divided into columns indicating date, author, comment. Every time anybody does anything relating to the file, this action must be noted in detail in the diary. This is to ensure that anybody who picks the file up can immediately see what stage the matter has reached, and what has to be done next.

5.7. Case Study: Report on the establishment of a law clinic at Eduardo Mondlane

University, Maputo

Below is a report on behalf of the OSI by Professor Robin Palmer, who acted as a consultant in the establishment of a law clinic at Eduardo Mondlane University Law faculty, Maputo, Mozambique: 14 February to 3 March 2003:

FROM: Professor RW Palmer

University of Natal, Durban (Consultant)

TO: The Justice Initiative

OSI Europe

Report on the feasibility of establishing a Clinical Legal Education (CLE) Programme at Eduardo Mondlane University Law Faculty, Maputo, Mozambique: 14 February to 3 March 2003.

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1. Mandate of Consultant

The Consultant spent from 14 February to 3 March 2003 in Maputo, mandated to perform the following duties:

To conduct needs assessment and feasibility study of establishing a Clinical Legal Education (CLE) programme at the Eduardo Mondlane University Law Faculty in Maputo, Mozambique;

To advise the leadership of the Law Faculty on the objectives, scope, structure of a CLE programme; To identify the faculty members who could play an active role in running the CLE programme;

To develop an initial model for the CLE programme: mandate, areas of focus, management structure, legal aid component, etc.;

To provide “Justice Initiative”, a report on the visit, outlining recommendations for the implementation fleshing out the CLE programme in the future.

2. Background and Planning

Mandate: This mandate was widely interpreted to consider the feasibility of establishing both a CLE programme, and a functioning Law Clinic at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM).

Planning Workshop: On Tuesday morning 18 February, a planning workshop was held with the Deputy-Director (Research) of the Law School, Luis Bitone; the Director of the Centre for Practical Legal Studies (CPLS), Tomás Timbane; the staff member in charge of practical legal training courses, Filipe Sitoi; and the staff member in charge of the proposed law clinic section of the CPLS, Elysa Vieira.

Programme of Action: Following this planning session, a programme of action was agreed upon. The programme, which was forwarded to OSI, is outlined in paragraph 2.7 below.

Faculty Workshop: In addition, a workshop over two afternoons was held on Thursday 20 February and Friday 21 February 2003 at UEM. The workshop was attended by fifteen UEM staff members, and covered the following topics:

(1) The definition of a “Law Clinic”; (2) Various Law Clinic models; (3) The objects of a Law Clinic;

(4) Interaction between the Law Clinic and the Law Faculty; (5) Developing a Law Clinic programme and curriculum; (6) Funding and administration of Law Clinics.

History of Law Clinic Proposals: At the time of the visit, the UEM did not have a functioning Law Clinic or CLE programme. Various visiting academics (particularly Dyle Compallo, a visiting professor from Sao Paolo University), had over the years, proposed the setting-up of a Law Clinic, but no real action to implement these proposals was taken by UEM. As a first step, the Consultant decided to establish the level of commitment and support for the implementation of a Law Clinic and CLE programme from the Law Faculty and the University. After meeting with the Director of the Law Faculty, Lucia Ribeiro, and the Deputy-Director (Research), Luis Bitone, it was clear that the Law Clinic project had the full support of the Faculty and the University.

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