Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Fordham Law Review

Abstract

The impetus for this Article was a case handled this past year by the Civil Legal Services Clinic which I teach at New York University Law School. In the clinic, third-year students represent clients in a variety of cases, including housing, government benefits, immigration, guardianship planning for clients who are HIV positive, and education. The students, who work in pairs, select from the clinic's docket the kinds of cases on which they want to work. The two students in this particular case chose to work on a case for a client who was HIV positive. The clinic's experience in that case forced me to rethink the role of lawyers and their need to collaborate with mental health professionals in some cases. As a social worker and a lawyer, I have given a great deal of thought to the relative similarities and differences between the two professions and the ways in which they intersect. In the clinic case, however, I confronted, more clearly than ever before, the question of where lawyering ends and social work begins. That is the subject I begin to explore in this Article. This Article examines the value of collaboration between lawyers and social workers' in order to effectively serve the client.

First Page

2123

Volume

67

Publication Date

1999

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