Linda F. Smith
Professor of Law and Clinical Program Director
Professor Smith has directed and developed the Clinical Program over the past two decades, receiving the University of Utah Distinguished Service Award in 2006 in recognition of this work. She aspires to combine students' service with their study of lawyering skills and ethics to produce greater self-knowledge while providing representation to needy clients and governmental entities. Her clinical work began at Yale Law School where she participated in the prison legal services clinic and continued at Greater Boston Legal Services where she was the senior attorney in family law and supervised Harvard Law clinic students. Professor Smith's scholarship spans three areas. She writes about the pedagogy of clinical legal education and civic engagement, and she focuses on the intersection of the lawyer's skills and ethics. Her judicial clinic article was a seminal piece about supervising and teaching judicial clinic interns. More recently, she has focused on the skills of client interviewing from the perspective of conversation analysis. Her scholarly work, her teaching, and her service merge in her most recent writings about pro bono programs and the need to provide access to justice for all. Professor Smith also "walks the walk" by providing brief advice and full representation in challenging family law cases on a pro bono basis.
Professor Smith teaches Legal Profession, Family Law Practice, Poverty Law, Lawyering Skills (Interviewing, Counseling, & Negotiating), other clinic-related courses.
Scholarship Highlights
Books
Law and Mental Health Professionals: Utah, co-authored with Leslie P. Francis (Am. Psychol. Ass'n 2007)
Book Chapter
Child Protection Law and the FLDS Raid in Texas, in Modern Polygamy in the United States: Historical, Cultural, and Legal Issues Surrounding the Raid on the FLDS in Texas (Cardell K. Jacobson & Lara S. Burton eds., Oxford Univ. Press (2010)
Articles
DIY in Family Law: A Case Study of A Brief Advice Clinic for Pro Se Litigants by Linda F. Smith and Barry
Stratford, 14 J. Law & Family Studies 167 (2012)
Fostering Justice Throughout the Curriculum, 18 Georgetown J. on Poverty Law & Policy 427
(2011).
Always Judged: Case Study of an Interview Using Conversation Analysis, 16 CLINICAL L. REV.
423 (2010)
Kidnapped from that Land II: A Comparison of Two Raids to Save the Children from the Polygamists, 30 Child. Legal Rts. J. 32 (2010)
Access to Justice in Utah - Time for a Comprehensive State Plan, 2006 Utah L. Rev. 1117
Client-Lawyer Talk: Lessons from Other Disciplines, 13 Clinical L. Rev. 505 (2006)
Benefits of an Integrated (Prosecution & Defense) Criminal Law Clinic, 74 Miss. L.J. 1239 (2005)
Why Clinical Programs Should Embrace Civic Engagement, Service Learning, and Community Based Research, 10 Clinical L. Rev. 723 (2004)
The Potential of Pro Bono, 72 U. Mo. K.C. L. Rev. 447 (2003)
Designing an Extern Program, 5 Clinical L. Rev. 527 (1999)
Medical Paradigms for Counseling: Giving Clients Bad News, 4 Clinical L. Rev. 391 (1998)
Interviewing Clients: A Linguistic Comparison of the "Traditional" Interview and the "Client-Centered" Interview, 1 Clinical L. Rev. 541 (1995)
The Judicial Clinic: Theory and Method in a Live Laboratory of Law, 1993 Utah L. Rev. 429
Representing the Elderly Client and Addressing the Question of Competence, 14 J. Contemp. L. 61 (1988)
Adoption: The Case for More Options, 1986 Utah L. Rev. 495
Commentary
Funding Services for the Disabled Could Deter Abortions, Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 2, 2009
Child Protection Law and the FLDS Children, Salt Lake Tribune, May 9, 2008
Selected Talks and Presentations
The Perils and Promise of Community Based Research, presented as a work in progress at Externship 5 Conference, Sponsored by Extern Committee of AALS Clinical Section, Miami, FL (Mar. 5, 2010)
Examining the FLDS Raid and Polygamy: Local and International Contexts, Panelist, 4th Annual Conference of the Mormon History Association, Springfield, IL (May 23, 2009)
Clinical Law Teaching, Panelist and "Mentor in Residence," Yale Law School (Dec. 10, 2008)
Judging Me-An Interview of an Adult with Intellectual Disabilities, Clinical Theory Workshop, New York Law School (Sept. 12, 2008)
Skills Training Revisited Client-Lawyer Talk: Lessons from Other Disciplines, UCLA/IALS Sixth International Clinical Conference, Lake Arrowhead CA (Oct. 2005)
Do Externships Provide a Vehicle for Students to Explore Social Justice, AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education - Concurrent Session, San Diego, CA (May 3, 2004)
Attorney Satisfaction: What Tools Can We Give Our Students to Help Them Find Personal and Professional Satisfaction, The American Association of Law Schools' Annual Meeting during the Joint Program of the Clinical Legal Education and the Litigation Sections (Jan. 7, 1998)
Medical Paradigms for Counseling: Giving Clients Bad News, UCLA and University of London's Institute for Advanced Legal Studies Conference on Conception Paradigms in Clinical Legal Education (Oct. 23-26, 1997)
The Judicial Clinic: Structure, Supervision and Curriculum, American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Clinical Section Meeting, Washington, D.C. (Jan. 1991)
Externships as the Signature Pedagogy for Teaching Problem-Solving co-presented in panel
discussion at AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Conference, Seattle, WA, June, 2011
Fostering Justice Throughout the Curriculum, presented at AALS Sections on Clinical Legal Education & Poverty Law Joint Program, San Francisco, CA, January 8, 2011
Professional Service
University of Utah
Interim Chair / Receiver, Department of Ballet – August 2011 - present
Academic Policy Advisory Committee, June 2010 – June 2012
Academic Senate
General Institutional Review Board, Member
Presidential Search Committee, 2003-2004
Bennion Center, Advisory Committee, Class Committee, Futures Committee
Student Commission, 1998-2000
S.J. Quinney College of Law
Coach, Extramural Teams in Negotiation and/or Advocacy in Mediation, 2003 - present
Retention, Promotion & Tenure Committee – Chair, 2005 – 2008
Retention & Promotion Subcommittee regarding non-tenure track faculty – 2010 - 2011
Tenured Faculty Review Committee, 2004 - 2005
Curriculum Committee, Member, 1988 - 2001, 2004 - present
Admissions Committee, 2001 - 2003
Recruitment Committee, 2003 – 2004 and 2010-2011
Honors & Awards
Utah State Bar Pro Bono Project Pro Bono Publico Commitment to Community Award, May 2009
S.J. Quinney College of Law Faculty Service Award, May 2007
University of Utah Distinguished Service Award, May 2006
Professional Affiliations
American Association of Law Schools
Clinical, Professional Responsibility and Poverty Law Sections
Committee on Clinical Legal Education, 2009-2012
Utah State Court Standing Committee on Resources for Self-Represented Parties, 2005 to present
Victims' Legal Clinic Advisory Board, 2005 to present
Utah State Bar Ethics Advisory Opinion Committee, 2002 to present
Rocky Mountain Innocence Center Board, 1999 to present
Utah State Bar
Massachusetts State Bar (presently retired)