University of Utah : S.J. Quinney College of Law

Linda F. Smith

Clinical Program Director
Professor of Law

Professor Smith has directed and developed the Clinical Program over the past two decades, receiving the University of Utah Distinguished Service Award in 2006. 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 civil 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.

Linda F. Smith was honored for many years of tireless, dedicated public service with the 2006 University of Utah Distinguished Service Award at commencement ceremonies May 5, 2006.

Scholarship Highlights

Books

Leslie P Francis & Linda F. Smith, Law and Mental Health Professionals:  Utah (American Psychological Association) -- forthcoming, 2007

Honors and Awards

2006 Distinguished Service Award Winner

Legal Writing

Access to Justice in Utah -- Time for a Comprehensive State Plan, 2006 Utah L. Rev. 1117 (2006)

Client-Lawyer Talk:  Lessons from Other Disciplines, 13 Clinical L. Rev. 505 (2006)

Why Clinical Programs Should Embrace Civic Engagement, Service Learning, and Community Based Research, 10 Clinincal L. Rev. 723 (2004)

The Potential of Pro Bono, 72 U.M. K.C. Law 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 Law Review 541 (1995).

The Judicial Clinic: Theory and Method in a Live Laboratory of Law 1993 Utah L. Rev. 429 (1993)

Representing the Elderly Client and Addressing the Question of Competence 14 Utah Journal of Contemporary Law 61 (1988)

Adoption: The Case for More Options 1986 Utah L. Rev. 495 (1986)

Memberships

Utah State Court Standing Committee on Resources for Self-Represented Parties -- 2005 to present

Utah State Bar Ethics Advisory Opinion Committee -- 2002 to present

Rocky Mountain Innocence Center Board -- 1999 to present

Victims' Legal Clinic Advisory Board -- 2005 to present

Talks & Presentations

"Construcing Effective Simulations" at UCLA School of Law Conference on The Pedagogy of Interviewing and Counseling:  Models, Techniques & Technology, October 20-21, 2006

"Skills Training Revisited -- Client-Laywer Talk:  Lessons from Other Disciplines" UCLA / IALS Sixth International Clinical Conference -- Lake Arrowhead, CA, October, 2005

"Do Externships Provide a Vehicle for Students to Explore Social Justice?"  AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education -- Concurrent Session, San Diego California, May 3, 2004

"Family Law:  Making Appropriate Choices When Legal Issues Arise" Pediatric Grand Rounds at Primary Childrren's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT, March 18, 2004

"Access to Justice in Utah -- Time for a State Plan: Who We Are, Where We Are, and What More We Could Do"
Presented at the Fordham Access to Justice Workshops, Utah State Bar
January 16, 2004

"Access to Justice Debate"
Moderator of Panel Discussion, S.J. Quinney College of Law
January 15, 2004

"Access to Justice In Utah -- Time for a Comprehensive Plan,"
A Brown Bag presentation at the S.J.Quinney College of Law and a Continuing Legal Education presentation at the Community Legal Center
Fall, 2003

"Law for Mental Health Professionals"
Presented at the University of Utah School of Medicine Psychiatry Residents' Seminar
Fall, 2003

"Relation of Externships to University Service-Learning Objectives, or, How Extern Programs Can Lead Law Schools to Civic Engagement?"
Presented at Catholic University's Learning From Practice Externship Conference II
March, 2003

"Proposal: The Externship Classroom Component Requirement: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed?"
Respondent at Catholic University's Learning From Practice Externship Conference II
March, 2003