Jacqueline Weinberg

Jacqueline Weinberg is the Academic Director of Springvale Monash Legal Service, Director of Clinical Units, Lecturer in Law and Clinical Practice Supervisor in Monash Legal Practice Programs. Jacqueline is a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). Jacqueline has  been committed to education and academic pursuits for over 30 years and has attained graduate and post-graduate qualifications in the areas of legal education and clinical legal education. Jacqueline’s interest and capability in the area of research, is strongly verified through being awarded the Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) in 2016, a full academic scholarship for the duration of her PhD. Jacqueline’s PhD explored the teaching of alternative dispute resolution in Australian clinical legal education. Jacqueline’s areas of research include dispute resolution, student wellbeing and the links between technology and the law in enhancing access to justice. Jacqueline has presented at numerous conferences both internationally and within Australia, including the International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Conferences, The National Wellness for Law Forums and the ADR Research Network Roundtables.   

Clinical Legal Education - Jacqueline has been a clinical educator in the Monash Clinical Program since 2009. In 2020, she obtained her PhD with a thesis entitled, ‘An Exploration of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Clinical Legal Education’. Her research, undertaken at 25 Australian clinics, provides empirical data and analysis specifically addressing this neglected area. The study provides a clinical legal context from which further research and clinical teaching strategies of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) skills can evolve. This thesis explores alternative dispute resolution (ADR) teaching in Australian clinical legal education. In a university law clinic, clinical legal education teaches students the skills needed for legal practice. With ADR becoming increasingly dominant in Australian legal practice, clinic students need to become knowledgeable about ADR so as to better advise clients about cost effective options for resolving cases without resorting to litigation. This enhanced focus on ADR has a vital ancillary effect of advancing access to justice. This thesis makes recommendations about how dispute resolution teaching can be better incorporated into clinical legal education for enhanced access to justice.

Dispute Resolution- Jacqueline is a core member of the ADR Research Network, a group of leading dispute resolution academics from across Australia. Jacqueline has presented her research on teaching ADR in clinical legal education at ADR Network Conferences, both nationally and internationally. At the 2019 ADR Research Network Roundtable, Jacqueline presented a paper entitled ‘Enhancing ADR teaching and social justice learning in clinical legal education’. In this paper, Jacqueline reports the findings from her PhD research of observations of clinician and student interactions within the clinics. These observations were undertaken in various Australian clinics to determine whether ADR teaching is taking place, and if so, how this teaching can be further enhanced.

Technology and Access to Justice – Jacqueline’s role in establishing a virtual legal clinic at Monash Law Clinics, has enabled her to identify ways in which to adapt existing clinical models to expand practice-based learning opportunities for clients to access justice. To date, Jacqueline has researched and published on the development and implementation of the virtual legal clinic. Future research will be undertaken to evaluate the virtual legal clinic. These findings will be disseminated to other legal services and clinical programs via publications and conference presentations. Jacqueline has developed Law Tech Clinics focused on educating law students about the interaction between technology and legal service. These clinics are designed to educate students about legal technology and enable them to develop a practical familiarity with the tools lawyers use in practice by developing client-ready products. 

Wellbeing and clinical legal education- Jacqueline has conducted research exploring and developing a best practice approach to wellbeing in clinical legal education. It is intended that these findings will inform future pedagogical strategy for clinical programs. Drawing upon data collected and analysed about students’ attitudes and experiences of wellbeing, new more effective strategies will be developed for student wellbeing to be implemented within clinical programs.