Publication News: Creating the “Whole Advocate” through Experiential Learning in the Law Classroom

Professor Nickie Nikolaou, along with former professor Lisa Silver (now Alberta Court of King's Bench Justice) and alumnus Alexander Dingman, JD'22 have co-authored "Creating the 'Whole Advocate' through Experiential Learning in the Law Classroom" in Canadian Legal Education Annual Review. 

Six years ago, the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law revised its Advocacy course to create a capstone program focused on student-centred experiential learning. The goal is for students to become “Whole Advocates” and “Whole Lawyers” who are ready and able to face the challenges of an evolving legal services market in the 21st century. It is now time to reflect upon and measure the student learning outcomes and objectives of this course. Is student learning occurring as intended, how is it occurring, and what changes might be needed to deepen and facilitate that learning? This article discusses a research project we undertook to answer these questions. It reviews the relevant literature and sets out our main findings. In doing so, the article provides important observations for enriching and enhancing student learning through experiential learning while ensuring alignment with the whole advocate/whole lawyer approach in current legal education.

Canadian Legal Education Annual Review is available on Westlaw (subscription required).