CLAE goes to Lebanon!

12/14/2009 11:29 am

CLAE Board member Bonnie Allen trained 25 young Lebanese lawyers on legal aid values and skills during her five-week trip to Lebanon this fall. As a Legal Expert for the  ABA Rule of Law Initiative, Bonnie conducted the trainings as part of her assignment to help the ABA, local advocates and bar associations create a new legal aid center in Tripoli. The Center will deliver free legal services to indigent juveniles and refugees in civil and criminal cases. 

Using CLAE’s Basic Lawyering Skills and Leadership Institute training materials, Bonnie introduced the students to interactive and reflective learning through role playing, journaling and small group discussions – a pedagogy these students had never before experienced. The Leadership session was particularly well-received, and it provided an opportunity for the young lawyers to claim their personal and collective vision of using their role as lawyers to create reform in their profession and country. “I fell in love with these young people,” states Bonnie. “They inspired me deeply, and reinvigorated my own commitment to legal aid values and democracy-building in America and throughout the world.”  Bonnie hopes to return to Lebanon in 2010 to conduct a two-week intensive Leadership training for the same cohort of young lawyers.

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