The Simulated Client Initiative is used in professional legal education in different jurisdictions worldwide. It focuses on developing students’ client facing skills that are useful for them in practice. In the simulated client training, ordinary lay people with no knowledge of law are trained to be clients to deliver interviews with students; they are also trained to be assessors to assess students’ skills in dealing with their clients. The initiative proves to be highly beneficial to students’ learning.

In this video, Professor Paul Maharg, CUHK Law Visiting Professor, introduced the simulated client initiative. Professor Anne Scully-Johnson, Adjunct Associate Professor at CUHK Law, demonstrated how she implemented the simulated client initiative in the course Family Law. Student Alicia Ho shared her learning experience and how she benefited from the simulated client training. Finally, Ms. Queenie Lai, Professional Consultant at CUHK Law, talked about her research project “Simulated Clients in Professional Legal Education” funded by the Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant (2016-2019 triennium). ■