Avatars go to Law School: Digital Standardized (and not so Standard) Clients for Law School Teaching

Abstract

Standardized clients have been a feature of medical schools for years. Digital technologies now offer the opportunity to create them in interactive form as avatars. In addition, advances in semantic computing now allow extensive and complex dialogues with computerized agents using “chatbots”. Teaching interviewing and counseling as well as other client related skills requires repeatable, realistic practice that is not optimal when relying on students to simulate being clients for each other. This paper proposes the development of digital client avatars for these teaching purposes. It examines some of the technical challenges and pedagogic opportunities.