Growth Points: How Mentoring Strengthens the Capacity of Legal Clinics

Publication date: July 28, 2025

Author: Yulia Bilyk, Communications Manager of the Legal Development Network

Within the framework of the project “Strengthening the capacity of legal clinics for people’s access to legal services in Ukrainian communities”, implemented by the Legal Development Network with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine and with the support of the Government of Denmark, a mentoring program has been launched for 13 teams from seven regions. The support is provided by experienced mentors — reputable human rights defenders and public figures. We asked mentor Natalka Kostyshyn and representatives of the legal clinics she supervises — The Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Kharkiv) and The Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding (Mykolaiv) — about the first results of the interaction and further plans.

Natalka Kostyshyn is the leader of the Youth Initiative Center, a non-governmental organization from Sheptytskyi, Lviv Oblast, and one of the member organizations of the Legal Development Network. She has many years of experience in the fields of education and free legal aid, as well as training and facilitation. One of the main tasks Natalia sets for herself as a mentor is to promote team building in clinics and improve the quality of service delivery to clients.

After the first month of interaction with the clinics, the mentor calls them “similar in some ways, but completely different.” First of all, it should be understood that at the Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, the legal clinic operates under one faculty of maritime law, while the clinic of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University has all its structural units as a resource.

“The Kharkiv clinic managed to retain its senior clinical students, who continue to work, and attract first- and second-year students. The Mykolaiv clinic operates in completely different conditions: the premises, equipment, and documentation were completely destroyed during a direct hit on one of the university buildings. In addition, the clinic’s staff has changed. That is why they are now starting the process of setting up the legal clinic from scratch,” says Kostyshyn.

Indeed, the main goal that the National University of Shipbuilding’s Legal Clinic seeks to achieve through mentoring support and participation in the project in general, its head Iryna Dmytruk calls the effective launch of work in a difficult period.

“We divided this main goal into certain elements. These are internal and external document flow. It also includes high-quality counseling by clinicians, expanding the client base and network of partners for cooperation: international cooperation and establishing cooperation with local communities,” says Iryna Dmytruk.

The Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University Legal Clinic, in turn, intends to keep the previous developments and reach a new level of service provision.

“Our goals are to support the development of the legal clinic under martial law and post-war recovery. To do this, we plan to analyze current regulations in depth, “reboot” the team, organize training and development of clinicians’ competencies, and establish effective communication within the team. We also want to establish new partnerships, in particular with small communities, and ensure the financial sustainability of the legal clinic by seeking alternative sources of income, including grants and charitable contributions,” says Yana Tokar, legal advisor at the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University Legal Clinic.

Due to the constant military threat, both higher education institutions (hereinafter referred to as HEIs) operate a full-time and distance learning program. Accordingly, the clinics combine on-site work with remote work. This creates opportunities to expand clinical legal practice to different regions where students live, including small communities. This is important because, as regional centers, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv are to some extent oversaturated with legal service providers, while free legal aid is not always available to residents of small communities.

“We gather for joint meetings with both legal clinics and develop algorithms: how to enter a small community, whom to contact, how to establish communication, how to understand what the community needs,” says Natalka Kostyshyn.

According to the mentor, the advantage of clinics in the communities where the student clinicians are located is the opportunity for live communication with people.

“It is not always possible to conduct a high-quality interview with clients over the phone, because people react differently, may be distrustful, and want to see the interlocutor. This is understandable. And, after all, no one has canceled telephone fraud,” notes Natalka Kostyshyn.

Along with the request of legal clinics to attract clients, the task of improving the quality of communication is relevant for both. This includes communication with clients: establishing contact and personal boundaries, conflict management, constructive resolution of complex issues, as well as mass and digital communication.

“Both teams are clearly aware that they need resources and effective partnerships with local, national and international organizations to develop. Therefore, they are asked to improve the level of preparation of information and awareness-raising events, social media and media representation. I hope that the experience of Kharkiv NSU, which has quite developed social networks, will be useful for Mykolaiv National University of Shipbuilding,” notes Natalka Kostyshyn.

The clinic teams are quite satisfied with the mentoring process and are already noticing the first changes.

“We get everything we expected from mentoring in full. Natalka guides us and gives us new ideas for implementation,” says Iryna Dmytruk.

“Our interaction is based on a common goal, which is to improve the capacity of the legal clinic and establish relationships with partners. We have deepened our knowledge in the field of community engagement, analyzed it and learned how to properly apply the knowledge gained for further work,” says Yana Tokar.

Given how actively the teams of the legal clinics have started implementing their mentoring plans, the mentor believes that the logical conclusion of this process may be the preparation of development strategies. The NSW Clinic is ready to take steps in this direction. Therefore, the key goal of its team today is to find the necessary resources and an expert for facilitation. 

At the same time, the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University clinic, which is just beginning to resume its work, is also focused on sustainable development and the formation of a comprehensive vision of the strategy.

Comparing her work with legal clinics to her previous mentoring experience, Natalka Kostyshyn calls the teams she mentors incredibly enthusiastic and ready to work hard for their own growth and to help people. At the same time, the mentoring program is also a space for the mentor to develop herself.

“For me, the opportunity to support the development of legal clinics is a good professional development that allows me to raise and update what I knew and was able to do, but put on a distant shelf. Because what was relevant even five years ago has become outdated in today’s environment. In particular, with regard to remote work, because this format is now in demand and without it, we cannot imagine our reality at all. I also realized that, although in times of war we are more focused on facilitating dialogues for social cohesion, decision-making for the restoration and development of communities, the topic of conflictology is also important and needs to be returned to,” notes Natalka Kostyshyn.

The mentor is convinced that each team will undergo positive transformations as a result of participating in the program. At the very least, thanks to the project’s activities, they can get to know each other more closely, even within their teams, and share experiences. As a partner outside the project, another legal clinic from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (LNU) is involved in the program. During meetings with the coordinator of the LNU clinic, the teams adopt practices that can be useful in their work environment. The plans include networking with the public sector, government, media and other legal service providers in the regions, updating the regulatory framework for the The Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding and participating in the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University grant competitions.

The material was prepared within the framework of the initiative “Strengthening the capacity of legal clinics for people’s access to legal services in Ukrainian communities”, implemented by the NGO “Legal Development Network” with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine and financial support from the Government of Denmark.

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