Why it is important for the Legal Development Network to strengthen legal clinics

Publication date: June 19, 2025

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

In 2025, the Legal Development Network (LDN), with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine and the support of the Government of Denmark, is implementing the project “Strengthening the capacity of legal clinics to provide people with access to legal services in Ukrainian communities”. As part of the project, the Network works with 13 teams of NGOs and legal clinics — effective legal aid providers from seven oblasts. Selected through an open competition, all of them are highly motivated to develop and improve their approaches to their work. Read more about why it is important to support the growth of legal clinics.

“Even at the stage of announcing the launch of the initiative, legal clinics were actively involved in the application process. We received a large number of letters and calls from all over Ukraine, but, unfortunately, according to the selection criteria, not everyone was able to join the project. Why is there such interest? My answer is simple: legal clinics have been out of the focus of major players in the field of access to justice for some time. At the same time, we should not underestimate the role of the legal clinical community in legal education, and we should also recognize the fact that many of them provide free legal advice in communities,” says Olga Nastina, Executive Director of the Legal Development Network.

According to Olha Nastina, the main obstacle to the development of the organizational capacity of legal clinics is the lack of sustainable funding and the proper skills to attract it.

“That is why our project aims to support teams of students and teachers of legal clinics working with veterans and IDPs with mentoring, an interesting training program, and legal support for the registration of new NGOs on their basis. Our focus is on legal clinics that work in partnership with NGOs, as this gives them the opportunity to develop, attract resources, write and receive grants, and become proper legal service providers,” explains Olha Nastina.

Along with strengthening legal clinics, LDN has an important goal – to have a network of capable providers and partners in communities that provide quality legal aid to IDPs, veterans, their families, and people affected by war.

“We want to increase the public value of legal clinics and their recognition as full-fledged players in the field of free legal aid, so that they become a recognizable element of the legal infrastructure that has a high level of trust from both government institutions and communities and society as a whole,” emphasizes Daria Kovalchuk, Director of Legal Services Development at the Legal Development Network.

The value of legal clinics

In addition to being a real school of professional life for law students, legal clinics perform a number of other important functions for society. First of all, it is about legal education in communities and providing access to free legal aid to citizens whose financial situation does not allow them to turn to private lawyers.

“A legal clinic is a unique institution that combines primary legal aid, legal education and practical training for future lawyers. In my opinion, their main value lies in combining the educational process with social service. After all, legal clinics are usually visited by people from vulnerable categories,” said Daria Kovalchuk.

“Legal clinics promote the dissemination of quality legal knowledge and help those who cannot afford to seek paid assistance in resolving legal issues. And this helps to strengthen access to justice and strengthen democracy in society,” adds Maria Tsypiashchuk, a human rights activist and member of the Board of the Association of Legal Clinics in 2017-2024.

Place in the human rights ecosystem

Despite their specific features and primary educational purpose, over the years, legal clinics have taken an integral part in the human rights system of Ukraine. The value of legal clinics for the Legal Development Network is to strengthen the institutional capacity of legal clinic teams and existing NGOs at the clinics, and to support them with expertise. The Legal Development Network pursues an am

bitious goal to unite all players in the free legal aid system and, together with all stakeholders, to develop basic standards for the provision of free legal aid in the non-governmental sector.

The experience of legal clinics and CSOs that cooperate with them is important and valuable to us. For those legal clinics that have the desire and human resources to provide legal aid systematically, but do not have an institutionalized entity, i.e., a non-governmental organization, we can help with state registration, professional growth and formation of a non-governmental organization, thereby strengthening not only the university but also the community in the area of access to justice.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that legal clinics reinforce other providers. They actually relieve part of the burden on the state system of free legal aid, as they disseminate reliable information on legal issues and thus prevent rumors, gossip, and disinformation,” emphasizes Daria Kovalchuk.

Most legal clinics are proactive in their activities, responding to topical issues that emerge in their communities and working closely with local NGOs.

“After the full-scale invasion, legal clinics started working with internally displaced people, war-affected people, veterans and their families, who were taken care of by various volunteer centers. These include events for children, informational materials, and work directly in hospitals,” says Yulia Lomzhets, head of the Association of Legal Clinics.

According to Yulia Lomzhets, legal clinics most often take on various client requests for the sake of educational interest. However, some of them may limit their work to clearly defined topics, in particular, those relevant in times of war. At the same time, there are topics that legal clinics do not work with, such as criminal law. This is where the referral mechanism comes in handy.

“Complex requests, in particular those related to criminal cases and support in court, since the clinics do not have lawyers, are referred to the FLA centers and partner organizations,” says Yulia Lomzhets.

“Thanks to the human-centered approach through live communication between students and clients and the interaction of legal clinics with other legal service providers, an ecosystem of free legal aid has been created, where each link has its own role, complements the other, and together they achieve a common goal — strengthening the legal capacity of communities,” emphasizes Daria Kovalchuk.

Wartime Challenges

Since the outbreak of war in 2014, some legal clinics have lost the ability to operate in their usual territories.

“For example, the clinic of the Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian University, which moved with the university from Luhansk to Sievierodonetsk in 2014, and then, in 2022, moved again to Kyiv. Or the legal clinic of the Donetsk State University of Management*, which was forced to move to Mariupol after 2014,” cites Maria Tsypiashchuk.

(*Now the clinic has ceased to operate, as has the university, which merged with Mariupol State University, which in turn moved to Kyiv.)

Thus, the main challenge for legal clinics was to maintain and continue their work. Those that succeeded faced the following challenges. These include training and practice in branches of law that are unusual for law schools and are not relevant in peacetime: military law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, etc.

“The Association of Legal Clinics and law schools are currently looking for additional training opportunities, introducing new specialized disciplines into their curricula. Recently, the Association gladly responded to the proposal of the friendly organization “Legal Hundred”, whose lawyers conduct a series of educational webinars on military law for students of legal clinics. Also, the Ukrainian Catholic University has been running a specialized legal clinic to help military and veterans for a long time,” says Maria Tsypiashchuk.

According to Natalia Yesina, executive director of the Northern Human Rights Group, the full-scale war has radically changed the work of their partner legal clinic, Sumy State University. Since the clinic gained the status of a specialized war-related clinic in 2023, its activities have included researching the legal aspects of compensation for losses and reparations, supporting compensation cases, and participating in the creation of legal mechanisms at the national and international levels.

“Not only the content of the clinic’s work is changing, but also the level of responsibility. Students have the opportunity to work with actual cases, helping people affected by the shelling to get legal protection and advice,” emphasizes Natalia Yesina.

To eliminate information gaps in practice, legal clinics, with the support of the Association, are developing international cooperation.

“We now provide legal clinics with the opportunity to establish connections with professors from around the world who specialize in areas where we lack knowledge. During additional classes and meetings, we get answers to our questions,” says Yulia Lomzhets.

Successful justice reform is impossible without achieving a high level of legal awareness in society. The contribution of legal clinics as legal aid providers should not be underestimated. Therefore, we believe that the project “Strengthening the Capacity of Legal Clinics for People’s Access to Legal Services in Ukrainian Communities” will provide new incentives for their efforts to work at full capacity.

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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