Results of monitoring of the legal clinic “Pro Bono”

June 01, 2018

On May 31, the National University of Ostroh Academy hosted a presentation of results of the monitoring "Law and education in Ostroh: the quality of the work of the legal clinic" Pro Bono" of the National University of Ostroh Academy".

During three days, the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine, together with the National University of Ostroh Academy, monitored the activities of the Legal Clinic “Pro Bono” for compliance with the Standards for the operation of legal clinics approved in 2014 at the All-Ukrainian Congress of this association.

During the monitoring, a lot of activities of the legal clinic were investigated, including organizational and educational ones as well as activities regarding human rights. Such monitoring is designed to ensure the development of legal clinics in the regions, and to allow the Association to better understand the needs of the legal clinics’ network. Participation in the monitoring was taken by invited experts and speakers of the discussion – the member of the Board of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine and the Head of the monitoring mission Yuliia Lomzhets, the Head of the Legal Clinic of the National University "Odessa Law Academy" Yuliia Pavlova and the Head of the NGO "Cherkasy Human Rights Center" Taras Shcherbatiuk.

“I have no doubts that monitoring is an extremely useful tool for stimulating the development of the legal clinics. It was especially interesting to combine the experience of monitoring and participating in it "on the other side", because in April I participated in the monitoring group at the Donetsk State University of Management and its legal clinic “Femida”, and now monitoring was hold at our university,” comments the Head of the legal clinic "Pro Bono" of the NUOA Mariia Tsypiashchuk.

The monitoring shows that the legal clinic “Pro Bono” has many strong points in its activity, including providing free high-quality legal assistance, integration into the local community of law enforcement and legal education, active representation in the legal clinics’ movement of Ukraine, involvement of the clinic in the processes of international exchange and systematic participation in international scientific, law-enforcement and human rights activities. At the same time, the organizers of the monitoring noted that the clinic has the opportunity to improve some of its activities. Particular attention, in their opinion, should be paid to the development of a learning component in the legal clinic. In general, the work of the legal clinic "Pro Bono" is estimated at 63%, and is recognized as complying with the Standards of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine.

“It is nice that our clinic complies with the Standards, but there is a lot of work to do. And the most important thing is that there is inspiration, some ideas are already planned. For example, we plan to hold an intensive training course on the Principles of Legal Clinical Practice for students who will need traineeship. I am personally very grateful to all members of the monitoring group for their care and professionalism. And also I express my gratitude to the administration of the I. Malynovskyi Institute of Law and our university for the continuous support of the legal clinic”, adds  Mariia Tsypiashchuk.