Project of legal clinics elaborated by Legal Aid Service constitutes an additional step towards the preparation of qualified human resources.
The goal of the project is to raise practical knowledge of the students through popularization of Legal Clinics in Georgia. According to the project, legal clinics shall be created within Bureaus of Legal Aid Service, where the last year students or magistrate students shall have legal practice under the supervision of legal aid lawyers. Together with the practice, the students shall have seminars on following topics: professional responsibility of the lawyer, legal ethics, issues of confidentiality (international standards and practice, law of Georgia on the Bar, lawyers code of professional ethics, standards of provision of legal aid), specificities of client interview, court lawyering skills, reasoning of court judgment (including standards of reasoning of preventive measures, overview of court case-law), investigative powers of the attorneys, the legal writing culture, juvenile justice. By the end of the course, the interns shall participate in moot trials. After the completion of the course, the graduates shall be awarded with certificates.
The project of legal clinics is particularly important from the viewpoint of professional growth of the students. On the one side, the project enables the students to acquire practical skills for processing criminal cases, on the other side, the lawyers obtain significant support from the interns. In the long term, the students undergoing internship in the bureaus of LAS are deemed to be future human resources of LAS. They shall already be familiar with organizational culture of LAS, its principles and standards.
Up to now, Legal Aid Service successfully implements legal clinics project and cooperates with Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Guram Tavartkiladze University, Gori State University, Kutaisi Akaki Tsereteli State University, Batumi Shota Rustaveli University and Samtskhe Javakheti State Educational University.