Empowering Ukraine’s First Legal Responders: Ukrainian-US Collaboration and Clinics

At the onset of the full-scale Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, U.S. law clinic professors worked alongside the leadership of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine. The mutual objective was to support Ukrainian law professors and facilitate the continued legal education of their students, particularly the acquisition of skills typically taught in law clinics. Ultimately, the online partnership that developed focused on skills training and included seven Ukrainian law schools, faculty from over six U.S. law schools and one private law firm, and USAID Justice for All Activity in Ukraine. The overall goals of this collaboration were to support the teaching and skills training for Ukrainian students as they pivoted their work to grapple with accessing an entirely new set of skills to navigate lawyering during the war.