YSU Legal Clinic was founded in 1999 at the Faculty of Law of the Yerevan State University with the support and technical assistance of the Open Society Institute-Armenia and Constitutional and Legal Policy Institute-Hungary. It was the first clinical initiative in the country and for these years YSU Legal Clinic proved to be successful not only in promoting the idea of clinical legal education and enriching the curriculum of legal education but also in raising a new generation of lawyers instilled with social values.

The Legal Clinic finalized the process of integration into the University and capacity building. In particular, it has worked on the development of clinical teaching methodology and elaborated teaching modules and materials for the teachers and law students. It also substantially contributed to the development of clinical legal network by providing its knowledge and expertise through training programs that it organized for newly established clinics and schoolteachers.

Thus YSU Legal Clinic is a “university-based” clinic comprising and indivisible part of the YSU Faculty of Law. Currently it operates based on its Charter approved by the Board of the Clinic. The Board is headed by the Dean of the Law Faculty.

Clinical program at the YSU helps train law students in the practical aspects of the law by involving them in providing legal assistance to clients who would otherwise not be able to afford the services of a lawyer. In this process the clinical program instill social values in future generations of lawyers by exposing them to the real problems of disadvantaged members of the community. In many cases this experience affects their later choices, whether they go on to work for government, private firms or public interest organizations.