ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a clear example of how to set up, run and fine-tune a legal clinic on migration and asylum law in a practical and academic environment, which does not recognize, at least initially, the potential of clinical education. It also identifies and discusses typical external and internal obstacles that hinder the normal development of legal clinics. Whilst the list is by no means exhaustive, it examines whether the impetus for clinical education comes from the academia, external sources or both. Based on the experience of the first legal clinic in Slovenia, the chapter explores consequences of transplanting teaching and training methods designed predominantly in the US legal system in the Central and Eastern European region and trade-offs that had to be made between sustainability of the clinic, effective learning for students and maximizing social impact. Readers are also introduced to a discussion of how legal clinics can deal with institutional passivity and persistent organizational challenges and, nevertheless, turn itself into a beacon of strategic positioning within and possibly for the university. Finally, the chapter reveals some early warning signs and possible negative consequences of the unrealistic growth of legal clinics at the author’s home university.
