On September 28-29, 2018, the 1st in Belarus international clinician tournament – 2018 “Legal Argumentation and Strategy. Clinical Legal Education” was held at the Faculty of Law at the State University of Grodno. It was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Faculty.
30 students of legal clinics from 12 leading universities of Belarus, including Polotsk State University, participated in the tournament.
Natalia Suntsova, Daria Smolik and Sergey Olesko, the consultants of the Students' legal support service, represented PSU.
The program of the event was very busy. There were a lot of cultural, educative, training and competition events. The participants were divided into 6 teams by means of a toss-up, so that each team included representatives from Belarus and Russia.
The objectives of the international clinician tournament 2018 were the following:
- Professional skills improvement of the students of legal clinics;
- Students socialization in the process of solving real legal problems;
- Popularization of clinical legal education;
- Contacts extension of the legal clinics students in order to develop a professional clinical and legal community;
- Experience exchange among the students of legal clinics.
The tournament consisted of three stages:
- The intellectual game: the teams were offered a series of questions on the theory and history of clinical legal education;
- Online-interviewing of a client using the necessary skills, following the order of stages and psychological aspects of a legal interview;
- Preparation of a legal advice using their legal knowledge and communicative techniques.
A psychological training with a psychologist and coach was held during the breaks between the stages. The mindset training was devoted to the topic “Modern Behavior Strategies in Conflicts and Methods of Conflict Management”
On the second day, all the participants could take part in a charity event: a legal advice for the patients of the Hospital in Sapotskin.
Vadim V. Cherepitsa, Chairman of the Grodno College of Advocates, and Natalia A. Bogdanovich, Chief Specialist of Scientific and Practical Centre at Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus, were the judges of the tournament. After announcing the results, they commented on the most common mistakes and mentioned the strong points of the teams.
PSU representatives won prizes in:
- Daria Smolik, a 3rd-year student “For the Best Knowledge on the legal assistance procedure”
- Natalia Suntsova, a 3rd-year student “For the Best Knowledge on the legal assistance procedure”
- Sergey Olesko, a 4th-year student “For the Best Written Legal Advice”
The legal clinics of Belarus received educational materials and memorable gifts from the Centre of Development of Legal Clinics as a reward.
During the tournament, each participant could demonstrate their practical skills in the sphere of legal defense and teamwork skills. We believe that all the objectives were accomplished.
Solovyov Pavel, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theory and History of State and Law