From March 5 to 7, 2026, the National Olympiad of Legal Clinics in Client Consulting was held at the National University of Ostroh Academy. The Olympiad is organised by the NGO Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine in cooperation with the National University of Ostroh Academy and the Ioanykii Malynovskyi Educational and Research Institute of Law. The competition is coordinated by Mariia Tsypiashchuk, a human rights advocate, trainer, lawyer, and legal adviser for The Culture and Identity Strategic Project and the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU), with a focus on documenting and investigating war crimes against cultural heritage. Also, this year (and not for the first time), financial support for the event and for the winning team's participation in the international round of the Brown Mosten International Client Consultation Competition were provided by Kernel Holding S.A.
The Consulting Olympiad is a competition among legal clinics in Ukraine that simulates the client-facing work of a legal office. The event first took place at Ostroh Academy in 2005. This year, the twelfth Olympiad is being held at the National University of Ostroh Academy. For over five consecutive years, the competition has been conducted entirely in English.
The Rector of the Ostroh Academy, Doctor of Science (Psychology), Professor Eduard Balashov, addressed the participants of the Olympiad with a welcoming speech:
"Ostroh Academy traditionally hosts the National Olympiad in Client Counselling on its campus. Over the three days of the event, you will not just compete but simulate the real-world process of a legal office. Your task is not only to demonstrate knowledge of the law, but also to establish psychological contact with clients and find the best options for solving their problems. This is an invaluable practice in the field of law that helps form a real professional. Remember that the main thing is not victory. The most valuable achievement is your experience and professional acquaintances."
The purpose of the Olympiad is to promote the deepening of knowledge and interests among law students in the fields of preventive law and consulting functions of legal practice. Competitions help develop skills in client interviewing, analysing legal and non-legal aspects of a case, identifying possible options, teamwork, and other skills necessary for future lawyers.
"The Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine is an institution that does a lot to improve the level of practical skills of our clinical students. And one of the very important tasks is today's competition in consulting clients. It is a great challenge that the Olympiad takes place during the war. Still, it is a chance to gain useful experience, go abroad, and try your hand at leading educational institutions in other countries. It's nice that in such difficult times we remain active and ready to move forward,"
10 teams of legal clinics from different cities of Ukraine registered to participate in the Olympiad, namely: Ostroh, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lviv, Lutsk and Sumy. In fact, 8 teams took part, representing the following law firms and higher education institutions:
- Mykola Udod Legal Clinic at Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University;
- Laboratory of Practical Law "Legal Clinic" of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv;
- Legal Clinic of Sumy State University;
- Legal Clinic of the School of Law of the Ukrainian Catholic University;
- Centre for Legal Protection of the State University of Trade and Economics;
- Pro bono Legal Clinic of the National University of Ostroh Academy;
- Educational Laboratory "Legal Clinic" of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy;
- ASTREIA Legal Clinic at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University.
The National University of Ostroh Academy was represented at this year's competition by the consultants of the "Pro Bono" Legal Clinic: third- and fourth-year law students, Kateryna Chovpylo and Veronika Chutka.
During the competition, each team performs anonymously and is assigned a letter, which it receives in the draw before the rounds begin. Therefore, judges do not know which legal clinic or higher education institution any given team represents.
The judging committee of the competition consisted of representatives of the legal clinical movement of Ukraine and abroad, the fields of advocacy, professional mediation and human rights activities, specialists in transitional justice and dialogue practices and facilitation, namely:
- Alina Sierhieieva, certified mediator of the International Mediation Institute, researcher (Vilnius, Lithuania), mediation trainer, advocate, judge of international mediation/negotiation competitions, who currently works as a peace and development officer at the UN;
- Delaine Swenson, Professor of Law at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (Poland), Director and founder of the Centre for Advancing Legal Skills;
- Pawel Klimek, PhD, lecturer (Krakow), advocate, mediator and leader of the non-governmental organisation FPPB, national representative of Poland in the BM-ICCC;
- Oleh Martynenko, expert of the "Centre for Civil Liberties" NGO, Doctor of Science (Politics), Professor, Ukrainian criminologist, human rights activist, member of the UN Civil Police peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1999–2001) and Kosovo (2002–2003), veteran of the russia-Ukraine war;
- Olha Kotiuk, Head of 'The Culture and Identity Strategic' Project, Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU); specialist in the analysis of armed conflicts; lecturer of the course "Transitional Justice" at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE); Master of Law (Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University); Master of Science in Armed Conflict Analysis (LSE, UK);
- Oksana Vozniuk, Judge of the Bila Tserkva City District Court of Kyiv Oblast;
- Olha Shmyndruk, advocate, mediator, Candidate of Science (Law), Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Law Disciplines of Ostroh Academy;
- Yulia Khmaruk, advocate;
- Alla Filatova, advocate, Head of the "Zakhid-Partner" law firm, member of the Council and regional representative of the youth committee of NAAU-UNBA NextGen in Rivne Oblast, deputy chairman of the Council of Advocates of Rivne Oblast;
- Mykola Bliashyn, advocate, Ostroh Academy alumnus, Master of Laws (University of Birmingham, UK), PhD in Comparative Corporate Law and Visiting Lecturer in 'The EU Law' at Ostroh Academy;
- Anna Homeniuk, Director of the Social Cohesion Programmes Department at Caritas Ukraine, dialogue facilitator.
Therefore, during four rounds (two quarterfinals, in which all teams participated), semifinal (4 teams at the end of the quarterfinals) and final (2 teams at the end of the semifinals), the teams had to work with complex issues of land and other areas of law: lease and use of agricultural land, including for the organisation of tourism and recreational business; protection of the rights of landowners and land users in connection with the occupation of their lands or the use of such lands for military needs, etc. In addition, in each case, it was necessary to respond professionally to sometimes subtle moral and ethical dilemmas and to show creativity and ingenuity in legal and non-legal questions, for which the client expected answers.
This year's participants demonstrated an extremely high level of training and knowledge and received very positive feedback from the judges. At the same time, as in every competition, the winners had to be determined in the Olympics. The semifinal round included the legal clinic teams of Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Sumy State University, and the School of Law of the Ukrainian Catholic University. In the final, the teams from the UCU School of Law and Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University competed. Finally, the team of the UCU School of Law Legal Clinic won this year's Client Consulting Olympiad.
The success of the teams' participation would not have been of such high quality without the active involvement of their managers, trainers, and heads of legal clinics, who helped, trained, and supported the consultants at their law clinics to perform as professionally as possible at the competitions. Therefore, special thanks to everyone who contributed to motivating and preparing their students.
At the end of the competition, all participants, coaches, judges and volunteers received certificates and gifts. The winners will represent Ukraine at the international round in Zagreb (Croatia) on April 15-18, 2026.
"Thank you for your support and assistance in preparing for the Olympiad of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine, the entire staff of the Ostroh Academy headed by Eduard Balashov, the Ioanykii Malynovskyi Educational and Research Institute of Law and its director Bohdan Mykhalchuk, university staff, volunteers, our invited judges and those who so professionally performed the roles of actors (Roman Shulyk, Peter Gee, Gemma Vaivala and Serhiy Klimov), and everyone who joined the organisation of the competition. Sincere gratitude to Kernel and especially to Artem Filipiev for many years of organisational and financial support of the Olympiad,"
We wish the winning team to adequately represent Ukraine at international competitions and return with a victory!
By the way, the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine is a public association whose activities aim to develop legal clinical education and expand the network of legal clinics. The mission of the Association of Legal Clinics of Ukraine is to ensure the functioning of high-quality legal clinics in the system of higher legal education in Ukraine.
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