Idil Elveris became the first academic in Turkey to teach the Legal Clinic that was initiated with the leadership of Istanbul Bilgi University. The goal of the legal clinics is to provide professional skills for law students. To that end, interactive methods such as role-playing and simulation are used.
The legal clinic adventure started in 2003 with the “Street Law Clinic” program prepared for eighth graders in primary schools. The 8th graders studying near the campus of the law school were chosen as the target audience. This project was chosen as one of the “best examples” of the “Best Practices in Education” conference organized by Sabancı University every year.
The street law clinic provided the basic legal knowledge that everyone needs in their life, not only for students in primary schools, but also for the staff of non-governmental organizations and inmates in prisons. Legal clinics provide law students with skills such as public speaking, responding to spontaneous questions and being able to provide simple explanations to lay people without legal jargon.
Another type of legal clinic provided legal assistance to people who would otherwise have difficulty affording a lawyer. Elveris established this model as well, which was named a private law clinic in Turkey. Thus, the students ended up finding solutions for the problems experienced by the administrative staff at Bilgi, as well as those living around Bilgi’s campus.
Elveris demonstrated the legal clinic model at Bilgi in law faculties in regions such as Lebanon and Pakistan. Bilgi clinics were also visited by lawyers from Egypt, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Jordan, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. The success of the project attracted the attention of the Ministry of Justice. Bilgi’s campus and the legal clinic in penitentiary institutions were visited by the Ministry while they were in action to observe the clinics on site. Thereupon, legal clinics were included in the strategy document of the Ministry of Justice, paving the way for the establishment of legal clinics in many law schools with the endorsement of the Ministry.
The most recent work by Elveris about legal clinics involved students preparing a podcast to address legal issues that arose during the pandemic. This podcast is available on Spotify.