Since the establishment of the Addis Ababa University (AAU) School of Law in 1963, the approach to legal education by the School of Law remained theoretical and doctrinal with almost no practical training and community service components. In order to turn this situation around and inject adequate practical training and community service components into legal education, in December 2014, the School of Law entered into a project agreement with the Government of Denmark which helped it run clinical legal education along with the provision of legal aid to the indigent and vulnerable sections of the community in Addis Ababa. Starting mid-February, 2015, Addis Ababa University School of Law signed Project agreement titled “Clinical Legal Education Public Interest Project” with the Royal Danish Embassy heralding the opening of four Legal Aid Clinics with the goal of realizing practice oriented legal education through free legal aid service to the poor and disadvantaged parts of our community. Wth the assistance of this project, four Centers have been opened and entered into operation since the launching of the project. The first Center that provides free legal aid services to the local community became operational in April 30, 2015 in the main campus of the University at Sidist Killo. The Lideta First Instance Court and Oromia Supreme Court centers started operation on June 29, 2015. The fourth center, located at the Federal First Instance Court building around Kera was opened in 2016. However, this Project supported the legal aid services of the School of Law until March 2017.
Since July 2017, a new project entitled “Widening Access to Justice through Clinical Legal Education in Addis Ababa and its Environs” was launched with the assistance of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor with the overall all objectives of supporting the School in pursuing its educational and social justice agenda. This project also aims at maintaining the clinical legal education program and legal aid services that were established under the earlier-noted Project and to scale-up and widen activities aimed at improving access to justice to the needy, the indigents and other vulnerable sections of the society in Addis Ababa and its surrounding areas. The project, among others, involved over 400 students in practical legal education program; trained over 200 judges and other law enforcement personnel as well as women in small businesses; trained over 60 law professors from different ethiopian School of Law in the skills and methodologies of clinical legal education; conducted researches and opened new two legal aid Clinics and provided free legal aid services to 6000 indigents, marginalized and/or vulnerable sections of the Ethiopian society in and around Addis Ababa. Currently, the six legal aid centers are running with the assistance of the University funding providing general free legal aid services to the local community and one legal aid center dedicated to refugees and asylum seekers as per the partinership with the UNHCR.