What is Legal-economic clinic?

Legal-economic clinic of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek is a joint multidisciplinary project of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics in Osijek. The Legal-economic clinic project is an initiative of the Department of Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law in Osijek and of the UNESCO Department of enterpreneurship of the Faculty of Economics in Osijek. The Clinic was founded in November 2013, through signing of an Agreement on Cooperation between Faculty of Law in Osijek, Faculty of Economics in Osijek, Business Incubator BIOS Osijek and Center for Entrepreneurship Osijek and the Clinic started working in February 2014. In the academic year of 2015/2016 the Legal-econimic clinic will sign agreement with Croatian notaries chamber and some public notaries from different cities in Croatia. The Legal-economic clinic UNIOS has substations in other cities in Croatia, for example substations in Županja and Slavonski Brod.

You can follow work of the Legal-economic clinic on official Facebook page.

Goals and purpose of the Legal-economic clinic

Main goals of the Legal – economic clinic are active and direct participation in solving specific legal and economic cases or problems, thus providing an opportunity to students to deepen the acquired theoretical knowledge in practice, which also contributes to the system of providing free legal and economic assistance. Students of both faculties are involved in the work of the Clinic and with the sinergy of knowledge they give local entrepreneurs legal and business advices. This approach also offers much more to students than classic clinical legal education – multidisciplinary approach allows them to learn from each other, solving problems using the knowledge of the other profession.

How does Legal-economic clinic work?

Students work in three-member teams (two students from the Faculty of Law and one student from the Faculty of Economics or two students from the Faculty of Economics and one student from the Faculty of Law - depends on the type of the case).

The Legal-economic clinic teams

Each team has two mentors, one from each field. The mentors include professors from both faculties, employees of the partners, Osijek lawyers, judges of the Commercial Court in Osijek, members of the Croatian Employers Association (CEA) Osijek, employees of the Tax administration (Ministry of Finance), Croatian notaries chamber and some public notaries from different cities in Croatia (Osijek, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Slavonski Brod, Našice). Legal-economic clinic offers free specialised legal and economic guidance that covers a range of complex legal and economic issues including:

• Agreements such as non-diclosure agreements and cooperation agreements
• Regulatory advice on the laws that may affect client's business
• Types of bussines structure
• Business plans and marketing plans
• Calculation of financial ratios

Firstly, a Client contacts Legal – economic clinic via e-mail, pravnaklinika.osijek@gmail.com . After that, students arrange a meeting with the Client on Wednesday for two hours, at the premises of BIOS, controlled by two mentors. Then the team analyses the problem together with the mentors and tasks for further research and solving of the problem are assigned. After drafting the first, mutually agreed version of the solution, the team meets and the solution is analysed and evaluated. After mentors' approval, team members put together the solution, that is, the suggestion for solving the problem and send a written response to Client. Everyone involved in the work of the Clinic, mentors and students, as well as associated partners, operate on a voluntary basis.

Legal-economic clinic successes

Legal-economic clinic has advised larger number of startup and existing enterpreneurs through three academic years of existing. The Legal-economic clinic cooperates with Business Incubator BIOS Osijek, Center for Entrepreneurship in Osijek, some lawyers from Osijek, judges of the Commercial Court in Osijek, members of the Croatian Employers Association (CEA) Osijek, employees of the Tax administration (Ministry of Finance), Croatian notaries chamber and some public notaries from different cities in Croatia (Osijek, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Slavonski Brod, Našice). The Legal-economic clinic has substations in other cities in Croatia, for example substations in Županja and Slavonski Brod. The Legal-economic clinic had great experience in working on Commercial law cases, Civil law cases and European law cases.