During the past decade there has been a pressing need for the development of well-trained practitioners of law, law publishing and rendering of qualified legal assistance to the needy parts of population, an important social function. This has been especially critical in the course of the profound transformation of the country's economy, political structure, and society, due to Azerbaijan's exceptional resources. The development of a legal clinic should have addressed a pressing need in this former Soviet republic. But the training of lawyers in the Soviet system was parochial, strongly conditioned by communist ideology and theory, and was lecture-based. As a result, today, delivery of education through lectures and seminars continues the passive role of students in the educational process.
Seminars mostly are a kind of testing instead of being a panel for discussion.
The lecture-seminar system has resulted in a situation where students learn little and are not active. The low motivation of students and their lack of enthusiasm, was another heritage of the Soviet education. As a result, students have not shown a capacity for critical thinking and analysis, because their role in the traditional system of education was limited. New changes in the country, including wide international contact, has made it necessary to implement quite a new approach to legal education in our republic. The first legal clinic in the Caucasus was founded in Azerbaijan at Khazar University, September, 1999.