My Nonprofit Reviews

Soufiane: A Student Clinician Success Story

“Joining the legal clinic was the best decision I made in 2022. It has greatly contributed to my academic and professional growth.”

Soufiane is now a 26-year-old legal clinician trainee with a master’s degree in business law. During the second year of his graduate studies and last planned year of formal education, he felt the need to deepen his knowledge and sharpen his skills to better face the job market, be ready for the post-graduate world, and feel more legitimate and confident. As such, he applied to be a part of the Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law (CJFD) in Fez.

From the beginning of his tenure with the “clinic,” he made a good impression and easily stood out through his commitment, participation, and curiosity. He put his heart and soul into the program’s activities and participated ardently in all of the organized events. The experience allowed him not only to perfect his knowledge of the law and to satisfy his unquenchable thirst for learning by offering him a myriad of fruitful and eclectic activities, such as study days, practical workshops, and field trips, but also to perfect his public speaking and oratory skills through debate and moot court competitions and, finally, to enlarge his professional network and to meet new people.

“It is a complete, qualitative, and no-frills experience,” says Soufiane. “The legal clinic is an absolute godsend that allowed me to think outside the box and learn the law by doing. And all for free. What more could you ask for? I would do it gladly if I had to do it again.”

According to Soufiane, his integration into the program was the turning point in his academic and professional life.
First, he succeeded in joining the Youth Parliament of Morocco, occupying the position of legal assessor since his first participation and being elected as a Minister for the next legislature, which will take place in July 2023. He claims to owe much of his success in joining the inner circle of young Moroccan parliamentarians to the “clinic” and the various skills he learned as a student clinician.
Secondly, his interest in defending the cause of women increased tremendously after meeting and assisting women who have experienced abuse and gender-based violence during his year as a student clinician. Wanting to do even more to help them, he created, with several of his peers, an association called eve4ever to improve the status of Moroccan women and promote their socio-cultural and economic condition.

Even in light of his notable success, Soufiane does not claim it for himself. He always insists on expressing his gratitude and appreciation to all those who helped him along the way. “Being a clinician is more than an experience. It’s a valuable identity that sticks with us, makes us proud, and helps us shine in all areas,” he says.

The Legal Clinic of the Faculty of Law (Clinique juridique de la faculté de droit – CJFD) in Fes aims to elevate the status of youth, women, and underrepresented communities by providing pro-bono legal aid and entrepreneurship training as a means to engage civically and economically.
Over the three years since its inception, the program has trained 231 (50% women, 50% men) master’s and doctoral students of law to administer legal aid and facilitate capacity building with community beneficiaries in the Fes-Meknes region of Morocco. In that time, student clinicians have worked on a total of 267 case files pertaining to entrepreneurship, immigration and asylum, family mediation, psychological support, human trafficking, employment, and real estate. Additionally, 256 have benefited from establishing or growing 39 private income-generating projects and entities following entrepreneurship training and mentorship.
The program was established first as a pilot project in 2019 as a collaboration between the High Atlas Foundation and the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fes. From 2020 to 2022, the program’s continuation and expansion to include a concentration on the promotion of entrepreneurship were funded by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI).

Soufiane speaks during a field trip to Sefrou to train members of various cooperatives, May 2022. Photo: HAF

Mentoring: A Challenge for Clinicians, A Boon for Beneficiaries

By Soufiane Mouhsine, Legal Aid Clinician 2021-2022 and second year master’s student in business law at FSJES Fes

Often, project designers are full of ideas, but they find themselves hindered by a lack of means, support, and guidance to pursue and achieve their goals. To enable them to proceed with greater clarity and efficiency, the members of the legal clinic and entrepreneurship program in Fes visited the communities of Sefrou, Azrou and Ifrane for two days each in order to follow-up and support eight program beneficiaries following previous learning and training activities.

The mentorship and accompaniment portion of the program is being implemented in two distinct phases as described below.

1. Follow-up and Personalized Accompaniment

Mentors adopted an iterative and co-constructed approach with each participant that is both participatory and individualized in order to meet each project at its own unique state of progress since projects are in their infancy while others are in more advanced stages.

The needs of the project leaders are diverse and eclectic. Some need assistance to build a digital presence, and others aim to provide in-depth legal information to their own constituents and communities. Some aim to expand and broaden their fields of activity and make new partnerships and collaborations, and others seek stability and financial independence.

The accompaniment of the beneficiaries was also structured in two phases:

- Needs Qualification: Clinicians, acting as mentors, conducted individual, exploratory, and in-depth interviews with each beneficiary to understand his or her needs and gather the information necessary to implement an accompaniment plan. This was an opportunity for each beneficiary to explain challenges they are facing, such as financial difficulties, managerial, or administrative issues.

- Accompaniment: Immediately after the preliminary interview, the clinicians and mentor provided responses to the questions posed, many of which were related to the legal aspects of project implementation.


2, Training Plan Implementation

Most beneficiaries have expressed their desire to learn and deepen their knowledge on subjects related to their fields of activity (i.e., law 12-112 on cooperatives, digital presence, protection of intellectual property rights) and also in terms of administrative formalities, information, and orientation, advice on establishing a project, management, financing, and other legal and fiscal matters.

These trainings will facilitate the acquisition of contextualized skills in order to increase the performance and profitability of projects.

The series of trainings is expected to be implemented very soon. The clinicians are now in the process of agreeing upon the modules and the duration of the trainings, and planning according to the availability and mobility of the beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries expressed satisfaction with the accompaniment and mentoring missions, noting that the coaching allowed them to clearly define their development ambition and meet an operational need of their organizations.

This mentorship and accompaniment toward the realization of income-generating projects is part of a program implemented by the High Atlas Foundation in partnership with the Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences at University Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in Fes and with funding from the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) to elevate the status of youth, women, and underrepresented communities by providing pro-bono legal aid and entrepreneurship training as a means to engage civically and economically.

Face to Face Mentorship with beneficiaries: Advisory and Legal Consultancy. Photo: Safae Bouhlala/HAF.