PRE- PROFESSIONAL TRAINING IN LAW: THE FREE LEGAL OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The Public Defender of Ecuador offers the opportunity to develop the necessary professional competence of Law students from their pre-professional practice through the creation of Legal Offices approved by the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador. Previous studies have not mentioned the impact that these pre-professional practices have had on students since their formation. Therefore, this research´s objective is to assess the importance of the UNIANDES University free legal office in Santo Domingo for the professional training of Law students. A mixed methodology was used with the analysis of official documents, the bibliographical revision of the internships in Law and the study of other research works about Legal Offices. Subsequently, a survey was conducted to measure the degree of satisfaction of the interns. As a result of the research, this degree of students' satisfaction was evaluated as interns of the University Legal Office in Santo Domingo. Also, its significance in the formation of labor and professional skills for the future work performance of law graduates was identified.