CLEA exists to advocate for clinical legal education as fundamental to the education of lawyers. 

CLEA and its members seek to: 

• Foster excellent teaching and scholarship by clinical educators;
• Integrate clinical teaching and extend its methods into the legal education program of every law school;
• Reform legal education so as to prepare law students for excellent and reflective law practice;
• Advance regulation of legal education that insures the continued vitality of clinical education in law schools; and
• Pursue and promote justice and diversity as core values of the legal profession.