Clinical legal education (CLE) originated in the practice of reforming and renovating legal education in many countries around the world. From the beginning, only a few countries accepted and applied clinical approach in legal education, until now CLE has developed, expanded and taken root in many countries worldwide. With the support of international organizations, Vietnam has also initially approached and applied the CLE method in legal education. However, practice in Vietnam has shown that CLE is still in its infancy and experimental stage, therefore, its values and benefits for legal education have not been clearly revealed and proven in the Vietnamese setting. The article examines CLE as a method to innovate and reform legal education and discusses its perspectives in Vietnam. The paper bases on the study of CLE experience around the world and the practice of establishing and operating CLE programs among a number of Vietnamese law schools. Within the scope of the article, the contents presented and discussed include: (i) Clinical legal education - an innovative teaching method in legal education in the world; (ii) The practice of CLE application in legal education in Vietnam; and (Hi) CLE”s development prospects in Vietnam: issues that need further research.