Person detained by the NABU and MI on 26 January is not an advocate – clarification

On 26 January 2017 the official website of the Ministry of Interior informed that officers of the Department of Economic Protection of the National Police and of the NABU detained a judge from the Solomyanskyy District Court of Kyiv and a director of law office (intermediary) in the process of receiving a bribe of 22,000 USD.

It is to be noted that the person concerned, Vitaliy Kholodenko, is not an advocate and the URAU does not contain any data about him. The company which he heads, Advocate’s Bureau "PM and Company" LLC, is not the “advocate’s bureau”. This limited liability company uses the term “advocate’s bureau” in its title, but it does not have the status of the advocate’s bureau according to the Law "On the Bar and Practice of Law".

The UNBA will apply to the Ministry of Justice with an initiative to prohibit the use of the word “advocate”, “advocates’ union” and “advocate’s bureau” in the names of legal bodies which do not have such a status.

According to the Law "On the Bar and Practice of Law", advocate’s bureau is a legal entity which was created by one advocate and which operates pursuant to the statute. The name “advocate’s bureau” should include the name of the advocate who created it.

Advocates’ union is a legal entity which was created by two or more advocates (participants) and which operates pursuant to the statute.

State registration of the advocates’ union and advocate’s bureau is made pursuant to the procedure set by the Law of Ukraine "On the State registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs" taking into account the peculiarities provided for by the Law "On the Bar and Practice of Law".