Support for the bar reform shall be aimed at strengthening the independence of the profession — Lidiia Izovitova

The support for the bar reform shall be aimed at strengthening the independence of the profession and institutional strengthening of the self-government.

This was mentioned by the UNBA, BCU President Lidiia Izovitova during the meeting of leaders of the Ukrainian bar with the CoE delegation.

The meeting was devoted to the preparation of the Needs Assessment Report for UNBA. The Ukrainian bar was also represented by the UNBA, BCU Vice President Valentyn Gvozdiy, the BCU Secretary Pavlo Hrechkivskyi, the HQDCB Chairman Oleksandr Drozdov, the Head of the Committee on International Relations Ivan Hrechkivskyi, and the Head of UNBA Secretariat Vadym Krasnyk. On the European part the meeting was attended by the CCBE Third Vice-President Ranko Pelicarić, the Council of Europe Project Expert Rytis Jokubauskas, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Olena Lytvynenko, and Project Manager of the CoE Project “Consolidation of Justice Sector Reform in Ukraine” Kateryna Halenko.

“The visit of such a delegation shows that you are interested in strengthening the bar institute and its ability to provide effective professional legal aid without any difficulties and to independently solve all issues related to the organization of the legal profession. Hopefully, both parties will benefit from this and all subsequent meetings, and the UNBA will further upgrade its institutional capacity and stability of organization”, — said Lidiia Izovitova.

During the meeting the participants discussed the current state of affairs in the Ukrainian bar, the challenges to the independence of the legal profession and the stability of the bar self-government. According to Olena Lytvynenko, the purpose of the evaluation is to get a complete understanding of the status of the bar since 2012, the UNBA’s institutional capacity, including as related to the protection of the advocates’ rights and the provision of opportunities for their professional improvement, and to study obstacles and practical problems encountered by the Ukrainian advocates in their professional activities, as well as the peculiarities of the Rules of Advocates’ Ethics and the application of disciplinary sanctions against the advocates. These expert evaluations will form the basis for developing the further projects to support the justice sector reform in Ukraine.

“We are interested in Ukrainian advocates having the opportunity to provide effective legal aid, being protected by the law, and having opportunities to improve their qualifications”, — said the representative of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.

Valentyn Gvozdiy and Oleksandr Drozdov presented the basic principles of the bar self-government functioning in Ukraine, namely, the work of the disciplinary chambers at the regional and higher levels, the distribution of contributions, the work of the qualification chambers and the particularities of access to the legal profession. Valentyn Gvozdiy emphasized that UNBA work is transparent, and it publicly reports on both income and expenses, as well as on decisions adopted by the self-government bodies, and prepares annual and thematic reports. The self-government system is constructed in a democratic way and involves the procedures for the open selection of the regional and national level heads by the advocates and from among the advocates themselves. Valentyn Gvozdiy also presented the UNBA’s work on maintaining the Uniform Register of Advocates, which has a high level of protection against abusive acts and cyber-attacks.

“We have created a system that has proven its efficiency and stability, and we took into account the present day experience of foreign countries. Now we are a model for bar reform in other countries of the region, and we are pleased to share our know-how”, — said Valentyn Gvozdiy.

Lidiia Izovitova emphasized that the bar self-government was established under the law “On the Bar and Practice of Law” effective as of 2012, and it was in line with the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Thus, the systemic reform has taken place not that long ago, and it is too early to speak of introduction of new large-scale changes.

“5 years for a new reform is not a term. But the most important thing is to eliminate the risks existing today”, — emphasized Lidiia Izovitova.

At the same time, the amendments to the main law are introduced in a non-transparent manner, without the UNBA’s participation as an official representative of the legal profession, and changes made to other laws have already indicated the attempts to limit the powers of the self-government bodies. The restriction of the amount of advocates’ contributions, imposed by the Tax Code, may serve a good example of the aforementioned.

“This is the first step towards limiting our self-governing powers. Therefore, the assistance we need for further reforming should be aimed at institutional strengthening of the self-government. The intentions to destroy the established system cannot be underestimated, and their implementation cannot be tolerated”, — emphasized Valentyn Gvozdiy.

The BCU Secretary Pavlo Hrechkivskyi added that such attempts appear to be aimed at returning the bar under the influence of the state, especially through excessive expansion of the legal aid system.

According to Lidiia Izovitova, the main challenges of the bar are the violations of the advocates’ rights, whose present scope makes the legal profession a risky one, in particular, the identification of the advocates with their clients. Almost every month the UNBA addresses the CCBE concerning serious violations of the advocates’ rights and guarantees. “The question is how we can jointly solve this problem”, — said Lidiia Izovitova.