BCU has identified 12 areas for implementing the Roadmap for advocacy

During its meeting on December 12, the Bar Council of Ukraine considered the Roadmap on the Rule of Law, approved by Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 475-r dated May 14, 2025. The document provides for the development and adoption of a draft law on improving the legal regulation of advocacy by the fourth quarter of 2026.

The President of the UNBA, BCU Lidiya Izovitova, informed the participants that the Roadmap is programmatic and framework in nature: it sets goals and deadlines, but does not replace legislation and acts of bar self-government. Therefore, it is critically important to establish the advocacy's position on its content and practical implementation.

Considering that, according to the aforementioned order of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ukrainian National Bar Association has been designated as the co-implementer of the Roadmap measures, the BCU decided to create a working group on the implementation of this document based at the UNBA.

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, bar self-government bodies at all levels, the scientific community, representatives of European advocacy, and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe will be invited to join the working group.

The BCU also approved the Roadmap implementation program on the rule of law, which will be used by the working group.

The program defines a set of organizational, methodological, and regulatory measures aimed at: increasing the transparency, accountability and effectiveness of bar self-government bodies; improving mechanisms for access to the advocate profession; introducing modern digital tools into the activities of advocacy; strengthening the independence of advocacy as a professional self-governing institution; ensuring that the activities of the Ukrainian advocacy comply with the standards of the European Union and the Council of Europe.

The main areas of implementation of the Program include 12 thematic issues:

• developing proposals for draft amendments to the Law «On the advocacy and the practice of law»;
• access to the profession and professional testing;
• disciplinary procedures and raising standards of accountability;
• transparency and accountability;
• independent financial control and internal audit;
• European integration of the Ukrainian advocacy;
• interaction between advocacy and the state;
• communication and information for the advocacy community;
• introduction of modern digital solutions in advocacy;
• strengthening guarantees for the practice of advocacy and the protection of advocates;
• improving the professional level of advocates and developing a system of continuing education;
• implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the protection of the profession of advocate.

The Program will be implemented by the third quarter of 2026, in accordance with the Roadmap and the decision of the Bar Council of Ukraine.

The results of the Program's implementation will be reviewed at meetings of the Bar Council of Ukraine, with summary information subsequently made public.