BCU has changed the formula for raising professional standards in the first year of an advocate's practice

According to the basic rule, every advocate, in fulfilling their duty to improve their professional level, must accumulate 15 credit hours per year. For those who have just received their certificate and taken the oath, a «softer» procedure has been established.

The relevant changes have been made to paragraph 17 of the Procedure for improving the professional level of advocates in Ukraine, approved by Decision No. 63 of the BCU on July 3, 2021. The meeting of the Bar Council of Ukraine will be held on December 12-13 in the village of Plavya, Lviv region.

We remind you that, according to the Procedure, all advocates are required to improve their professional level by 15 credit (academic) hours per year, of which the advocate must receive at least 2 credit hours per year for training in the Rules of professional conduct.

For advocates who have just received their certificate and taken the oath, a proportional approach has been established: during the first calendar year, they must accumulate 2 hours of ethics training and one hour for each month from the date of receiving the certificate until the end of the year. An exception has also been established: if the certificate was obtained in December, the requirement to improve professional skills does not apply in the current year.

Thus, the annual norm in the first year of practice is now not fixed. It is determined in proportion to the number of months of active practice in the reporting year, plus 2 mandatory hours of ethics training.

For example, if an advocate received a certificate on August 10, the formula is applied as follows:

Months of work this year: August, September, October, November, December - 5 months.

Therefore: 5 credit hours + 2 hours of PAE = 7 hours for the first year of practice.

If an advocate received a certificate in December, in this case, the fulfillment of the annual norm begins from the next calendar year on a general basis.

«This addition has a purely pragmatic purpose - to introduce a flexible and fair mechanism for advocates who are just starting their professional activity, - commented the Vice President of the UNBA, BCU Valentin Gvozdiy, on the changes. - The first year after receiving a certificate is a period of adaptation: an advocate enters into practice, establishes professional processes, and forms a work schedule».

According to him, a proportional approach allows for the actual time spent on activities in a calendar year to be taken into account. «But at the same time, we are preserving an important component — mandatory hours of ethics training. This is a fundamental part of the profession, and it must be learned from the very beginning», - added V. Gvozdiy.