Implementation of the Roadmap: the composition of the working group ensures a high level of expertise

The composition of the Working Group on the implementation of the Roadmap on the rule of law in relation to advocacy demonstrates the high institutional level of the experts involved by the Ukrainian National Bar Association in the formation of a package of decisions.

This was stated by the Vice President of the UNBA, BCU Valentin Gvozdiy, commenting on the results of the first meeting of the group, which took place on January 2, according to Law and Business.

Recall that the Roadmap on the Rule of Law was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers' Order No. 475-r of May 14, 2025. Among the tasks set out in the document is the development and adoption of a draft law on improving the legal regulation of the legal profession by the fourth quarter of 2026. The Ukrainian National Bar Association was designated as the co-executor of the measures. Consequently, by decision of the BCU dated December 12, 2025, No. 125, a working group was created and the Roadmap Implementation Program was approved.

According to V. Gvozdiy, the institutional level of the working group is evidenced primarily by the configuration of its participants: all members of parliament who are part of the subcommittee on the organization and activities of advocacy at the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy have joined the work. «The participation of the entire subcommittee makes it possible to immediately compare professional developments with the parliamentary agenda and reduces the risk of ‘parallel’ initiatives that appear outside the logic of the Roadmap», - the advocate noted.

The second element highlighted by the deputy chairman of the UNBA and the BCU is the international component formed at the level of the CCBE and national institutions of the European bar. The inaugural meeting was attended by the current CCBE President Roman Zavrsek, former CCBE President James McGill, chairman of the CCBE Committee on International Legal Practice Carlo Forte, and representatives of the CCBE Secretariat. Representatives of the French National Bar Council (CNB), led by the chairman of the International Committee Marie-Aimée Peiron, the Director of the Legal Department Géraldine Cavaille and Frédéric Tepere, as well as the President of the Lithuanian Advocacy Association Mindaugas Kukaitis, also joined the meeting.

A number of other international experts were not present at the working group meeting but confirmed their willingness to participate: former CCBE presidents Maria Slasak and Marcella Prunbauer Glaser, chairman of the Czech delegation to the CCBE and member of the PECO CCBE Committee Antonín Mokrý, CNB president Julie Couturier, and president of the Czech Bar Association (ČAK) Monika Novotná, former president of the Luxembourg advocacy association Valérie Dupont.

«This combination of parliamentary representation, professional self-government, and international institutions creates a working format that focuses not on political declarations, but on the verification of decisions according to European standards», - noted V. Gvozdiy.

He explained that the involvement of representatives of the CCBE and European bar associations (including the authors of the Convention on the protection of the profession of advocate) is seen as an external expert «compliance check» and a safeguard against the replacement of self-government by state administration, in particular through arbitrary interpretations of the Roadmap as a basis for external control over the profession.

V. Gvozdiy also linked this approach to the European logic of consulting with professional associations on any changes in legislation, procedural and administrative rules that directly affect the professional activities of advocates and the regulation of the profession. «That is why the work should take place on a professional platform with appropriate international expert support, rather than in a mode of «administrative duplication», which provides neither a full mandate from the professional community nor the necessary quality of verification», - he believes.

Commenting on the content framework, the deputy chairman of the UNBA emphasized: The roadmap should be a tool for verification and targeted improvement, not an attempt to «rebuild» the model of advocacy. He noted that some of the tasks are already being implemented through decisions of the bar self-government bodies, and the key task of the Working Group is to compile a coordinated package of practical proposals within the time frame specified in the document.