Focus on self-governance, external administration – left out: subgroup systematizes approaches

The Ukrainian National Bar Association hosted a regular meeting of the «Organization of the advocacy and self-government» subgroup of the Working Group on the implementation of the Rule of Law Roadmap regarding bar reform.

The President of the UNBA, BCU Lidiya Izovitova reported on the progress of communication regarding the government working group under the Ministry of Justice and outlined the approaches that, in her opinion, should be followed when preparing the amendments. She emphasized that regulatory updates should strengthen the independence of the advocacy profession and professional safeguards, and that digital tools and transparency standards should be implemented without replacing self-governance with external administration and without risks of interference in professional safeguards.

Participants discussed the organization of further interaction with the parliamentary platform and working formats in which alternative draft amendments may emerge. In this context, issues of coordinating positions, representation, and the timeline for preparing materials for further systematization were raised.

Chairman of the subcommittee on the organization and activities of the advocacy and legal aid bodies of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy Volodymyr Vatrus emphasized the importance of proportional representation of Roadmap implementers and suggested the possibility of parallel work by government and bar groups, with the potential for alternative draft laws to emerge, which in any case would be considered in the parliamentary forum with the participation of UNBA representatives. According to the MP, the requirements of the Roadmap must be properly implemented, and at the very least, the profession’s safeguards and the advocate’s tools must be strengthened, preserving the positive aspects of the model in effect since 2012 and preventing any deterioration in regulation.

During the substantive part of the meeting, the subgroup focused on the logic of the upcoming regulatory update: the structure of the section on self-governance, the proper delineation of roles and functions of the system’s components, the balance between procedural transparency and the protection of attorney-client privilege and personal data, as well as how to ensure the continuity of the bodies’ operations and institutional memory without losing flexibility and accountability to the professional community.

As a result, the participants agreed on the next steps for preparing the materials and compiling them into a single package for further discussion in the specified formats.