Professional development: The subgroup identified areas of focus

The Ukrainian National Bar Association hosted the first meeting of the subgroup on «Professional development and continuing professional education for advocates» of the Working Group on the implementation of the Rule of Law Roadmap regarding bar reform.

The current Law «On the advocacy and the practice of law» contains provisions regarding an advocate’s obligation to improve their professional competence, and self-governing bodies are vested with the corresponding authority to organize this process. This was noted by the director of the Higher School of Advocacy Savva Kuzmenko. He proposed focusing future efforts on establishing an institutional model for the system, defining the role of the Higher School of Advocacy, developing digital training formats, and setting quality standards for programs. He suggested determining which elements of the continuous professional development system should be enshrined in law and which should be detailed in regulations issued by bar self-governing bodies.

Chairman of the Committee on legislative initiatives on advocacy Oleksiy Yushchenko supported the approach whereby it is advisable to enshrine general provisions in the law and leave the specifics to internal regulations, in order to avoid excessive detail at the legislative level and the need to constantly amend the law for individual cases.

The Vice President of the UNBA, BCU Valentin Gvozdiy emphasized the connection between guarantees of the bar’s independence and the obligation of advocates to maintain a high professional standard. He also proposed clarifying the powers of the Bar Council of Ukraine regarding the scope and procedure for professional development.

As a result, the participants agreed to prepare and submit their proposals for further coordination and transfer to other subgroups in order to synchronize related sections.