What a Ukrainian lawyer can expect in Israel

As in other countries, a Ukrainian lawyer can apply for the status of a foreign lawyer in Israel. To do so, they will have to collect a package of documents and pass an ethics exam. It will be much more difficult to become a full-fledged lawyer.

Oksana Sokolovska, the UNBA representative in Israel, spoke about the peculiarities of working in Israel during the webinar «Access to the legal profession abroad» organized by the UNBA Committee on International Relations.

She familiarized the participants with the organization of the Bar, which is based on the principles of British law and the law of the Ottoman Empire. The institute was established in 1927, before the creation of the state itself. Accordingly, all attorneys who were in the register before that were included in the new Israeli register. The law itself, on the basis of which the bar operates, was adopted in 1961.

Israel has a Bar Association that unites all lawyers. It registers, supervises and examines trainee lawyers and is responsible for their certification as lawyers and for making disciplinary decisions against lawyers and trainees. The Collegium deals with the protection of professional rights, professional ethics, mutual assistance between members of the Collegium, insurance, pension funds for members of the Collegium, and the organization of legal aid to disadvantaged groups through the Sheher Mitzvah program.

As in Ukraine, a lawyer does not automatically become an attorney. Without a license obtained in Israel, a person has no right to practice law. However, unlike in our country, in Israel an attorney cannot register as a sole proprietor or work under an employment contract.

A Ukrainian lawyer can rely on the status of a foreign lawyer. To do so, the following documents must be submitted to the Israeli Bar Association:

• certificate of the right to practice law;
• characterization of the advocate issued by the UNBA with information on the absence of disciplinary proceedings against the advocate and confirmation of payment of membership fees;
• a foreign passport of a citizen of Ukraine;
• evidence confirming 5 years of experience in Ukraine (tax returns, extracts from court decisions in cases in which the advocate participated, etc;)
• other documents, if requested.

After proving the experience of working as an attorney in Ukraine, the applicant will be required to pass the exam on professional ethics of attorneys.

After that, the lawyer is registered in the register of foreign lawyers. He or she is entitled to practice law exclusively in accordance with the law of the country in which he or she holds the certificate. However, a foreign lawyer cannot practice under Israeli law - this is a direct prohibition of the Bar Law.

To obtain the status of a full-fledged attorney-at-law, one must be a citizen of Israel or have official residence in the state (for example, on the basis of a work visa).

A necessary step is the confirmation of a diploma from the Ministry of Education of Israel with a first or second degree. However, this is not enough.

For attorneys who have five years of experience in Ukraine and can prove it, there are some relaxations in the process of obtaining the status of an attorney. Such attorneys are exempted from the final exam and have only one year of internship (instead of one and a half). After opening an attorney's office, the applicant must pass the Hebrew language exams. In total, there are eight exams for the license in all branches of law.