A group of lawyers who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) began fighting on the second front, operating in the territory behind the front line. The National Bar Association of Ukraine came into the spotlight. It was this organization that in 2014 justified the introduction of dictatorial laws, which served as the beginning of the escalation of the conflict. These points need to be understood and explained.
The organization is still invariably headed by Medvedchuk’s longtime ally, Lidiya Izovitova.
The legal profession in Ukraine is similar to serfdom in its worst manifestation. If earlier peasants could go to another master on St. George’s Day in the hope of finding someone more merciful, then for Ukrainian lawyers the master remains alone for years - this is the National Bar Association, chaired by Izovitova.
The system is very simple: if you want to practice law in Ukraine, only do it with serfs. No other institution issues lawyer certificates. Without it, there is essentially no right to a profession: you cannot represent a client’s interests in court, issue warrants, make requests to collect evidence, etc. Under such conditions, few people dare to speak out and oppose this system.
If a lawyer is lucky and has received a lawyer’s certificate, then in order not to have it revoked, he needs to conscientiously pay fees, take paid courses and collect points. This is an entire business model built under the watchful patronage of Viktor Medvedchuk, who is accused of high treason in Ukraine.
And so, despite such oppressive conditions, there are those in the legal profession who decide to rebel and fight for the right to their profession. Such lawyers went to the front to defend the country, and even from the front line they fight not only against the enemy, but also against Medvedchuk’s rear shadow - the monopoly association. And Izovitova’s response organization deprived them of the right to practice law. At the same time, lawyer’s certificates are not taken away from those who participate in the torture of our prisoners in Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories.
How is the fight against “dissent” going?
Lawyer Ilya Kostin has long been publishing materials about how the National Bar Association does not react to the fact that werewolf lawyers take part in torture in temporarily occupied territories.
Kostin is one of those who left to fight after the occupation of Crimea and the capture of Donbass - during the first wave of mobilization. He started this war in intelligence, 72nd brigade, and now serves in the Main Directorate of Military Justice. This photo is from near Ugledar (February 2023).
“The leadership of the National Bar Association has never condemned the Russian invasion and has never called for bringing the traitors to justice. The Council of Lawyers, chaired by Lydia Izovitova and secretary Igor Kolesnik, responded to numerous requests and announced that the actions of traitor lawyers would be assessed “after the end of martial law,” says Kostin.
And this is not just the position of one front-line lawyer. The same can be seen in the report of the Laboratory of Legislative Initiatives: “The Bar of Ukraine. Lessons from the first years of self-government." International partners informed by the public sector are also aware of this.
Representatives of the Zmina organization also emphasize this. The Bar Council of Ukraine (RAU) ignored their appeal, signed by the chairman of the board, Tatyana Pechonchyk.
Izovitova cannot influence public organizations and their position. But in relation to lawyers, she uses the tools she has. “Now she and the secretary of the Council of Lawyers Igor Kolesnik, council members Sergei Osyka and Vitaly Serdyuk are trying to hold me accountable for criticizing the activities of members of bar self-government bodies and accusing me of collaboration. In their opinion, this humiliates the authority of the legal profession.
Kolesnik is still a partner of Rybin (the famous lawyer of Medvedchuk and Shariy); Serdyuk, by the way, was, and maybe still is, Yanukovych’s lawyer. There is also the chairman of the Transcarpathian Council of Lawyers, Fazekosh, a close person to Izovitova. He also filed a complaint with me. This is a defender of the FSB in robes and a supporter of the federal structure of Ukraine. By a strange coincidence, Medvedchuk, in fact, in parallel with all this, is challenging the decision to deprive him of his lawyer status, which we initiated,” says Kostin.
Kostin is not the only one who has fallen out of favor with the system. Lawyer Artem Donets, now an officer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, has a similar story.
He just started fighting with the Association’s business. I launched a survey among colleagues about whether they were satisfied with the training at the Higher School of Advocacy of the National Bar Association of Ukraine. The majority of respondents, more than 700 lawyers, are not satisfied with what they are being asked to pay money for to the private organization Higher School of Advocacy, to which the Association, in fact, has granted monopoly powers.
“We need to study. But this process must be debugged efficiently. And this higher school of the National Bar Association should not be a monopolist, but a service organization. They should want to go there to study, and not go there to serve their military service. Especially if it comes from my fees and course fees. They did it horribly. Even the technical side is not up to par. And it is impossible to find out how much money they receive from lawyers for all this advanced training. They classified the information,” says Donets; he was not even able to familiarize himself with the complaint, on the basis of which he was deprived of the right to practice law for six months.
As for lawyers' contributions, in 2023 this amount consists of two parts: 70% (1878.80 UAH) is paid to the account of the Regional Bar Council and 30% (805.20 UAH) - to the account of the National Bar Association of Ukraine.
Donets focuses on the fact that now almost everyone is accepted as a lawyer, and this is deforming the professional level of the community: “The number of lawyers has doubled since Izovitova’s arrival. But this does not mean quality. Here, certificates are not just given to those who were thrown out even by the law enforcement system or the courts - former prosecutors, police officers, for whom even the heads of these bodies had questions. And this has been going on for the last 10 years. And society must understand that it is these lawyers, to whom there are no questions, who go to court to defend the “FSB in robes,” notes Donets.
Pressure on those lawyers who defend the profession and do not agree with the current state of affairs in the legal profession became possible after an article was introduced into the rules of legal ethics under the current leaders, prohibiting lawyers from criticizing the self-governing bodies of the legal profession.
How to change the situation?
Currently, the “Law on Advocacy and Advocacy” is in force in Ukraine. And it would be worth making changes to this law in order to demonopolize the situation. Artem Donets speaks about this: “There are many universities in Ukraine that graduate doctors. Just imagine that there is one single organization that gives permission for a graduate to be a doctor or not. And we have only one such organization of lawyers. There must be several associations, and they must have a body responsible for controlling access to the profession.”
Such issues are the responsibility of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, which is headed by Denis Maslov, as well as a specialized subcommittee chaired by Vladimir Vatras. Both people's deputies are “servants of the people.”
Vatras notes that one should not label a constitutional institution based only on the assessments of individual dissatisfied representatives on social networks. The deputy notes that specific decisions of the Association should be studied and advises lawyers to go to court: “The Association and its head Lidiya Izovitova do not make decisions to hold lawyers accountable. According to the Law “On the Bar and Legal Activities,” this refers to the powers of the qualification and disciplinary commissions of the regional bar, operating according to the procedure defined by law. And these commissions are not formed by the center, but are chosen by the lawyers themselves in the regions. The Higher Qualification and Disciplinary Commission reviews the decision of the regional qualification and disciplinary commission upon receipt of a complaint. But its decisions can also be appealed in court. That is, the final control over the fairness of decisions taken is always exercised by the court.”
As for the current law, Vatras notes that it was adopted back in 2012 and is European integration, and its compliance with high standards was confirmed by the Venice Commission, but adds: “It is true that certain provisions of the law need to be improved: strengthening advocacy, introducing a simplified system taxation for lawyers."
Lawyer Kostin appeals: the leadership of the Association, which has remained unchanged for 10 years, clearly embodies the expression “Everything is for friends, but the law is for enemies.” The front-line lawyer adds: any conference without the consent of the leadership of the National Association is considered illegal by them.
“Therefore, Mr. Vatras’s statement is intended “for dummies.” In essence, justice reform is taking place without reform of the legal profession. And the legal profession is part of the justice system. This is stated in the Constitution. But this is not only about the legal profession, but also about the fact that in order to preserve statehood we need to overcome the fifth column of pro-Russian forces. To do this, it is necessary to create a temporary commission of inquiry, the purpose of which is to investigate the influence of pro-Russian forces on the legal profession system and corruption schemes (budgets - hundreds of millions). And this must be done immediately! There must be a new legislative initiative, and work is already underway on it,” says Kostin.
Due to the fact that the parliament has not yet developed a high-quality legislative framework, and Medvedchuk has influenced the legal profession, problems with judicial reform have been systematically arising in Ukraine for several decades. But the legal profession cannot develop qualitatively and independently.
Executive Director of the NGO “Lawyer of the Future” Daria Pisarenko confirms that changing legislation is extremely necessary: “Despite the fact that the legal profession is self-governing, the state can change the legislation. What is needed here is an initiative from the bar itself - the voice of a critical number of lawyers heard by parliament. However, even now it is possible and worth changing the situation. Now our self-governing bodies of the legal profession are out of date. In fact, the Bar is perhaps the only self-governing institution in Ukraine that, citing martial law, does not hold elections and continues its powers. The prosecutor's office elected self-government bodies. A new High Council of Justice has been elected, in which, by the way, there are no representatives only from the legal profession, because elections have not been held. There are many reasons. Changes that can only be made by the proactive majority of the legal profession. This is influenced by many factors, in particular the presence of an article in the Rules of Advocate Ethics, which actually prohibits criticizing the self-governing bodies of the legal profession.”
