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EQUITY: United in education

When preparing for the launch of a separate block of innovative educational project of the Legal High School – Criminal Practice School – Ukrainskyi Yuryst spoke with ideological organisers and general partners of the project: headline partners of white сollar сrime practice – Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH , Oleksandr LYSAK and Taras POSHYVANYUK.

Recently, legal market was shocked with the news about bringing new partners to your team –joining of two unique criminal law practitioners – Yaroslav Zeikan and Oleksandr Lysak. And only a few months later, we witnessed the next step – how the most influential pros in the sphere united under the auspices of a new educational project Criminal Practice School. Why did you choose this project to continue the development of practice?

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH : The issue of a sudden increase in the demand for white collar crime defence has been repeatedly discussed at forums on the promotion and development of legal business, in open public interviews with managing partners of companies and, of course, in certain private conversations among market actors at so-called partner clubs. However, not every senior or managing partner makes the audacious move on admitting new partners to a company, especially when it comes to expanding the team "from outside" with independent, ambitious and good standing impeccable professionals in their area. I greatly appreciate that my colleagues not just supported this decision, but made it their purpose to ensure the highest level of quality of service provision and obtaining the most positive results in the process for all clients of this and other areas of the company’s activities. The partners themselves, Yaroslav Zeikan and Oleksandr Lysak, in whom we found the level of values and approaches to the work similar to ours, helped us to implement the choice to strengthen criminal practice in reality. Now that the integration has been successfully completed, the creation and ideological support of a similar educational project – Criminal Practice School – is more than just a follow-up of the development strategy for our team. I believe this was just a matter of time, which of the leading companies will take the first step and start developing not only their own turnkey criminal practice, but step out of the boundaries of one team and set a goal to comprehensively upgrade the style of work of criminal attorneys and the free dissemination of knowledge gained to a new generation of rising stars and experienced practitioners who now, despite their experience in other processes, are considering the new direction of professional development more than ever. 

Does this openness of knowledge dissemination correlate with the team’s internal strategy of HR development? Does EQUITY have any mentorship programmes?

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH: Our internal and external strategy for team development is quite definitive – to be the flagship of the new generation of court and criminal practice market. This strategy provides for ultimate departure from the biased understanding of a criminal attorney (defence counsel) as a monofunctional practitioner representing the interests of a person suspected of committing crimes against human life and health, violent offences, etc. Now, the practice of criminal process is more often mentioned in the context of white collar crime and corruption offences, the defence in which requires a comprehensive approach and specific knowledge, which can be reflected in commercial, administrative and civil proceedings. The so-called super litigation, a term invented by one of our team's partners, is combining, blurring and a complete departure from the understanding of criminal practice as a separate aspect of attorney’s personal development. And our projects and analytical knowledge, which we are now able to pass on to the market and younger generation of practitioners at the School, are aimed at facilitating the development of qualitatively new standards of advocacy and updating the understanding of the status of a defence counsel in the process. This approach is formed based on the common team value in the form of active and responsible leadership, since we believe that the future of attorney’s profession depends precisely on the active leading companies of the country, which, through participation in bar self-government bodies, support for independent attorneys’ associations, their legislative work, as well as many other pro bono and educational projects, will offer their own vision of development of the profession and understanding of attorney’s procedural status and will spread this understanding to a large audience of pioneers, who will form the next 100 best companies very soon. 

As programme’s ideologists and those in charge of project teachers recruitment, please dwell on the new training format and your own experience that you would like to pass on during the project?

Oleksandr LYSAK: If we look close at the largest public criminal proceedings now, faces of almost all defence counsels will most certainly be familiar to us. This is because clients invite those attorneys who have already demonstrated certain results in the process and winning in cases earlier and continue doing so now. Therefore, there is a kind of elite club of practitioners in the country, and becoming one can only be achieved through laborious procedural work and demonstration of a high level of attorney technique. On the other hand, over the past years we have witnessed an expanded use of the term "colleagues" – for example, the expected establishment of the State Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors will only constitute 30% of its staff, and the other part will be our colleagues from the legal and scientific areas. Sure, we have an outflow of personnel to civil service, which is used by politicians to spread the idea that advocacy is something almost anyone can do ("if you cannot become a prosecutor, become an attorney"). In turn we want to depart from this approach and build a truly unique platform that will enable attorneys to provide qualified legal aid aimed only at achieving results in the process. Take the latest publications by Nazar Kholodnytskyi, Head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, that mention which strategy the defence will use to pull out their client. Firstly, it is pleasant for us, since even prosecutors are now discussing building of a line of defence. And secondly, it indicates that the issue of improving the attorneys’ work is relevant and exists in time. 

Taras POSHYVANYUK: In the modern world of rapid changes in the criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine, even experienced attorneys find it difficult to keep track of events. Every day, one should track trends in judicial practice of both national courts and international institutions. Take the active work of the newly established Supreme Court for one! In just a few months of its work, we already have several resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court regarding the practice of considering certain types of criminal offences. During the discussion of foundation of the Criminal Practice School within the Legal High School educational project, we were guided primarily by the need to create a professional platform for the exchange of views on challenges faced by practicing attorneys on a daily basis.

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVYCH: It was not difficult at all for our criminal practice team to determine the topics and professional discussions to be held during the first special course "Defence in the criminal process" of the School's first module. We have been and still are planning to talk about interesting aspects from our own practice gained during personal involvement in criminal proceedings, i.e., the practice that has passed a battle test as regards the relevance of issues and innovative approaches. At the same time, thanks to the interest of other law firms and readiness for an open dialogue between representatives of the judiciary and bodes of the prosecutor's office, we can present to the participants a truly objective, fair and, undoubtedly, professional discussion of all the challenging aspects. I am positive that this approach aiming at openness and professionalism of the discussion will become a key to its success.

It is the criminal cases that are of the profound interest to the public and receive large public response, and, despite all the objections, attorneys in our country are at risk being subjected to pressure and public censure of angry citizens quite often being in a way associated with a client. What is your attitude to this phenomenon?

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH : We continue to witness cases when theory of criminal proceedings entered into the ERDR (Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations) is perceived as a pre-established and proven fact against a person. In addition to the fact that client's business reputation could have been damaged in the past only by headline of an article, now no professional defence counsel and even a prosecutor can be sure to avoid suffering it. The reality of recent years has introduced the active use of the concept of "toxic client" on the market. However, now the active work of investigative and supervisory bodies has gone further, therefore, we expect a new term, "toxic" attorney, to be introduced, since over time not only a certain client, but also his/her defence counsel can be demonised in public opinion, and such negative social image may prevent him/her from practicing law, defend other clients, i.e., performing his/her professional functions. No doubt, the reverse side of the coin is different, which we have repeatedly mentioned: the more an attorney has such "toxic" clients, the less negative affect they have on his/her reputation. Since in this case an attorney acquires the status of expert on defending in complex criminal proceedings, which is of much more importance than being associated as an "attorney of a very famous citizen". Of course, one can pre-evaluate and analyse the potential risks and magnitudes of public response even before starting the work on a case. The only practical advice I can give is that when choosing a client, first of all, one should correlate his/her personal beliefs with internal views, since there must be no ideological differences between a client and an attorney in the long run. It means neither to blindly follow his/her personal will and pieces of advice given by those "close" to such a person, nor to regard his/her accusation as being somehow rated or classified as "untouchable". The public response to a case is, first of all, a professional challenge, and the disharmony of the views of an attorney and a client can result in distrust between them, and namely this, not the public censure, may become the greatest challenge for a defence counsel. After all, it is quite common for us to work amid the white noise of cameras, the main thing is to know who you work with.

Summing up the above, how do you assess the legal market now and what are the prospects for the nearest future? 

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH: Having analysed the retrospective of events of the last few years, I can say that today the legal market is undergoing reformatting. For example, once popular trends, such as demand for accompanying investment activity or provision of legal support in land legal relations, is decreasing. Regretfully, vectors of the legal market development in our country are directed by the economic and political situation. It is these factors that are decisive in shaping the demand for certain types of legal services. Furthermore, we can expect mergers or acquisitions of some law firms with others. This is an evolutionary process, and I see nothing negative in it. On the contrary, the rules of economy dictate their conditions: the strongest player who is able to provide a client with better quality services survives. As to the legal market development, I can say without any doubt that the direction of criminal practice will continue to develop at a tremendous speed. It will be facilitated by the establishment and start of operation of new law enforcement agencies, such as the State Bureau of Investigation, as well as the political situation in the state. However, keeping in mind the trend of super litigation and the widening of boundaries between practices, the development of practices based on coordination with a strong team of litigation attorneys is the strategy that is to be beneficial in the long term.

Does this openness of knowledge dissemination correlate with the team’s internal strategy of HR development? Does EQUITY have any mentorship programmes?

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH : Our internal and external strategy for team development is quite definitive – to be the flagship of the new generation of court and criminal practice market. This strategy provides for ultimate departure from the biased understanding of a criminal attorney (defence counsel) as a monofunctional practitioner representing the interests of a person suspected of committing crimes against human life and health, violent offences, etc. Now, the practice of criminal process is more often mentioned in the context of white collar crime and corruption offences, the defence in which requires a comprehensive approach and specific knowledge, which can be reflected in commercial, administrative and civil proceedings. The so-called super litigation, a term invented by one of our team's partners, is combining, blurring and a complete departure from the understanding of criminal practice as a separate aspect of attorney’s personal development. And our projects and analytical knowledge, which we are now able to pass on to the market and younger generation of practitioners at the School, are aimed at facilitating the development of qualitatively new standards of advocacy and updating the understanding of the status of a defence counsel in the process. This approach is formed based on the common team value in the form of active and responsible leadership, since we believe that the future of attorney’s profession depends precisely on the active leading companies of the country, which, through participation in bar self-government bodies, support for independent attorneys’ associations, their legislative work, as well as many other pro bono and educational projects, will offer their own vision of development of the profession and understanding of attorney’s procedural status and will spread this understanding to a large audience of pioneers, who will form the next 100 best companies very soon. 

As programme’s ideologists and those in charge of project teachers recruitment, please dwell on the new training format and your own experience that you would like to pass on during the project?

Oleksandr LYSAK: If we look close at the largest public criminal proceedings now, faces of almost all defence counsels will most certainly be familiar to us. This is because clients invite those attorneys who have already demonstrated certain results in the process and winning in cases earlier and continue doing so now. Therefore, there is a kind of elite club of practitioners in the country, and becoming one can only be achieved through laborious procedural work and demonstration of a high level of attorney technique. On the other hand, over the past years we have witnessed an expanded use of the term "colleagues" – for example, the expected establishment of the State Bureau of Investigation and prosecutors will only constitute 30% of its staff, and the other part will be our colleagues from the legal and scientific areas. Sure, we have an outflow of personnel to civil service, which is used by politicians to spread the idea that advocacy is something almost anyone can do ("if you cannot become a prosecutor, become an attorney"). In turn we want to depart from this approach and build a truly unique platform that will enable attorneys to provide qualified legal aid aimed only at achieving results in the process. Take the latest publications by Nazar Kholodnytskyi, Head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, that mention which strategy the defence will use to pull out their client. Firstly, it is pleasant for us, since even prosecutors are now discussing building of a line of defence. And secondly, it indicates that the issue of improving the attorneys’ work is relevant and exists in time. 

Taras POSHYVANYUK: In the modern world of rapid changes in the criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine, even experienced attorneys find it difficult to keep track of events. Every day, one should track trends in judicial practice of both national courts and international institutions. Take the active work of the newly established Supreme Court for one! In just a few months of its work, we already have several resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court regarding the practice of considering certain types of criminal offences. During the discussion of foundation of the Criminal Practice School within the Legal High School educational project, we were guided primarily by the need to create a professional platform for the exchange of views on challenges faced by practicing attorneys on a daily basis.

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVYCH: It was not difficult at all for our criminal practice team to determine the topics and professional discussions to be held during the first special course "Defence in the criminal process" of the School's first module. We have been and still are planning to talk about interesting aspects from our own practice gained during personal involvement in criminal proceedings, i.e., the practice that has passed a battle test as regards the relevance of issues and innovative approaches. At the same time, thanks to the interest of other law firms and readiness for an open dialogue between representatives of the judiciary and bodes of the prosecutor's office, we can present to the participants a truly objective, fair and, undoubtedly, professional discussion of all the challenging aspects. I am positive that this approach aiming at openness and professionalism of the discussion will become a key to its success.

It is the criminal cases that are of the profound interest to the public and receive large public response, and, despite all the objections, attorneys in our country are at risk being subjected to pressure and public censure of angry citizens quite often being in a way associated with a client. What is your attitude to this phenomenon?

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH : We continue to witness cases when theory of criminal proceedings entered into the ERDR (Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations) is perceived as a pre-established and proven fact against a person. In addition to the fact that client's business reputation could have been damaged in the past only by headline of an article, now no professional defence counsel and even a prosecutor can be sure to avoid suffering it. The reality of recent years has introduced the active use of the concept of "toxic client" on the market. However, now the active work of investigative and supervisory bodies has gone further, therefore, we expect a new term, "toxic" attorney, to be introduced, since over time not only a certain client, but also his/her defence counsel can be demonised in public opinion, and such negative social image may prevent him/her from practicing law, defend other clients, i.e., performing his/her professional functions. No doubt, the reverse side of the coin is different, which we have repeatedly mentioned: the more an attorney has such "toxic" clients, the less negative affect they have on his/her reputation. Since in this case an attorney acquires the status of expert on defending in complex criminal proceedings, which is of much more importance than being associated as an "attorney of a very famous citizen". Of course, one can pre-evaluate and analyse the potential risks and magnitudes of public response even before starting the work on a case. The only practical advice I can give is that when choosing a client, first of all, one should correlate his/her personal beliefs with internal views, since there must be no ideological differences between a client and an attorney in the long run. It means neither to blindly follow his/her personal will and pieces of advice given by those "close" to such a person, nor to regard his/her accusation as being somehow rated or classified as "untouchable". The public response to a case is, first of all, a professional challenge, and the disharmony of the views of an attorney and a client can result in distrust between them, and namely this, not the public censure, may become the greatest challenge for a defence counsel. After all, it is quite common for us to work amid the white noise of cameras, the main thing is to know who you work with.

Summing up the above, how do you assess the legal market now and what are the prospects for the nearest future? 

Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH .: Having analysed the retrospective of events of the last few years, I can say that today the legal market is undergoing reformatting. For example, once popular trends, such as demand for accompanying investment activity or provision of legal support in land legal relations, is decreasing. Regretfully, vectors of the legal market development in our country are directed by the economic and political situation. It is these factors that are decisive in shaping the demand for certain types of legal services. Furthermore, we can expect mergers or acquisitions of some law firms with others. This is an evolutionary process, and I see nothing negative in it. On the contrary, the rules of economy dictate their conditions: the strongest player who is able to provide a client with better quality services survives. As to the legal market development, I can say without any doubt that the direction of criminal practice will continue to develop at a tremendous speed. It will be facilitated by the establishment and start of operation of new law enforcement agencies, such as the State Bureau of Investigation, as well as the political situation in the state. However, keeping in mind the trend of super litigation and the widening of boundaries between practices, the development of practices based on coordination with a strong team of litigation attorneys is the strategy that is to be beneficial in the long term.

 

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Vyacheslav KRAHLEVICH, Oleksandr LYSAK, Taras POSHYVANYUK