Prospects for the creation of a single SRO arbitration manager

What challenges can the professional community face when merging into a single SRO?

The first challenge is legal: entry into force of the Code of Bankruptcy Procedures. After all, as long as it is unsigned for an unprecedented long time, the situation remains uncertain. Therefore, the very fact and the procedure for the creation of a single SRO are now in question.

The next challenge is the lack of transparency and secrecy of the election of SRO leaders. No one would like to get an SRO that does not enjoy respect of the professional community. Despite the fact that the community leaders, so-called stakeholders, are known to almost everybody, no candidate for the leadership of the SRO has been proposed and no candidate is being publicly discussed.

Well, the third challenge is a risk of division within the profession, attempts at discrediting certain arbitration managers (perhaps this is precisely why nobody dares to publicly declare his or her candidacy). Against the background of the desire of the Ministry of Justice to retain a significant impact on the profession, it is not excluded that there is an attempt at using the instrument of disciplinary penalties against the most "inconvenient" candidates in order to prevent them from participating in the leadership of the SRO.

Will this union be easy? 
Paradoxically, as this may sound, the "union", as it is defined by the law, may divide the profession by making individual groups of arbitration managers quarrel in the process of distribution of positions. The very procedure is not described in detail, which leaves a lot of space for manipulation. To prevent this, it is now necessary to start the procedure of discussion of future leaders, to launch discussion of ideas and visions rather than competition of influence.

 

 

What should the future SRO engage in to avoid turning into a formal / punitive body? What are the five main tasks to be resolved in order to revive the prestige of the profession of the arbitration manager and to make this professional field more transparent and honest?

There are numerous bodies that are ready to punish arbitration managers, to create obstacles to their activities, and there is no one who would stand for the interests of this profession important for the judiciary and for the economy. Therefore, the main goal of the SRO is to protect interests of the profession of the arbitration manager, to defend them both at the state level and in specific cases.

As for the top five tasks, they are:

•  Establishment of institutional independence from the state, mainly from the Ministry of Justice.
• Creation of trust in the SRO and its management on part of all market participants.
• Development of and adherence to unified ethical standards of the profession.
• Lobbying of financial interests of arbitration managers (development and introduction of mechanisms for paying decent remuneration, mitigating tax regime, etc.).
• Formation of, voicing out and advocacy of a single position of arbitration managers in the process of reforming bankruptcy law, implementation of the current protection of rights and interests of arbitration managers.

 

Should the position of the head of the future SRO be electoral? How much should one cadence last?

Of course, rotation in the SRO management should take place within a reasonable of period time (optimally 2 - maximum 3 years). In addition, the SRO leader should have only representation and coordination functions, because when one is going to take the position, he or she must be deprived of the temptations of usurpation of influence and think only of how to maximally develop the profession within the time given to them by their colleagues. There is no direct influence on the disciplinary liability of arbitration managers or on access to the profession. The functions to decide on those questions, in turn, should be concentrated in a collegial body for a short time. 

The portrait of an ideal arbitration manager: what is your vision?
Independent, skilled, hardworking (a kind of "mediator engine" of the whole process), sufficiently paid, caring about his name and honor of the profession. The main thing is that the arbitration manager must sincerely love his job, because this thing is indispensable!