On August 30, 2024, the Ukrainian Bar Association presented the results of the project "Supporting the Reform of the Classificatory and Developing Standards for the Legal Profession", implemented by the UBA with the support of the USAID Justice for All Program.

The event was attended by about 100 participants (offline and online), which indicates a high level of interest of the legal community. Among the offline participants there were 30 women and 18 men, which demonstrates significant gender equality.

The participants of the event got acquainted with the Project, activities and initiatives introduced during its implementation, key achievements and challenges, and discussed the next steps necessary for comprehensive reform of the legal profession in Ukraine.

The event was opened by Inna Krushynska, UBA Board Member, Project Expert responsible for preparing the draft Professional Standards for Legal Advisors, Legal Director at Fozzy Group. She said that in 2022-2023, the UBA held a series of discussions on the National Classificatory of Occupations in terms of the legal profession. In the course of these discussions, an opinion was expressed on the need to amend the Classificatory.

“Today, it is important that the Classificatory be a systematic list of professions, comply with international standards to ensure accounting and comparison of professions both at the national level and in the global labor market,” said Ms. Krushynska.

She added that the Project started in September 2023 and included two areas — the development of proposals for amendments to the Classificatory in terms of the legal profession and the development of professional standards for Judges, Prosecutors, and Legal Advisors.

Inna Krushynska thanked the partners and stakeholders involved in the Project, members of the working groups who worked on the draft professional standards. She emphasized that the Project was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Justice for All Program.

David Vaughn, Chief of Party of the USAID Justice for All Activity, thanked the UBA for its fruitful cooperation and efforts to develop draft professional standards and proposals for changes to the Classificatory.

“Our Activity promotes strong ties between legal education and the legal profession. Together with the UBA, we are working to launch an online platform to create internship opportunities for law students. The recommendations and draft professional standards developed by the UBA are an important step towards further development of such ties, as professional standards will influence the further development of legal education standards,” said Mr. Vaughn.

Amanda Fagerblom, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Team Lead, Office for Democracy and Governance USAID/Ukraine, emphasized that USAID supports the implementation of all standards and promotes initiatives that will help Ukrainian lawyers in their future work.

Dariia Andriunina, Head of Department of Employment, Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, noted that during the summer of 2024, the Department held several meetings with the UBA to discuss proposals for amendments to the Classificatory in terms of the legal profession. According to her, these discussions resulted in more than 100 proposals. Ms. Andriunina also expressed confidence that this fall the participants of the process will reach a certain common result.

Taras Mandziy, member of the National Qualifications Agency, emphasized the need to update the Classificatory in line with European standards and ensure its relevance in the face of current challenges. He emphasized that the Classificatory should be adaptive to future changes.

Inna Plakhtii, Member of the High Council of Justice of Ukraine, noted that professional standards are important for ensuring the operation of justice, protection of rights and freedoms — in particular, reducing the risk of abuse of law — increasing the level of professional responsibility, as well as for training and development of personnel, including new educational programs and advanced training of legal professionals.

Olesia Otradnova, Director of the Prosecutor`s Training Center of Ukraine, PhD, said that the Prosecutor General's Office is currently implementing a pilot project to assess the quality of prosecutors' work based on standards.

Kateryna Pyshchyk, Ukrainian Bar Association, Project Manager, presented a general overview of the Project. According to her, although discussions on amending the Classificatory have been taking place for a long time, the first draft of comprehensive recommendations for reforming the National Classificatory of Occupations in terms of the legal profession was prepared in September-November 2023. In November and December 2023, these recommendations were presented at 6 regional online meetings with the participation of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, notaries, legal advisers, and legal scholars. More than 200 legal professionals from all over Ukraine joined the discussions.

In addition, during January-April 2024, the UBA received comments and suggestions on improving the prepared amendments to the Classificatory from key stakeholders. In particular, valuable recommendations were received from the Prosecutor General's Office, the High Council of Justice, the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and the Council of Judges of Ukraine. Based on the collected comments and suggestions, a number of additions were made to the draft amendments.

The Ukrainian Bar Association has carried out substantial work on developing proposals for the reform of the Classifier in the legal profession segment and aligning it with the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 08). However, in July 2024, it became known that preparations are currently underway to amend the existing Classifier, which is based on the methodological principles of the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO 88). In light of this, the UBA conducted an additional round of meetings and communications with the Supreme Court, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the High Council of Justice, and the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, and presented expert recommendations to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, reflecting proposals for improving the current Classifier.

Kateryna Pyshchyk also spoke about the development of draft professional standards, i.e. approved requirements for employee qualifications and competence.

More than 30 leading experts, including representatives of the judiciary (judges, representatives of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, High Council of Justice, High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, Council of Judges of Ukraine, National School of Judges of Ukraine), the Prosecutor General's Office, higher education institutions, and international organizations, were involved in the development of the draft professional standards for Judges, Prosecutors, and Legal Advisors. Such broad stakeholder participation ensures a thorough approach to standardization and consideration of the interests of all key players in the legal profession.

As part of the work on the standards, we conducted:

• two surveys among members of the legal community, which covered more than 500 representatives of these legal professions;
• online presentations of interim developments;
• public discussion of draft professional standards;
• repeated online presentations of the draft professional standards.

According to Ms. Pyshchyk, the following steps are expected in the future:

• approval of draft professional standards by a representative all-Ukrainian association of trade unions at the sectoral level;
• verification by the National Qualifications Agency of compliance with the requirements of the procedure during the preparation of draft professional standards;
• approval of professional standards.

The developed proposals for amendments to the Classificatory in terms of the legal profession were presented by Andrii Boiko, Chief Expert of the Project, Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Chair of the Sub-Commission on the Specialty "Law" of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

Alla Lesko, Ph.D. in Law, Emeritus Judge, Project Expert responsible for preparing the draft Professional Standards for Judges, Zera Kozlieva, Senior Legal Advisor at Truth Hounds, a former Deputy Head of the Department for Supervision of Criminal Proceedings in Crimes Committed in the Context of Armed Conflict, Prosecutor General's Office, Project Expert responsible for preparing the draft Professional Standards for Prosecutors, and Inna Krushynska, Legal Director at Fozzy Group, UBA Board Member, Project Expert responsible for preparing the draft Professional Standards for Legal Advisors, presented the drafts of the relevant professional standards.

The presentation was followed by a roundtable discussion.

The video of the event can be viewed below

All materials are available below:

• Proposals to the National Classificatory of Occupations: link.
• Draft Professional Standards for Judges: link.
• Draft Professional Standards for Prosecutors: link.
• Draft Professional Standards for Legal Advisors: link.
• Cabinet Resolution No. 373 of May 31, 2017 "On Approval of the Procedure for the Development, Implementation, and Review of Professional Standards": link.
• Methodological Recommendations for Developing Professional Standards: link.

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This event was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the USAID Justice for All Activity.

Tags: UBA projects