The draft Code of Ethics for Legal Business became the subject of a public online discussion held by the Ukrainian Bar Association on July 14, 2023. The event was open to everyone; not only Ukrainian, but also foreign lawyers were able to join it.

At the beginning of the meeting, Olga Vorozhbyt, an attorney who participated in the development of the draft Code, said that the working group for the development of the draft, created on the basis of the UBA, consisted of representatives of Ukrainian and international legal businesses and representatives of these businesses’ clients.

"We collected information about what worries lawyers, clients, state bodies in working with lawyers, law firms’ employees, interns, law students the most, that is, about those real-life situations that are most pressing, that most need to be resolved, because there are currently no mechanisms for solving them," said Ms. Vorozhbyt.

According to her, the work on the draft Code lasted one and a half years. There were at least two rounds of receiving feedback from lawyers about the draft, but its current version is the result of working out only the first round so far, emphasized Olga Vorozhbyt. She thanked everyone who submitted their comments and suggestions to the draft.

After that, Ms. Vorozhbyt presented the text of the draft Code to the audience online and commented on its points that require special attention. The participants of the discussion had the opportunity to ask questions and express their opinion on specific provisions of the draft.

At the end of the meeting, Olga Vorozhbyt noted that the final text of the draft Code, revised taking into account all the comments and remarks received, will be made public, and on August 2, 2023, the Code will be submitted to the UBA Legal Assembly for approval.

You can watch the video of the presentation below.