Professional Development Worth Millions: How Izovitova and Gvozdiy Profit from the Attorneys’ School

The leaders of the Bar Council of Ukraine (BCU) and Ukrainian National Bar Association (UNBA), Lidiya Izovitova and Valentyn Gvozdiy, continue to tighten the screws on the work of Ukrainian attorneys, even though their tenures ended in 2022. On July 8, the BCU published a seemingly technical decision No. 34, requiring:

• All attorneys to register a personal account on the Accreditation and Certification Center platform of the High School of Attorneys (HSA) and upload qualification improvement certificates for the years 2019-2023 by August 4;
• All new attorneys to register a personal account on the same platform within a month of receiving an attorney’s license and taking the oath.

What’s Wrong with the So-Called Qualification Improvement?

According to the law “On the Bar and Practice of Law”, attorneys are required to improve their qualifications, yet they can choose how, where, and how much time to devote to their professional development. However, contrary to the law, the BCU has restricted the choice of attorneys and mandated that they improve their qualifications at the HSA, founded by the UNBA. By its regulation on qualification improvement, the Bar Council has effectively established HSA’s monopoly on attorneys’ training. Furthermore, attorneys complain that the seminars organised by the school are not really about professional development but merely sitting through sessions to earn points and meet the requirement (10 hours per year).

Izovitova and Gvozdiy realised long ago that they could easily earn tens of millions of hryvnias per year in this way without even publishing financial reports. From the HSA activity report, it can be estimated that it earns approximately UAH 40 million annually on its courses. A training where an attorney can receive 1 point costs at least UAH 99, and over 40,000 attorneys registered on the HSA platform need 10 such points per year.

What is the True Purpose of the New BCU Decision?

The BCU and UNBA aim to increase control over attorneys who are resisting the illegitimate qualification improvement system. Attorneys who fail to comply with BCU Decision No. 34 will be held accountable by disciplinary bodies controlled by Izovitova. The Bar Council emphasised this in another recently adopted decision.

What Should Professional Development Look Like?

At the same time, the qualification improvement regulation adopted by the BCU should be recognised as contradicting the law on the Bar. It is necessary to return to the decentralised model enshrined in this law, where attorneys autonomously determine how they develop professionally and how much time they devote to it. By the way, this is the model implemented in the United Kingdom.

Once again, the BCU-UNBA acts not in the interests of attorneys but to establish complete control over the community of attorneys and to gain millions from it. The activities of the Bar self-governing bodies should become transparent; their meetings should be broadcast online, and financial reports should be published. Furthermore, the acts of the Bar bodies are made public selectively and with significant delays (BCU Decision No. 34 was enacted on June 8 but was published a month later). This again highlights the need for the Bar reform, as the European Commission and G7 ambassadors noted, but which the Ukrainian authorities have yet to include in their agenda.