In a nation where the average monthly salary is $300, not many can afford a lawyer’s hourly rate. This hard fact excludes most Ukrainians from access to legal representation.
Since the majority of people don’t use lawyers for even the most basic of services, many aren’t aware of their legal rights or how to defend them. Some Ukrainians don’t know how to obtain state subsidies for utilities, apply for alimony payments or how to conduct simple real estate transactions.
Fortunately, the capital’s main legal players realize this. They appear well in tune with the idea of free, or pro bono, work for the neediest people as part of a socially responsible business strategy.
“It’s not hard to organize an event to get the top 50 law firms to provide pro bono activities,” said Valentyn Zagariy, president of the Ukrainian Bar Association.
Zagariy’s 3,000-member organization recently brought together 47 law firms on a Saturday to provide legal services to individuals, civil society organizations and small businesses free of charge.
Some guidelines call on lawyers to give 50 hours of free work per year
Bar association member Asters law firm was one of them.
“While we strongly encourage pro bono practice, it’s not compulsory,” said Asters founding partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy. “It’s amazing how many people don’t know what they’re entitled to. So we play a socially vital role by educating the public.”
Didkovskiy estimates that, by the end of the year, his firm will have devoted at least 3 percent of its case load, or roughly 58 hours per lawyer a year, to do pro bono work.
By comparison, the American Bar Association’s ethical rules state that all lawyers must provide a minimum of 50 hours of pro bono legal work and services per year.
(On the photo: Andy Hunder of Magisters says his firm has represented citizens who suffered from the 2006 Elita Center scam, in which 1,759 condominium buyers lost an estimated $80 million.)
Most law firms in Kyiv take a case-by-case approach when evaluating potential pro bono cases, according to Kyiv Post research. The majority of cases involve consultations and evaluating the rights of a person or legal entity. Occasionally cases are more complicated.
Magisters, a Kyiv-headquartered law group which has expanded across the former Soviet Union in recent years, has represented plaintiffs who suffered from the 2006 Elita Center real estate scam in which 1,759 condominium buyers lost an estimated $80 million.
One lawyer at Magisters took on a case dear to him by representing a young girl who burned herself after falling into a manhole filled with hot water.
But most often they provide consulting work to charities, nonprofit organizations such as museums as well as litigating in court, according to Andy Hunder, Magisters’ international business development director in London.
Some are more exacting in how pro bono cases are allocated.
Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm does annual pro bono budgeting and assesses targets each year.
Founding partner Serhiy Oberkovych said this approach helps the firm to “structure the nature of the work, set the scope of the pro bono program and provide criteria against which requests for assistance can be assessed.”
Experts said the pro bono efforts of law firms remain underutilized.
“Pro bono activities exist in Ukraine, but these are often unorganized ad hoc efforts essentially left to the initiative of the individual attorneys. Without a mechanism making the availability of services known to people in need, it is likely that much of the goodwill generated by pro bono work is underutilized,” said Inna Topal, who oversees the U.S.-sponsored Access to Justice Legal Empowerment project.
Currently, 26 law firms, including Konnov & Sozanovskiy, Spenser & Kauffmann, Lavrynovych & Partners, and AstapovLawyers have joined the project to provide various services.
For instance, AstapovLawyers is helping the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. “AstapovLawyers is one of the few, if not the only, company in the Ukrainian market to be developing an independent human rights protection practice,” said Ivan Lishchyna, a senior associate with AstapovLawyers.
If a matter is of broad public concern, or if a case would not be pursued otherwise, then Oberkovych deems it pro bono worthy. The firm also helps non-profit groups and poor people.
Gvozdiy & Oberkovych has helped people obtain services from the government, in real estate and land disputes, or specialized information based on their intervention. The reasons for providing free legal work are as varied as the services firms provide.
Many mention altruistic reasons of giving back to society, while others mentioned gaining additional experience in a certain legal field, and some said it was their duty.
“We want to do this. We don’t want people who cannot afford legal services at full price to be denied services,” said Taras Rozputenko, senior associate with Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm.
Didkovskiy of Asters believes it makes good business sense and offers a chance to learn new areas of the law.
“We continuously expand our experience and internally build a system of pro bono involvement,” Didkovskiy said of the rewards of doing pro bono. He also noted that the more educated pro bono clients are, the more return clients his firm receives.
On top of pro bono, law firms promote education and volunteering or donate to charities, among other socially responsible activities.
Magisters, for example, has been working directly with an orphanage in Kyiv Oblast for years. It has also for years sponsored mock courtroom competitions among law students and has promoted a paperless campaign in all of its offices.
DLA Piper Ukraine also sponsors a contest among law students who win scholarships and spots in all their global offices and has assisted the Eastern European Foundation in writing a guide on public-private partnerships.
Asters helped the International Chamber of Commerce translate the Uniform Rules on Demand Guarantees, one of the most important documents that govern settlements in international trade.
Another law firm, Illyashev&Partners, assessed Kyiv police behavior in the beating of soccer fans in 2007. They did so on behalf of Ukraine’s football federation, a non-profit organization. It concluded that many police officers behaved illegally.
In terms of legislation, there’s a parliamentary committee working on a pro bono bill that, if passed, would go into force in 2013 and would set up pro bono centers throughout Ukraine operated by the Justice Ministry.
Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
