You're reading: Tips on skills needed to be a top-flight lawyer in Ukraine

Just a decade ago, a foreign education automatically opened doors to Ukraine’s leading law firms. Now it’s no longer enough.

Growing numbers of job seekers mean law firms can raise the hurdle for applicants, who often compete with up to 30 people for a single position, according to rabota.ua, a leading online recruitment site.
So what’s the key to a successful legal career?

The top lawyers and human resource specialists see it as a combination of solid education, useful experience, personal skills and a great desire for self-development.

Oleh Malskyy, partner at AstapovLawyers, believes that any lawyer aiming to work in international companies should find the time and money for at least one year of studies abroad.

After graduating from Lviv National University and the World Trade Institute in Switzerland, Malskyy decided to continue his education at Georgetown University in the United States in 2005, at his own expense.

“During only one year spent in the U.S. I learned more than in five years of studies in Ukraine,” Malskyy said. The Georgetown courses, Malskyy added, were based on real life case studies and were thus extremely practical, a feature that Ukrainian schools often lack.

Despite the significant differences between the American and Ukrainian legal systems, he believes studying abroad is very helpful in understanding global legal trends, which comes in handy no matter the jurisdiction. “For a lawyer studying in the U.S. or England is a journey to the future,” Malskyy said. “Many (legal) problems that have already become a part of history there are still new to us,” he added.
Malskyy said that after returning to Ukraine his U.S. education helped him understand and communicate with foreign clients. The knowledge of basic legal principles helped him navigate Ukraine’s often changing legislation.

Yet others, like Olyana Gordiyenko, counsel at international law firm Baker & McKenzie, prefer not to interrupt their careers with a year abroad. Gordiyenko got an early start, coming to Baker & McKenzie in her fourth year at Shevchenko National University.

“It was more efficient for me to stay at Baker and practice than to go abroad and interrupt constant work with local legislation,” she said. “No masters of law degree can replace experience.”

Instead, Gordiyenko complemented her day-to-day practice with active participation in various international law debates and practice court sessions. This extracurricular student activity, which she calls “brain exercises,” allowed her to develop her English language and logic skills.”

Nonetheless, Gordiyenko admits that international master programs (or LLMs) can be useful as they allow students to learn about fundamental legal concepts not covered by Ukrainian curriculum.
Employers themselves don’t place too much weight on prestigious foreign degrees. Natalia Brovchenko, HR director of rabota.ua, says experience has now become the selling point for job applicants who want to get into the top law firms. “(What counts is) their record, cases they covered, how fast they solve them and even the contacts they have in the state services,” she said.

Brovchenko believes that if an employer has to choose between two applicants, one with an excellent foreign education and the other with solid experience, 9 out of 10 would go for experience. “So what if the person has U.S. education? Are they able to apply this knowledge in the Ukrainian reality?” she asked.

Still, Malskyy believes an American education would be extremely useful for someone contemplating a career at his firm, and advises colleagues to take a year off to study in the U.S.

Gordiyenko insists it is not the diploma, but logic, diligence and attitude towards work that are the key to a successful career. “If a person has a great interest and desire for the job, it’s very good to work with him or her,” she said. “It is very valuable.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]