Develop Among the Best! – Tomorrow’s Lawyer Professional Development Program Launch
KIEV – 10 November 2016. Tomorrow’s Lawyer – the first nationwide professional development program for lawyers, intended to improve quality of legal services as well as to support effective implementation of justice sector reforms and ethical legal profession in Ukraine has been officially presented today.
The program will be implemented by the Ukrainian Bar Association (UBA) and the Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers (BALAP) supported by the “Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine” (QALA) Project funded by the Government of Canada, implemented by the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) in cooperation with the Coordination Centre for Legal Aid Provision.
The key modules of the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” include client management, interaction with colleagues – procedural opponents in court, communication within the legal community as well as public relations and media. Education is designed to be free of charge for all advocates.
The program is open for advocates from all over Ukraine, who have experience of advocacy for more than two years, actively engaged in social activities, involved in the facilitation of legal aid provision in Ukraine, possessing own vision and ideas of justice sector reforms and willing to dedicate to the improvement of the legal system of Ukraine.
The shortlisting of participants will be carried out through a questionnaire and, if necessary, followed by an interview. Applications for the first pilot project will be accepted up to 9 December 2016, inclusive. The start of the training program is scheduled for February 2017 and will take place in four cities – Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv.
“For eight years of proactive work in the Ukrainian Bar Association, we presented and implemented plenty of interesting projects. However, the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” will be the largest. During the first wave of the program, we will select 100 advocates from all over Ukraine, who will go through four training sessions within a year. Therefore, I appeal to all advocates, regardless of their city of residence, to apply for the program. We will make sure that the maximum number of advocates from regions took part in the training. While advocates from Kyiv will face a serious competition challenge”, – the UBA President Denys Bugay was quoted as saying – “The main criterion for the program will be the applicant’s readiness to become an agent of change and a leader of tomorrow”.
“The difference between this program and other educational initiatives is that it will contain nothing of substantive and procedural law, nothing of what advocates are being taught in high school. Instead, advocates will be able to master the so-called “soft skills” necessary to become successful and effective in the profession, to grow as leaders in the legal community” – said the Program Manager Andriy Vyshnevsky. He believes that the program “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” has emerged in a response to the new requirements and challenges faced by the Ukrainian legal society. “Nowadays, advocates shall act not only as effective providers of legal aid, they should formulate their position on the on-going reforms in the legal sphere, and be able to effectively communicate their position”, – added Mr. Vyshnevsky.
According to Andriy Vyshnevsky, given that this is a “pilot” project, there are no ready answers to all questions. Therefore, the program is sensitive to the needs of the audience. The selection of trainers, as well as the participants, will take place during the program. Trainers will be the top Ukrainian experts, including business coaches, consultants, psychologists, lawyers, attorneys, university teachers.
Chairman of the Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers Victoriya Mitko stressed that all parties to the justice process are colleagues and all serve the same purpose – the Rule of law. “It is vital to pass into effective cooperation between the legal community and law enforcement agencies. That is why the program is designed to select those advocates who perceive the need of constant professional development. Advocate’s role extends far beyond 9.00 to 18.00 working hours. Today, advocates are recognized not only by a deep knowledge of substantive and procedural law. First of all, they should worship the values of honor, dignity and respect”, – she said.
“In our project “Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine Project”, funded by the Government of Canada, we believe that the quality of legal aid in Ukraine depends not only on legal expertise of advocates, but also on their competence, ability to unite and collaborate with colleagues, share experiences, promote best practices in human rights protection”, – the Project Manager Oksana Kikot described the reasons of supporting the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” program.
She also informed that the program was developed with the involvement of experts from the Canadian Bar Association, who visited Ukraine last spring in order to study the demand of advocates in learning and development, and who have years of experience in developing similar training programs. “We hope that this program will also facilitate the networking and exchange of experience between the legal communities of Canada and Ukraine, and in the long term – to improve access to justice for the whole population of Ukraine”, – said Oksana Kikot.
The initial presentation of the “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” concept was held in Kyiv on 1 June 2016 revealing the results of a number of evaluation sessions held by the Canadian Bar Association experts in Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa in the spring of 2016.
For more information please visit “Tomorrow’s Lawyer” official web-site: http://tomorrowslawyer.org/
