Venue (#07-08 July-August 2016)

ECA is back in Ukraine

For 10 years the CIS Local Counsel Forum was a travelling professional venue, gathering legal professionals in different capitals of newly independent states. In the past year the conference was renamed to ECA (Europe — Caucasus — Asia) Forum and in Tbilisi was officially presented as new regional forum of the International Bar Association.

Thus, the ECA Forum has refreshed its chairs, program, and under the IBA umbrella for 15-19 June came back to Ukraine — to Kiev and Lviv.

Within the framework of showcasing Ukraine as a host country, the panel was made up of practicing lawyers who moved to state service. Oleksiy Filatov, Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Administration, apart from legislative and institutional changes pointed to the shift in mentality as a key driver of judicial reform. Pavlo Moroz, Deputy Minister of Justice, said that the evaluation of the recent reform in enforcement proceeding and service could be done in two years. Denys Bugay, President of the Ukrainian Bar Association, underlined open and frank public discussions around reform initiative and opportunity to be on the forefront of recent changes.

The ECA region panel of law firm partners put the spotlight on the latest developments in the legal business across a number of jurisdictions. Reporting on Ukraine, Olga Prosyanyuk, managing partner of AVER LEX, noted the departure of international law firms, new generation of partners in local legal counsels, strengthening positions of Big 4 companies and the role of legal departments and GCs. Leonid Tolstov, partner, Tark Grunte Sutkiene/VARUL (Estonia), dwelt on exciting developments on the legal market of the Baltic States. In particular, in the last couple of years Baltic firms have faced the process of splits and amalgamations, resulting in establishment of four large leading Baltic firms. Konstantin Mikhel, partner, Vlasova, Mikhel & Partners (Belarus) described the market after the reform of advocacy in 2013 entailing advocates’ monopoly. The preliminary ratio of advocates and lawyers at present is 60:40. He said the structure of the legal market is featured by the dominant positions of national counsels. In addition, Belarus maintains regulatory barriers for entry of foreign law firms to its market.

The program of the forum touched upon hot issues in international arbitration in the ECA region, women in the legal profession, lobbying services of law firms. The Lviv program covered outsourcing infrastructure and business migration. And what is more, participants were totally excited by the special cultural program, a fashion show, a football match and a tour of the Carpathian Mountains.

 

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