(UE). There is a line in William Shakespeare's “Henry VI, Part 2” spoken by Dick the Butcher, which has been exploited for centuries to embellish lawyer jokes, “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”Shakespeare may have been critical of lawyers for excessive fees and frivolous lawsuits, but given the context and the character of Dick the Butcher, the playwright probably portrayed lawyers positively as guardians of the rule of law.
Whichever interpretation one subscribes to, it is indisputable that the profession and its representatives carry significant weight, both good and bad, particularly in developing civil societies predicated on the rule of law which is the underpinning of any democracy.
At a World Congress of Ukrainian jurists in Lviv in 1998 a plenary session was devoted to role of the jurist in a rule of law society. One of the democracy building jurists from Ukraine opined that the role of the lawyer is to ensure law and order in society which probably reflected best the Soviet philosophical bent. Jurists from the West pointed to a different role philosophically, that of protecting society from governmental abuse. This was not surprising since both concepts reflected a rule of law basis. One saw the role as an enforcer of the law, the other as a protector from abuse of the law.
However, much more telling and less sublime were words uttered by the candidate from the Ukrainian side to chair the world organization, Valery Yevdokimov who prevailed ultimately in the electoral process. He stood on the sideline as his and the other candidate's positions were debated. When one lawyer from Lviv not supporting Yevdokimov delivered a particularly scathing critique, Mr. Yevdokimov shouted quite loudly, “You want to live?”
Most people with legal training in Ukraine today are involved in the private practice of law or business. Few are involved in government and fewer still in non governmental organizations. Those involved with NGO's are often quite idealistic, but generally compensated from foreign government grants. “Pro bono” work is generally non-existent. The profession while developing at a rapid pace in numbers remains tarnished by images of past poster boys: Viktor Medvedchuk who represented Vasyl Stus during the Soviet era at the behest of the procurators office and sent the poet to his death; the poorly trained through a correspondence legal program political maverick Olexander Lavrynovich who rose to Minister of Justice rank; and the aforesaid Valery Yevdokimov. Medvedchuk's relationship with Vladimir Putin does not help his image. I hope that I'm wrong but my information is that sixteen years later Mr. Yevdokimov is still the chair of the World Congress of Ukrainian Jurists.
Ukrainian lawyers in the diaspora with few exceptions do not participate all that much in diaspora communities either and their image can certainly be improved. Nor is “pro bono” work a popular item amongst Ukrainian lawyers in Ukraine, where it is virtually unheard of or the diaspora despite the fact that in some states “pro bono” has become a requirement which many attorneys comply with by helping the indigent. Some state bars include in their rules of conduct provisions strongly encouraging lawyers to provide “pro bono” legal services to benefit poor persons. However “pro bono” community service on behalf of the Ukrainian community is scarce.
The response to this should be evident, whether in Ukraine in building a democratic state predicated on the rule on law or in the Ukrainian communities in the diaspora, in strengthening that civil society by assisting its NGO's. Members of the community with legal training and expertise have a major role to play.
What needs to be done? In Ukraine, jurists should become involved in the development of NGO's as the fulcrum for an indispensable civil society as a counterweight to government abuse, including drafting and enacting legislation which would facilitated public and private funding of the NGO society by amending the tax code. In the electoral process more jurists should serve as counsel to organizations such as voter committees. Perhaps most importantly, jurists in Ukraine need to clean up their own profession as lawyers and judges by working scrupulously at eliminating the greatest current problem in Ukraine aside from war, corruption.
In the democratic diaspora lawyers should aid in the formation and recognition of tax benefit status for new NGO's representing new immigrants with new ideas; assist in the securing of assets belonging to the current Ukrainian NGO's which may be in danger of being deemed abandoned for dormancy; make readily available their services to the community involved in assembly and free speech demonstrations which sometimes involve police overreaching; assist in the drafting of briefs and memoranda on subjects such as human rights, state sovereignty and territorial inviolability.
In the non-democratic diaspora such as Russia, I don't have the moral authority to offer suggestions that may be life threatening. Rather, I would suggest that those jurists in the democratic diaspora monitor what happens to and try to come to the aid of their brethren in authoritarian and belligerent environments.
Naturally, all of the above has to be provided “pro bono.”
