Official Opening of Tomorrow’s Lawyer Program

On 17 February 2017 the official opening of the Tomorrow’s Lawyer program took place. It is the first nationwide professional development program for lawyers. The aim of the program, its implementation methods and the key elements were revealed to the public.

Participants of the program had the opportunity to meet each other and the developers, trainers and experts of the training course and learn about the experience of cooperation between the legal communities of Ukraine and Canada in the field of professional development. 

The moderator of the event was Andriy Vyshnevsky, Head of the Tomorrow’s Lawyer program. Participants were greeted by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada in Ukraine Roman Vashchuk, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko, President of the Ukrainian Bar  Association Denys Bugay, Director, Head of the International Development, the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine Karim Morkos, Vice President of the Canadian Bureau for International Education director of the “Quality and Accessible Legal Aid in Ukraine” Project Larissa Bezo, Professional Development Expert of the Canadian Bar Association Sheila Redel, Head of the NGO “Bar Association of Legal Aid Providers” Vikoriya Mitko.

During the opening ceremony, Andriy Vyshnevsky noted that the presence and engagement of professional, competent and honest representatives of the legal profession play a key role in strengthening the legal aid system in Ukraine. As a result of the Tomorrow’s Lawyer program, Ukrainian lawyers will have the opportunity to learn from the best Canadian experience and enhance their professional skills. “We are convinced that this Program will contribute to the strengthening the Rule of Law in Ukraine and justice sector reforms”, Andriy Vyshnevsky noted.

“This is the first of a kind large-scale project for the legal community in Ukraine. This is not just a unique platform for professional development, a social and intellectual investment. More than a year of preparatory work, trips to Canada, a week-long session and a number of strategic meetings with colleagues from Canada, the selection board, processing more than 700 applications, interviews with dozens of potential experts and trainers already behind”, Denys Bugay noted. The Tomorrow’s Lawyer program is intended to create horizontal communication between professionals from all regions of the country to unite the progressive minds of the Bar into a strong network, promoting reforms at both regional and state levels. The main criterion of “tomorrow’s lawyer” is the readiness to become an agent of change and to become a leader of modern times, meet high standards of professional ethics and strong resolve to break corrupt and illegal practices. The Tomorrow’s Lawyer program aims to establish a professional community of lawyers who would become the agents of change with high ethical standards, implement reforms at both local and national levels and be ready to improve the unified standards of legal aid, providing and effectively exercising the Bar’s self-government powers.

The program is being 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 Center for Legal Aid Provision.

In January 2017 the first 111 participants of Tomorrow’s Lawyer program were selected from among 707 applicants to carry on four module training in four cities of Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kharkiv). The training started in Kyiv on 18 February 2017.