Interview with: Kostyantyn Hloba, The Head (Partner), Barristers Bar Association

the Head of the Barristers Law Firm explains how the firm is adapting to Ukrainian war reality and clients’ changing needs.

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Barristers Bar Association from your competitors?

Barristers Law Firm specializes in assisting companies and their management at all stages of criminal proceedings, mostly related to corruption, fraud, cybercrime, money laundering, embezzlement or tax evasion. We have successful experience in protecting officials, banking institutions, government and law enforcement agencies, top managers of private enterprises and government agencies, people`s deputies and public figures. In addition to criminal protection, we also represent the interests of victims in securing their rights in criminal proceedings, including on a pro bono basis.

The peculiarity of our company is that we provide a comprehensive approach to business. Our lawyers are knowledgeable in the field of compliance and conduct their own corporate investigations, including in order to prosecute unscrupulous partners and / or employees. To achieve the maximum result, we have certified narrow-profile specialists, including fraud specialists, mediators, compliance officers, corporate secretaries.

In addition, we are distinguished from others by perseverance and the ability to go to the end. Thus, a client of our partners Andrii Levkovets and Kostiantyn Globa was acquitted posthumously. (Such a procedure is not provided for by Ukrainian law). So, our lawyers have created a precedent and established justice and preserved the client’s reputation.

The results of our work include many acquittals. For instance, the client was charged under part 2 of Art. 121 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, our lawyers achieved a complete acquittal of the client, the court decision in favor of the client was upheld in the highest court.

The next case related to the fact that the client was charged under Part 3 of Art. 369 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, however, as a result of the our work, this case went through all the court instances and resulted in an acquittal.

No less interesting is the case of a US citizen who lived on the territory of Ukraine and was accused of violating the rules of transporting goods across the customs border of Ukraine.

Our lawyers proved the client’s innocence, obtained an acquittal, the appellate and cassation instances left such a decision of the court of first instance unchanged.

Thanks to our team’s efforts, one more case was resolved, which concerned officials of a legal entity, who were charged under part 2 of Art. 367; Part 5 of Art. 191; Part 1 of Art. 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, however, as a result of our legal assistance, they were found innocent.

Thus, our most important principles in our work are systematicity, the desire to make a significant contribution to the rule of law and to implement the tasks of criminal justice, so that no innocent person is accused or convicted, no person is subjected to unjustified procedural coercion, and that every participant in criminal proceedings is applied due process of law.

When the war in Ukraine started, some clients of our law firm were mobilized into the Armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian legislation, particularly the criminal procedure code, was changed regarding the suspension of the trial for the duration of the military service of the accused. For the first time, the court suspended the proceedings on the grounds of mobilization in a case in which the Barristers’ lawyers are defenders. So, we not only analyze legislative innovations, but also initiate their application in practice.

We also help our army in the ‘legal front’ pro bono: provide soldiers and their families with consultations on military legal issues for free.

We establish international cooperation with a great amount of entities and associations in order to bring the Ukrainian legal market to a new, more progressive level.

Also, the Barristers team keeps up with the times, we promote legal education reform. For this reason, we join student legal movements as mentors. Barristers was awarded by ELSA (The European Law Students’Association) Ukraine for the significant contribution to the development of legal studies and support of all initiatives in ELSA’s Bilateral Legal Research Group on Crimanal Law.

The specificity of our law firm is that the providing legal assistance in criminal proceedings goes far beyond Ukrainian national courts: it includes litigation in the International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights, as well as courts of other jurisdictions.

 

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

The vast majority of consultations we have been providing since February, 24, 2022 and continue to provide now are connected with the war:

• • collecting evidence of Russian war crimes against civilians and civilian objects with further appeals with relevant statements to both national authorities and international institutions;
  • preparing analytical materials both for individuals and legal entities with explanations of legislative change;
  • business relocation both to west regions of Ukraine and abroad;
  • features of crossing the border with children;
  • document flow and features of taxation and business lending during the war
  • conditions of admissibility of restriction of human rights under martial law
  • free lectures on algorithms for compensation for damaged or destroyed property due to missile strikes
  • internal displacement and related legal relationships

The next step is to help business to attract investments in Ukraine and to expand and support the activities of Ukrainians who have gone abroad and need support more than ever, including legal support. That can include contractual relations, customs issues, obtaining permits and licenses, issues related to real estate, inheritance and family matters and, of course, issues of business registration.

 

What’s the main change you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients?

Partners of the Barristers Law Firm always focuse on building a “non-name” management model. That is, the structure of our law firm consists of appropriate self-sufficient teams and their leaders, where in essence each leader is able to participate in the management of the firm.

Thus, any changes in the partnership composition never lead to radical changes in management and, as a result, the firm is always ready for the most difficult challenges, including those such as war and its consequences.

In fact, we have implemented structural changes in the firm with the goal of enabling each partner and employee to be self-sufficient. Each partner formed his own team, and team leaders have their own work algorithms. Of course, each team is generally subject to the general principles of the company’s work, but they can independently attract customers, independently conduct business with their teams, independently develop work algorithms, which led to the formation of greater independence in the team and, as a result, led to the strengthening of the firm in general, as the firm is now consists of self-sufficient teams that work in symbiosis with each other and can work independently.

 

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

The most notable are the following legal cases of Barristers:

1. 1. The Barristers team volunteered to help launch Ukraine’s first local military administration.
      On March 21, 2022, the President of Ukraine by his Decree № 156/2022 ordered the establishment of the Gostomel local military administration of the Bucha district of the Kyiv region.
      This is the first local military administration in Ukraine, ie the first military administration at the municipal level.
      The professional experience of our lawyers was useful in organizing the work of the military administration, which has no analogues among local governments.
   2. The Barristers team has joined to the volunteer movement #АдвокатиЗСУ (translated as the lawyers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine) initiated under the auspices of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and supported by the Minister of Justice. All the lawyers of our law firm still help servicemen and their families by providing qualified legal assistance in various areas of law.
   3. We not only analyze legislative innovations, but also initiate their application in practice.
      For the first time, the court suspended the proceedings on the grounds of mobilization in a case in which Barristers’ lawyers are defenders.
   4. In cooperation, Barristers signed a tripartite memorandum with 8-ма окрема рота “ДГВ” ДФТГ “Легіон Д” and Дарницька районна в місті Києві державна адміністрація. We have established a legal service as part of the voluntary formation of the territorial community in order to increase the legal awareness of territorial defense fighters about their legal status, social guarantees and legal responsibility, as well as the use of weapon. Classes with Barristers attorneys are included in the volunteer training plan.
   5. We also signed a memorandum with one of the leading law firms in Poland – Kancelaria Prawna Sawaryn i Partnerzy in order to expand the range of legal services and their territory. As part of the cooperation, they took part in the Innovation Summit in Eastern Europe and the largest startup event in Poland – Wolves Summit 2022.
   6. Barristersʼ lawyer joined the project `Yurfem: Support` Асоціація жінок-юристок України “ЮрФем” (Association of Women Lawyers of Ukraine `YurFem`) to provide legal assistance to victims of sexual violence during the occupation pro bono.

 

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

As I mentioned before, we establish international cooperation with a great amount of entities and associations in order to bring the Ukrainian legal market to a new, more progressive level. Such international cooperation can help our client to get legal assistance abroad.

BARRISTERS law firm has launched the only cybersecurity practice in Ukraine, and carries out «penetration testing» for companies/

We help our clients – business organizations to attract foreign investments by improving clients’ business processes and bringing them into line with international standards.

 

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

Today, the era of lawyers who perform work for the client only within the limits of the client’s request is already passing. We are already moving away from the process of “completed the request for legal work – completed the case”. We build the complex model of a social connection between the law firm and business/clients. In general, changes in legislation, changes in the work of state bodies every time complicate the algorithms of legal assistance, which imposes on the law firm the need not only to improve the quality of services, but also to change strategic approaches to work with the client and business.

A law firm today must meet the status of a business partner, and not just be a law firm to fulfill a job request. We must be a partner for the client and the business, a firm that understands what values the client and business live by, that understands the client’s requests not only from the point of view of the specific problem the client came with, but also globally. The firm must understand what goals the client and the business set for themselves, and only providing legal assistance with a full understanding of the business and its client in such conditions will provide a real result and add value to the relationship between the firm and the client.

The Barristers law firm emphasize personal qualities in work of the team leaders and the team members as a whole. Such approach creates the future of the legal market and the Barristers law firm as well.

Today there is a market demand for stability points. The Barristers law firm gives clients stability and reliability