Russian lawyers may be deprived of their status if they go abroad

Russian lawyers may be deprived of their status if they go abroad – according to the Federal Chamber of Lawyers (FPA), the government has proposed adding such an amendment to the law “On the Bar.” The rule can be applied if lawyers have not appeared in the Russian Federation for more than a year without a good reason or have decided to permanently reside in another country. Lawyers interviewed by Kommersant fear that such a rule will be used to put pressure on colleagues from abroad who continue to work conscientiously in Russian jurisdiction. FPA Vice-President Oleg Baulin notes: if the amendment is adopted, the decision to terminate the status of a lawyer will remain with his colleagues from the council of the Bar Chamber.

The Federal Chamber of Lawyers reported on its website that the government commission on legislative activities has prepared its amendments to the bill amending the law “On advocacy and the legal profession.” The bill was developed by the Ministry of Justice in dialogue with the FPA and was submitted to the State Duma in February 2023. The bill, in particular, tightened the “requirements for candidate lawyers,” introduced a unified state register of lawyers and regulated the status of the general lawyer information system. In April, deputies passed the bill in the first reading.

According to the FPA, the government commission proposed adding an important provision to the law: “The status of a lawyer is terminated by the council of the bar chamber in the presence of a conclusion from the qualification commission if it is revealed that the lawyer has left the Russian Federation for permanent residence or for a period of more than one year.” Exceptions will be “travel for treatment or training or accompanying family members sent to perform labor or other functions by government bodies or Russian organizations, and travel for other valid reasons.” The FPA cites the explanations of the authors of the amendment: “According to information received by the Russian Ministry of Justice, there are cases when lawyers of the Russian Federation left for a long time or left for permanent residence in foreign jurisdictions, including states unfriendly to the Russian Federation, and continue their activities, including including those aimed at undermining trust in the institution of the legal profession.” Kommersant requested the full text of the proposed amendments from the Ministry of Justice, but has not yet received a response.

Please note that according to the laws of the Russian Federation, only a lawyer can represent a person in criminal proceedings. A lawyer deprived of this status can give advice and deal with civil and administrative cases. However, in recent years, the “lawyer monopoly” has been increasingly discussed, that is, the prohibition of lawyers without the status of lawyer to work directly in court. In particular, in the spring of 2023, Minister of Justice Konstantin Chuychenko, at a legal forum in St. Petersburg, said that the state is ready to introduce such a monopoly – “albeit not absolute” – and would like to gain the right to decide that “this judicial representative (lawyer – “Kommersant”) is not a handshake for us.” At the same time, the minister promised to “think about” how “they will implement this right.”

Lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association Ilya Sidorov believes that such a basis for deprivation of status contradicts Part 2 of Art. 27 of the Constitution, according to which everyone can freely travel outside the Russian Federation. In addition, Russian law does not prohibit citizens of other countries from obtaining the status of lawyer: “For example, in Moscow and the Moscow region there are lawyers with Ukrainian citizenship. There are lawyers who have two or more citizenships and have the status of lawyer both in Russia and in some other country.” Finally, he recalls that a Russian lawyer may provide legal assistance to Russian citizens or companies abroad, and the duration of such litigation and other procedures may exceed one year.

“This amendment can reduce lawyer’s work to specific actions on the territory of the Russian Federation,” adds St. Petersburg lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina (included in the register of foreign agents). “Of course, most of the lawyer’s work is really tied to being in the Russian Federation, but there is some work that can be done abroad”.

However, FPA Vice President Oleg Baulin, in a conversation with Kommersant, hastened to reassure his colleagues. He told Kommersant that deprivation of status certainly does not threaten lawyers who defend the interests of Russian citizens and companies abroad. The departure of a lawyer from Russia for a period of more than a year will not automatically lead to deprivation of status: this will require “the conclusion of the qualification commission of the regional chamber, which will assess the circumstances in connection with which the lawyer left the Russian Federation.” We note, however, that the qualification commissions include not only lawyers, but also representatives of the Ministry of Justice and the judicial system. The final decision on termination of lawyer status must be made by the council of the bar association, notes Mr. Baulin: “The council may not make such a decision. Procedurally, lawyers who have left Russia are protected in that it is their colleagues who will determine the outcome of the decision.”

“Such an amendment, of course, contradicts the spirit of the law – it restricts the right to work, freedom of movement and, in general, limits the rights of lawyers unnecessarily,” says Daniil Kozyrev, lawyer of the Nizhny Novgorod Kozyrev Bar Association, who himself is now working from abroad. “Residence abroad should not be, and is not, a violation of legal ethics or the law.”

Mr. Kozyrev agrees that lawyers “whose activities are aimed at undermining trust in the institution of the legal profession” should not be part of this institution. But he “doesn’t quite understand” how the situation of a lawyer going abroad relates to this: “I can find an emotional explanation for this, but not a logical one. It is impossible to undermine the authority of the legal profession, neither from an unfriendly country, nor from a friendly one, nor from within – a person’s status must be deprived precisely for this and explained precisely by this.” However, Mr. Kozyrev believes that the amendment, if adopted, will not greatly affect the work of Russian lawyers who are already abroad: “It is impossible to fully conduct legal activities online. But for those actions that are still possible in this regime, the presence of a lawyer’s status is not decisive.”

Vice-President of the FPA Oleg Baulin emphasizes: in the text of the amendment itself there is no talk about “undermining trust” or “unfriendly states” – these are wordings from the accompanying documents. “A lawyer’s actions aimed at undermining trust in the legal profession are now grounds for initiating disciplinary proceedings,” recalls Mr. Baulin. He believes that the proposed measure is in no way a repressive mechanism: “The decision to deprive of status lies with the council of the chamber. I have not encountered situations where the legal community would somehow influence lawyers in principle – this institution does not imply the possibility of such influence.” The text of the amendments to the second reading can still be changed, the FPA notes.

Emilia Gabdullina, Alexander Chernykh