The Ukraine Bar Association (UBA) is offering foreign lawyers the chance to join the organisation to help support its activities.

For a membership fee of €200 a year, foreign participants will receive updates, a free ticket to any of the UBA’s international conferences, and access to information on Ukrainian lawyers – including the chance to find legal partners in the country.

Those wishing to join can also choose to cover the membership fees of Ukrainian lawyers affected by the Russian invasion of the country.

‘New reality’

The Law Society Gazette of England and Wales quoted Viktoriia Krasnova (UBA chief operating officer) as saying: “By joining UBA and paying an annual fee. International participants will enable us to continue our mission, which is to resist the aggression against Ukraine on the legal front.”

She said that the war had had a severe impact on the association, as “membership fees, conferences, and partner contributions from law firms which used to form the UBA’s budget, now all ceased to exist”.

Krasnova said that the UBA had decided to adjust to this new reality, and to transform not only its objectives, but also its sources of funding and membership.

Opening participation to foreign lawyers, she added, would not only keep the association solvent, but might also transform the UBA “into something bigger”.