Yuriy Zhovtan, Partner at Barristers, LLC: A Current Issue in the Protection of Lawyers’ Rights

The legal profession is a way of life that embodies a combination of positive, abstract, and balanced thinking in stressful situations that do not directly involve the attorney.
It is our professional duty to provide highly qualified legal assistance, using all lawful means, to achieve the set goals and obtain a favorable outcome.
There are instances when a lawyer himself requires legal assistance from a defense attorney, and this fact does not indicate his incompetence or ignorance of the law.
A defense attorney, like any ordinary person, when under stress, in my view, will not be able to effectively defend themselves if they find themselves in a difficult situation or if their rights are being violated in criminal, administrative, or other proceedings.
I often observe similarities between our profession and that of a doctor, and the question immediately arises: can a doctor effectively treat himself if he were to treat himself independently? Of course not—they could neither perform surgery on themselves nor conduct an effective examination, and they wouldn’t even be able to give themselves an injection while in a state of stress or unconsciousness.
These comparisons are merely a clear illustration of the fact that a lawyer needs a defense attorney if any alleged procedural actions are being taken against him or her.
In other words, all circumstances that may affect a lawyer from a legal standpoint must be entrusted to a defense attorney who is not personally involved in such circumstances.
Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen and unite the efforts to defend lawyers, creating a monolith that cannot be broken—neither by time nor by direct pressure on the lawyer from the state apparatus— in order to avert the threat to the independence of this noble profession, which is our reason for living.