On 17 February, the RA Chamber of Advocates of the RA had organized a seminar-discussion with the heads of the law firms that operate in Armenia.
Mr. Ara Zohrabyan, President of the RA Chamber of Advocates, welcomed the heads and representatives of the law firms and highlighted the importance to establish close relations between the law offices and the RA Chamber of Advocates. He said that such meetings will be continuous and will be directed to the development of the Advocacy institute and the advocates’ community in Armenia.
Around 50 advocates among them the heads of over 20 law firms attended the discussion.
Heads (representatives) of the law firms Arthur Davtyan, Karen zadoyan, Seyran Grigoryan, Tsolak Grigoryan, Tatul Khudatyan, Garik Galikyan, Taron Simonyan, Levon Baghdasaryan, Manvel Vardanyan, Sedrak Asatryan, Karen Mezhlumyan, Karen Aghajanyan, Armen Mkrtchyan, Arsen Harutyunyan, Aleksander Sahakyan and Sayad Badalyan held speeches at the meeting.
In terms of the development of the law firms the Chamber of Advocates and the participants of the discussion raised the following issues:
1. Creation of the network of law firms in the website of the Chamber:
2. Creation of a section “Useful Packages of Advocates” on the website of the Chamber, which will include Medical Insurance, Lending and other interesting offers and discounts for the advocates:
3. Creation of the database of necessary work places on the website of the Chamber, which is visible for the advocates only.
4. Creation of the database of offender judges on the website of the Chamber, based on the model of barristers, which is visible for the advocates only.
5. Involve one or two scientific research experts in the Palace: provide opinions on legislative packages or theoretical issues (the funding issue needs additional specification).
6. Booking of management software programs for the law firms (the funding issue needs additional specification).
7. Active introduction of trainings on management of the law firms
8. Collection of information on Professional Liability Insurance packages of the law firms.
During the discussion, President of the “Legal Alliance” Law Firm, Advocate Karen Zadoyan spoke about the problems that were more frequently encountered during the work of the company that he managed. Specifically, Mr. Zadoyan offered to consider the demands of the law firms while organizing the trainings for the advocates. He also suggested discussing the opportunities for the reforms of the legislation regulating this sphere aimed to promote the advocacy activities as a business. Karen Zadoyan offered to consider the possibility of introducing insurance from the possible legal mistake in Armenia.
Sedrak Asatryan, Head of “Concern Dialog” Law Firm raised the issue of informing the partner advocates about the irresponsible judges.
Tatul Khudatyan, representative of “Karakhanyan and Partners” Law Firm spoke about the problem of organization of the practice of the listeners of the “School of Advocates.” Simon Babayan, Director of the “School of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia” Fund provided clarifications on this issue and noted that the practice was a perfect platform for establishing future cooperation between the advocates and the law firms.
Advocate Sayad Babayan introduced the problematic issues referring to the advocacy institute in the RA Law on “Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing.”
The issue of requesting the financial report of the law firms by the Central Bank of the RA was raised as well. The participants agreed to carry out additional research and discuss the future steps.
