Who we are

We are the Dead Lawyers Society:

• Yes, our naming refers to the Dead Poets Society movie.
• We are a community of 8’000+ Ukrainian lawyers.
• We are a community that spreads and fights for its values.

During 5 last years of the peaceful time, we were a collective media writing texts, hosting events, and creating a new format of legal discussion about the insides and the insights of the legal business in Ukraine and worldwide.

Our Values

FREEDOM — objectivity, independence, impartiality, and self-regulation.

IMPACT — recognition, and acceptance by the legal community, authority, determination of the criteria for market evaluation.

COMMUNITY — be part of a community and change, like-minded, safe environment, support, share, inspire and inspire.

DEVELOPMENT — to accelerate and encourage changes in the legal world, to determine the criteria for these changes.

QUALITY — exciting and expressive content, integrity, emphasis on high standards of journalism, transparency.

Our board members are:

• Nick Yurlov, Counsel at Marchenko Partners, Jessup Ukraine active community member and 2016 National Champion, ex-EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development).
• Svitlana Romanova, Head of Legal Department at Metinvest.
• Oleksandr Melnyk, a lawyer at the European Court of Human Rights.
• Kate Mischenko, CIPP/E, Lead of Data protection practice at Avitar.
• Vitaly Chemerys, a litigation lawyer at the Ministry of Justice.
• Svitlana Panaiotidi, Co-owner of Zviropolis, ex-Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine, ex-Commissioner of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
• Dmytro Foremny, a legal tech entrepreneur, partner of the 3x Capital fund, ex-manager of the business accelerator for legal startups HiiL Justice Accelerator and Head of Lin:go.
• Den Ivanov, Head of Expert Group at Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
• Volodymyr Petrakovsky, lecturer at the Law Faculty of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”.
• Artem Krykun-Trush, attorney, Manager at White-Collar Crime practice in PwC Legal.

Before the russian invasion, our day-to-day activities were financed by the community itself (here is our Patreon) and by the following top-tier law firms: Vasil Kisil and Partners, Integrites, Asters, Axon Partners, Moris, and Engarde. They continue the donations, but they only cover the salaries of the newsroom.