The Legal Profession in Russia: Organizational Structure and Perspectives on Reform

The lecture will focus on the structure of the legal profession, the lack of professional filters, and the priority of organizational, but not professional, rules and ethics norms. The problems of a non-organized legal market and the possibility to practice law in Russian courts with neither a professional license nor a formal legal education will be presented together with the current project of legal market reformation launched by the Ministry of Justice.

Ekaterina Khodzhaeva is a researcher at the Institute for the Rule of Law, European University at Saint-Petersburg, who focuses her studies on the Russian police force, the legal profession, and jury trials reform. She is the author of Regulating Mental Illness as Part of the Professional Duties of District Police in Russia, published by the Journal of Social Policy Studies. With co-author Yulia Shesternina Rabovski, she has published work in English as  Strategies and Tactics of Criminal Defenders in the Context of “Accusatorial Bias” in Russian Politics and Law.  Additionally, Khodzhaeva disseminates her results via Russian media including Vedomosti, RBK, Takie dela, and others.