Finding a good attorney in Ukraine is as difficult as finding a good hotel room or a good meal. They don't come cheap. Unfortunately going without an attorney's services can cost you even more.

    Western law firms have established offices in Kyiv and other major cities in Ukraine, but aside from charging Western prices, their services cannot be considered up to par with those in the west. These are the words of one manager of a major western law firm in Kyiv who recently left for home. The problem with Western Law firms is that they cannot recruit top-level staff to come to Ukraine. Salaries are not enough if the working, living, and recreational/leisure environments are not up to their standards.

    The result is that many of these firms then farm out their major work to local attorneys particularly in litigation cases. The problem is that you then pay Western prices for local legal services. If you have the time and the patience, you can save yourself a lot of money and aggravation by seeking out the local firms that do the work for the big law firms. This is not to say, that the local law firms have not caught on and are not starting to charge the same prices as they do in New York, London, or Frankfurt. However, they can still be talked to and bargained with.

    Unfortunately, the size, reputation, affiliations, and fees don't mean much when you are up against an opposing attorney who has a relative on the bench or who has bought his way into the system. Many cases are decided long before the first motion is heard or the first set of documents is presented. There have been cases, which can be confirmed, where the opposition never even presented one document in support of their case and still walked away with a winning verdict. They had lawyers that were not shy in making back room deals.

    Fortunately, there are some excellent attorneys in Kyiv and Ukraine, that can give a lot of good advice which can prevent litigations and the problems that go with them. As the saying goes: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

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