“The bar in the Republic of Moldova is subject to a raider attack,” said a group of lawyers, who complain that they were illegally excluded from the Board of the Lawyers Union. According to them, when seven members of the 18 were excluded, those who remained, except for one of them, agreed to dissolve the advocacy licensing commission and a new composition of this commission is to be chosen. The lawyers stated that their exclusion from the Union’s Board is aimed at bringing the licensing commission under control.
In a news conference at IPN on February 3, the head of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova Vladislav Gribincea said that new people with reformist views were elected to the Board of the Lawyers Union last spring. These pleaded for transparent, professional and integral advocacy, but their actions caused dissatisfaction. Thus, an attack was launched to remove these persons from the Board last yearend.
According to the lawyers who were excluded, the attack derived from the dissatisfaction of former members of the licensing commission and persons close to members of the current Board. These are dissatisfied because they weren’t included in the new licensing commission last September. Thus, the discontented persons asked to convene the lawyers from the Chisinau Bar so as to exclude the members who didn’t support them in the contest from the Board, stated Vladislav Gribincea.
On December 22, 2015, seven of the 18 lawyers who formed part of the Board of the Lawyers Union were excluded. Lawyer Natalia Molosag said that the exclusion decision was taken in the absence of a quorum and in breach of the law. Though the illegalities were evident, the administration of the Lawyers Union accepted the exclusion, while the Board voted against annulling the decision by ten votes for, including of the Union’s president.
The lawyers excluded from the Board said that afterward ten members of the Board dissolved the advocacy licensing commission although they didn’t have such a power. These actions are aimed at controlling the issuing of the lawyer’s license and at taking full control of the advocacy processes, and are conducted by persons from the current administration of the Lawyers Union.
Lawyer Feodosia Tyshchuk stated that this attack will have serious consequences for the bar in Moldova. She believes that the advocacy laws should be amended so that the illegalities could be recognized in a legal way.
