A personal project: Working with Ukrainian lawyers and universities

First of all, let me say that this is about a completely private project. It is not associated with any of my employers, co-workers, clients or other professional or personal contacts. All my work is done on my own time, using my own resources.

When the invasion of Ukraine by Russia started last year, like many other people around the world, I wanted to do something to help the people of Ukraine. Money to charities and seeping bags were OK at first, but I felt that I needed to do something more; something that I could see its impact in the future.

I decided to put my skills to work, to help train people, especially lawyers, law students, advocates and prosecutors, on digital evidence. This was going to be something that I felt I could easily do, and that would contribute to the future of Ukraine. With the war raging and resources scarce, some things in education, as well as other parts of everyday life, would go on hold.

I saw that as an opportunity to use my skills in digital forensics and digital evidence, to help those who would shape the future of Ukraine.

Pro-bono training for lawyers & Prosecutors

The first step was for me to make contact. There are many very good universities in Ukraine and of course a massive legal sector. The problem was that I did not have the kind of access to lawyers and institutions I have in Scotland and the UK. I decided on the direct approach. I found the website of the Ukrainian National Bar Association (UNBA) and sent a message through their contact page. Not long after I got a message that I was going to be put in contact with someone in Scotland, a Ukrainian barrister, the official representative of UNBA in the UK. That person was Alexandr Chernykh . We met for a coffee and had this great chemistry from the start.

I told him what my plan was and what my motivation behind it was. Alexandr was very enthusiastic about my proposals and I felt that there was an opportunity to make things work.

We discussed my thoughts on the need to train lawyers on digital evidence and he confirmed that there was a gap and that any help would be appreciated.

My first thought was the training of Prosecutors, the people who would work on war crimes by Russian soldiers and mercenaries. That part of the conversation also confirmed my understanding, that while the entire country was at a constant threat alert from Russian fire and drones, while people were dying mostly at the border areas, the rest of the country was trying to keep things working, keep a sense of normality between the sounds of the air-raid sirens. That meant that war crimes were not the only concern of Ukrainian courts and lawyers. Other criminal cases and civil litigation had to go on, and knowledge of digital evidence had to be part of all that activity.

As a practitioner, it is not the first time that I have done pro-bono work. It is however the first time that I came into a commitment of this scale, and I wanted to make sure that I could deliver.

The conversation led to more opportunities for me to get involved and help. These include the help of law students in Ukrainian universities, in the form of seminars in the first instance and the development of "digital evidence" courses. Alexandr made the right introductions and set this thing in motion.

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

During the Easter recess, I set out with Alexandr to deliver my first webinar on digital evidence for lawyers. To my surprise, the Ukrainian body that organised was not just a school or a group of lawyers.

It was part of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and in particular their V. Mamutov Institute for Economic & Legal Research. The title alone of this organisation was intimidating; for all my presentations to lawyers, academic conferences and public engagement, coupled with the fact that I am not even an academic or a researcher, I never expected to present to a country's National Academy of Sciences.

I was honoured that the Director of the Institute was there to welcome me and introduce me to the members of the institute and the Academy.

The audience was great. The Zoom call was organised at the Ukrainian end so that they could control the registration of their members and attendees. In total, the academy confirmed that around 350 people attended my webinar. That of course included people who were dropping in and out because of limited internet access.

The one thing that I kept from the Ukrainian audience was their engagement. People were so eager to learn something new and they tried to make the best of my presence and my time. They were coming with one question after another. They did not take for granted the "free webinar" as we do here, where people register for everything that is free and rarely attend.

Ukrainian National Bar Association (High School of Advocacy)

Yesterday, I delivered another webinar on digital evidence to the High School of Advocacy, part of UNBA (the Ukrainian National Bar Association). Once again the video call logistics were handled in Ukraine so I just joined in and started my presentation.

This was simply a "lunchtime lecture", a small webinar I delivered during my lunch break! It turned out to be time well spent!

This time there were even more questions from the audience, digging deep into digital evidence, preservation of evidence and how to deal with its manipulation, especially metadata. There were questions about online investigations and about tracing criminals who use VPNs. I was happily surprised by the audience's level of awareness and their complicated questions.

At the end of my presentation and the Q&A, I had many lawyers asking when my next presentation will be delivered.

The welcoming by the Ukrainian legal professionals was touching and overwhelming, but the cherry on the cake was when I found out that 860 lawyers and barristers attended my seminar live online.

What next?

These seminars are the starting point of my involvement with the legal sector and legal education system in Ukraine. Just this small start gave me the feeling of accomplishment, of doing something good.

The next steps involve a comprehensive certificated course on digital evidence by the UNBA for all eligible lawyers and barristers in Ukraine. More focused training is being discussed for Digital Evidence in War Crimes Investigations.

In the academic realm, discussions are already in place with two Ukrainian universities (faculties of law of course) for delivering more than seminars: a non-technical course on digital evidence for law students, that will prepare them for the challenges (and opportunities) that technology will be bringing their way in the future.

Alexandr Chernykh Iryna Kravtsova Rob Marrs Valeriya Dzhafarova