Yuna Potomkina, Head of Alternative Dispute Resolution at Asters, became a member of the Working Group of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on elaborating the Law of Ukraine "On Mediation". Together with over 30 experts in this field, she introduced proposals on ratification of the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation.
The law came into force on 15 December 2021. It stipulates that the disputes can be settled through the negotiations between the parties with attraction of the third party – a mediator. The law includes the legal framework and procedures for mediation, responsibilities of mediator and parties, requirements to the respective agreements.
The law explains that mediation can be applied in all types of disputes, including the ones between a legal entity and an individual person, arising out of civil, family, employment, economic, administrative legal arrangements as well as during the criminal proceedings. Mediation is allowed at all stages of dispute resolution: pre-trial, court proceedings, court decision execution.
Yuna Potomkina comments: "The work on the adopted law version started over two years ago. Together with other expects we analysed the best European practices and adjusted them to the Ukrainian framework. The law will have a positive impact on the national judicial system that is highly overloaded today, in particular due to the pandemic. It will also allow the businesses to settle the disputes quicker with minimal financial expenses. My congratulations go to everyone who contributed to this large-scale initiative and I am very proud to be a part of it".
Asters is the largest law firm in Ukraine with offices in Kyiv, Washington D.C., London and Brussels. Chambers Europe 2021 recognizes 23 lawyers of Asters – the largest number of the renowned practitioners in a single Ukrainian law firm.
