Russia… Day #… who’s counting

Last night was fun. Enjoying the different perspective. We asked a law student from the number 1 law school in Russia whether “legal ethics” was taught in law schools here… her response “what is that?” hilarious.

In Russia, you do not need to attend law school to be a lawyer. There is no bar and no ethics code. A lawyer pointed this out when we asked “what action could cause a lawyer to be disbarred?”… he answered “in order to be disbarred, you would first need to be ‘barred’” lol

The generational divide is also interesting. An older attorney said there was no need for a code of ethics as the legal system is fragile and any change would “disbalance” it. When we asked him to explain what he meant by “disbalance” he stuttered for 5 minutes. The law student on the other hand thought a code of ethics would be important as it would create protections for clients. A common theme among law students was the desire to change the image of the legal profession.

On the issue of the USSR, a prominent political scientist said many of the judges are operating in a “democratic” society with a communist mind set… in cases against the government, the government almost always wins, as the concept of personal property is sometimes fuzzy among older judges.

I asked a young attorney whether the society is better under capitalism or communism… he said it’s better under capitalism, as now people have incentives to work harder because they have an opportunity to gain. I followed up by asking him to reconcile the drop in innovation (inventions in science, etc)… he was unable to respond.

I try to enter these conversations without any commitment to any particular point of view. I am skeptical of American commentary on Russia, so I try to approach each person with an open mind.

Tomorrow I will be going to the Doma… the Russian Parliament. I am particular excited because Putin is the Chair. Hopefully I will get to see him. Hillary Clinton is in town and she may be there as well.