The paper considers the present time status of the Russian advocacy, the progress in digitalization of the legal profession and plans for the future development, as well as advocacy’s challenging issues and solu- tions. The article reviews criteria for division of advocacy’s challenging issues. The paper refers to the creation of a commemorative medal in honor of the 30th anniversary of the FSAR (Russian Federal Lawyers Union).The role in the integration of the legal profession of the famous attorney and the former head of the department of advocacy of the Kutafi n Moscow State Law University (MSAL) A. V. Kligman, in whose honor the medal was created, is described. Also, the article highlights the “Pashayev eff ect” as the legal profession antihero and shows the negative consequences to which his behavior led. Moreover, attention is paid to the Concept of the development of the legal aid market and the tasks of the legal profession. Besides topics discovered, the Author analyzes the problems of protecting the professional rights of attorneys, the example of violation of the rights is provided by the case of attorney Diana Tsipinova in 2020 and the advocacy’s attempts to achieve a positive result. The problem of creating a specialized advocacy is revealed. The question of the mandatory internship for the purpose to acquire the status of an attorney is discussed. Defenсe standards and Standards of proof are observed. An example of the successful practice in the fi eld of people’s mental health of attorney Y. L. Ershov and his role in changing the law enforcement in mentioned area is given. The role of professional development of advocacy is shown.

The article substantiates the need to form and update the harmonized terminological conceptual apparatus of the legal profession in the context of its digital transformation.

The author believes that the presence of the goal of making information (digital) ecosystem of the legal profession in Russia is necessary to speak not only about the linguistic support of developed corporate information systems, but about creating an enterprise conceptual-terminological system of advocacy in which the linguistic support of information (digital) component of corporate life is only organic, integrated part of this system terms.

In this regard, the conceptual and terminological basis of the information (digital) ecosystem of the legal profession is considered as part of the General term system of the lawyer Corporation.

 The author defi nes corporate language as the lexicon used by representatives of the legal community in professional activities, corporate governance, and other interaction related to belonging to the bar.

The author highlights the following elements of the process of forming the conceptual and terminological basis of advocacy: organizing and conducting scientifi c research enterprise language advocacy; identify subject areas and sources conceptual and terminological system of advocacy; development of methodological and methodical bases for organization of corporate terminology work and the construction of a corporate terminology system; the development of a corporate terminology policy advocacy; development and implementation of enterprise systems (mechanisms, procedures) ensuring the formation of corporate terminological system and the maintenance of the single practice of its application; creating and updating corporate of the terminological dictionary of the legal profession; unifi cation of local normative base of the legal profession in terms of corporate usage.

The article describes the elements of the process of forming the conceptual and terminological basis of the legal profession.

The article is devoted to the study of freedom of Association as a variety of political freedoms and the infl uence of the constitutional and legal method of securing freedom of Association (associations) on the organizational and legal forms of legal entities. The author consistently analyzes the French, German and British models of freedom of Association and gives examples of the infl uence of these models on other countries. Freedom of Association has a constitutional and legal form of consolidation in the Russian Federation, which receives the necessary specifi cation in civil legislation by constructing such organizational and legal forms as Association and Union. The author comes to the conclusion that in Russian law, an Association is a constitutional legal institution, while an Association and a Union are civil law institutions. In accordance with paragraph 18 of article 22 of the Federal law “on advocacy in the Russian Federation” and article 23 of the law on relations arising in connection with the establishment, operation and liquidation of the bar Association and law offi ces. The article focuses on the essence of a legal entity and a Corporation. The author believes that the legal structure (concept) of the Corporation originates from the activities of legists and canonists. The corporatist concept of legists covered any legal entities that did not coincide with a natural (natural) person. According to the author, the real turning point in the study of the nature of a legal entity occurred in connection with the activities of F. Savigny and his followers: B. Windscheid and G. Pukhta. The legal entity was also studied by R. Iering, I. Blunchli, O. Gierke and outstanding Russian scientists G. F. Shershenevich, N. M. Korkunov and others. Freedom of Association (associations), French, German, British model of freedom of Association (associations), Constitution, Corporation, ideal goal, business companies, non-profit partnership, bar Association, law office.

As the number of infertile couples is growing in Russia, the use of assisted reproductive technologies (In vitro fertilization, surrogacy, etc.) have been widely developed. Thus, there is the urgent need of proper legal regulation and measures to protect the rights of both surrogate mothers and genetic parents from diff erent abuses, including those of criminal nature. The legislation governing relations in this area needs further development. There are a review of foreign laws concerned, and the analysis of different positions on human reproductive rights in this article. An attempt has been made to determine the list of crimes against human reproductive rights. The necessity of advocacy in the sphere of assisted reproductive technologies is reasoned as a measure of protection of human reproductive rights.

The article examines the normative regulation of the lawyers’ activities in accordance with the Digests as part of the Codifi cation carried out during the reign and under the leadership of Emperor Justinian the Great. This study is the continuing research on legal regulation activities of lawyers in accordance with the norms of the Code as the main legislative part of the Codifi cation, taking into account that that the legal regulation of public relations by norms of Digests was subsidiary to the regulation of their norms of the Code, but, nevertheless, the norms of Digests had an independent legal signifi cance. It outlines the main aspects, the regulation of which is contained in the Digests — the grounds and measures of disciplinary responsibility of lawyers, misdemeanors for which lawyers were subject to responsibility, grounds for appointing lawyers at the initiative of the court, issues of fee practice — and the norms regulating these aspects. All these issues are discussed in details in the context of the relationship between the advocacy and administrative justice system of the Roman Empire that had a signifi cant importance, since the bar, without having an independent corporate organization, was subordinate to the offi cials, governed administrative-territorial units Empires of various levels. At the same time, the importance of the rules under consideration is emphasized, which represent the opinions of lawyers that have received the force of law and provide an opportunity for conducting a comparative legal study of the problems of the advocacy.

The article investigates questions about the essence of criminal defense, its goals and properties. The authors note that, for all its specifi city, criminal procedural protection has a number of properties inherent in any type of defensive activity, but at the same time its independence is the defi ning property of protection in criminal procedure. The article is devoted to the problems of scientifi c and legislative refl ection of the defense in the criminal procedure. Comparing the history of legal regulation of the defense in criminal proceedings in various European states, the authors come to the conclusion on the lack of the consistent and structural approach in those legislative attempts. At the same time, the article tries to classify scientifi c approaches to the goals and properties of the criminal defense. Based on the analysis of the current legislation, as well as literature, fi ve fundamental properties of the criminal defense (independence, aleatory, proficiency, sub legislative character, efficiency) are identified.

The article deals with the problem of ensuring human control over the digital environment, which penetrates into all spheres of society, and the role of the legal profession in solving this problem. The doctrinal elaboration of the topic of the article is presented by an analysis of the ethical traditions and ideas about proper law practice that have historically developed in the domestic legal profession, which form the basis of the generally accepted theory (methodology) of the legal profession, and are manifested in the use of the method of lawyer control over the state’s compliance with legal norms in the context of the massive introduction of information (digital) technologies that signifi cantly change the forms of implementation of law in Russia. The normative elaboration of the topic of the article is revealed through the analysis of the Concept for the development of regulation of relations in the fi eld of artifi cial intelligence and robotics technologies until 2024, approved in 2020 by the Government of the Russian Federation, which refl ects the basic provisions of the normative regulation of the digital transformation of public relations in our country. The most important aspects of the article are related to the comparison of the government’s risk-based approach and the lawyer’s safe approach to the introduction of information (digital) technologies, taking into account the general situation with IT solutions in Russia and the creation of the Integrated Information System of the Russian Advocacy (IIS RA), consisting of subsystems — digital forms (tools), the development of which is described in the article with an explanation of the transition from plurality (variability) to unifi cation in their use. The article explains the prerequisites for the manifestation of a set of approaches to the creation and use of digital forms (tools) in the framework of the CIS RB: universalization; unifi cation; authenticity; transparency; fi duciary, as well as appropriate methods of working with these tools.

The article examines the sources of law in the discourse of Russian legal realism concept. A broad approach to the sources of law is justifi ed and the phenomena of the source and form of law as equal in meaning is considered. The author notes the pragmatization of Russian jurisprudence and insuffi ciency of paying attention only to the texts of normative legal acts. Interpretation of actions to comply with or violate regulatory requirements and criteria for evidence evaluation become more relevant in modern conditions, when the individual regulatory system of the law enforcement actor governs his actions, determines the essence and details of his decision. In order to actualize the pluralism of the source base special attention is paid to post-classical characteristics of modern law enforcement and the ideas of L. I. Petrazhitsky as the founder of the psychological theory of law. A broad understanding of the sources of law in the XXI century allows to identify current sources of regulation and re-evaluate the factors that oblige individuals to obey the will of others. According to the author, law should be considered as a result and method of real interaction of people, generating subjective rights and obligations, and as a form of communication that encourages a person to active realization of acceptable to him sources of law in a particular legal situation. Thе performed comparative analysis of legal realism in North American, Scandinavian and Russian societies allows us to consider legal realism as intermediary between law in books and practical human problems.

This article is devoted to the heads of state who at some point in their lives were engaged in advocacy. Among the lawyers who ruled states in the 19th century: Abraham Lincoln, Prudente Jose de MoraisBarrus, Miguel Angel Juarez Selman, John Alexander MacDonald. In the XX century: Kerensky Alexander Fedorovich, Mohandas Gandhi, Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Robert Gordon Menzies, Muhammad Ali Jin- nah, Fidel Castro, Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Gerch Kurt Schroeder. The study of the biographies of the heads of state in the context of their legal profession allows us to consider the paths leading to power from a special angle. A long-standing and traditional career scheme for the United States of America: «lawyer — senator — president» exists not only there, it has become standard for many countries of the modern world, not only which are the standard of democracy and freedom, but also others that are still striving to become such. The conducted research popularizes the legal profession, destroying the dogma prevailing in society about lawyers, the legal profession and its appointment. The purpose of the article is, within the framework of the aspect of the development of democracy in diff erent states, to tell about people who have left their mark on history and to declare that their profession is a lawyer.

The article discusses the rules of appointing a defense lawyer in criminal proceedings. The author analyzes the regional chambers of lawyers practice; based on the analysis of the disciplinary practice, the author identifi es the main problems that appear in the activities of defense appointed lawyers while using the automated systems for distributing assignments between appointed lawyers by the bodies of inquiry, investigation or court, and possible ways to solve them. The article draws attention to the fact that the introduction of automated systems for appointing lawyers as defenders in criminal proceedings by regional chambers of lawyers have generally resolved such problems as transparency, efficiency, fair and even distribution of cases between lawyers appointed by the bodies of inquiry, investigation or court, as well as providing a defender by appointment under the control of the lawyers’ self-government bodies at any stage of the proceedings. Based on the analysis of the disciplinary practices of the chambers of law, the author identifi es the problems in using digital technologies during the process of appointing a defender in criminal proceedings. In particular, attention is drawn to the lingering problem of «double defense», the emerging problem of initiating the conclusion of a defense lawyer agreement for one procedural action by the prosecution in order to circumvent the procedure for appointing a defense lawyer established by regional chambers of lawyers, as well as the problem of formation of the several applications in one criminal case against one person in the automated system made by the bodies of inquiry or investigation in order to be able to choose the most «convenient» lawyer. The solution to mentioned problems is possible by introducing the functionality into the automated information systems for the appointment of a lawyerdefender that obliges initiators (interrogators, investigators or the court) to enter information about the presence or absence of a lawyer by agreement and / or about previously appointed participating) lawyers, as well as indicate the reasons for the formation of an electronic application during fi lling out an electronic application. The article substantiates the need for constant monitoring of the work of automated systems for appointing a lawyer-defender based on the analysis of disciplinary practices of lawyer’s chambers in order to unify the use of digital technologies for appointing a lawyer in criminal proceedings and minimize the abuse of the right both by lawyers and by the bodies of inquiry, investigation or court.

The article is devoted to the research of traditional and innovative methods of educating future attorneys. The author analyzes ways which teachers of the Kutafi n Moscow State Law University use to help students to gain essential knowledge in law and in advocacy activity, prepare for the bar-exam and shape required professional skills. The author pays attention to the current active development of the corporate digital advocacy ecosystem including the introduction of digital technologies into the practice of passing the bar qualifi cation exam. The article investigates one of the possible algorithm designs that a bar qualifi cation contender should follow starting from the submission of documents to a regional bar chamber and up to the passing the bar qualifi cation exam. The author gives successful examples of student training through distant learning technologies, such as expert venues organized and conducted by the Department of Legal profession, scientifi c project groups, scientifi c and practical conferences, and also tells about the legal clinic “Pro Bono”, which operates at the O. Е. Кутафafi n Moscow State Law University and which involves teachers of the Department of Legal profession who help students master the necessary skills for their future jobs.

The article examines the speech competencies formed in practical classes in the disciplines “Rhetoric for lawyers” and “Legal rhetoric in the activities of a lawyer”: communicative, textual, lexical and orthological. The article is based on the methodological understanding of rhetoric as an academic discipline that improves the speech-thinking activity of students in the direction of training “jurisprudence”. This is expressed in the ability to create professionally meaningful texts, replenishment of vocabulary in accordance with professional and intellectual needs, solving communication problems at various levels. The author of the article believes that the successful professional speech practice of a lawyer, which requires well-formed communication skills, is due, inter alia, to linguistic training at a university. The purpose of the disciplines of the humanitarian cycle is to form the rhetorical skills of students, necessary to create eff ective argumentation, the ability to speak in public and influence the persuasion of listeners; updating the writing skills of a future lawyer. The author identifi es a number of issues that are most signifi cant in teaching rhetoric, such as the formation of language competence, including communicative, textual, orthological aspects and teaching methods. The latter are based on general didactic teaching methods. Taking into account the specifi cs of training in a law school, the most eff ective is a student-centered approach to learning, namely: methods of explanation, practice, self-esteem, control and self-control. The author describes an example of a lesson methodology aimed at developing the above competencies.

The article is devoted to the study of one of the possible elements of an integrated information system of the bar — a unifi ed database of disciplinary practice of bar chambers. It pays attention to some aspects of posting information that is the result of the consideration of the case by the bodies of the bar chamber related with bringing a lawyer to disciplinary responsibility and releasing him from it. The article provides a defi nition of the unifi ed database of disciplinary practice of bar chambers and examines its features. The author distinguishesand justifi es the need for placing specifi c types of acts of disciplinary bodies of bar chambers, which should be presented in such a database. The article focuses on the question of the limits of providing information about the disciplinary responsibility of a lawyer, taking into account the provisions of current legislation and approaches of chambers of lawyers on informing about disciplinary practice. It is also noted that it is necessary to provide for the possibility of searching by keywords and categories. The author substantiates the importance of its development and implementation for the legal and scientifi c community, as well as the possibility of its application in the educational process. The article describes the practice of creating a database of disciplinary practice of bar chambers.

The main problems and diffi culties that arise when conducting Commission and complex forensic medical examinations in cases related to defects in the provision of medical care are considered. The authors note that there is a pluralism of views in science and practice regarding which institutions should conduct this type of expertise and what requirements should be met by members of expert commissions. The emphasis is placed on the fact that fi rst of all it is necessary to develop a unifi ed methodology for conducting expert examinations in this category of cases, which will be legally fixed and will become mandatory for all expert institutions. The need to comply with the existing rules for conducting expertise is emphasized. An example of an expert error made as a result of a violation of the existing procedure and methodology of expert work, which led to legal consequences in the form of charging a doctor without suffi cient evidence, in connection with which the court returned the criminal case to the prosecutor.

The author analyzes the application of the principle of good faith by courts when considering disputes as a rule of law The article concludes that since good faith is an evaluative concept, there are no criteria for it in the law, when applying the principle of good faith by courts, it is necessary to specify and clarify the criteria of good faith for the consideration of specifi c disputes. Courts form rules, in some cases different from the rules established by the law, after which they are widely applied as rules of law. The paper concludes that the recognition of the possibility of applying the principles of law as norms of law determines the appearance of the law- making role of courts. The article concludes that liability under article 10 of the civil code for violation of the principle of good faith also indicates the possibility of applying the principle of good faith as a rule of law.

In the article specifi cities of lawyer’s work during the proceedings arising from violation of citizens’ rights and rights of legal entities in the course of various town-planning activity are considered. Vigorously developing of town-planning activity in the Russian Federation gives rise to real estate, environmental and natural resource use disputes, settlement of the which is difficult in the case law. The situation is resulted from either insufficient knowledge and lack of features of the legal regulation of town-planning relations, the legal nature of town-planning documentation, its legal significance, or the complexity of the existing town-planning legislation, the permanent amendment of the legislation, the availability of outstanding issues. In the article the specific nature of spatial planning and town planning zoning documentation and their influence on land and property and adjacent legal relationship are shown, types of potential violations of lawful rights and interests of citizens and legal entities are considered. Based on the analysis of the case law, the most salient category of cases related to town-planning activity are devote and main mistakes of lawyer’s work on such cases are reviewed by the author.

The article is devoted to the lawyers’ practice of using the conclusions of the psychological examination in cases of child-parent relationship. The author believes that a forensic psychological examination that resolves questions about the psychological characteristics of family members, their relationships, attachments, can provide significant assistance in civil proceedings. In the context of digitalization, many tools appear that allow to accelerate the conduct of the expert survey and to make more transparent. Online communication services are such a tool. Video recording of the psychological examination procedure fully complies with the principle of verifiability, and will allow to evaluate the expert opinion, make sure that the law on expert activity has not been violated, whether the methodological recommendations have been followed, and whether the expert conclusions are sufficiently justified. An example of remote conduct of an expert psychological research on the case of determining the mode of communication with the child is given. The lawyer, which was representing the father, used this conclusion to confirm the legal position in court. The court attached this conclusion to the case file, and the father’s claim was largely satisfied.

The article describes the progress of the investigation and the main mistakes of the preliminary investigation bodies in the well-known criminal case of the rape of an interrogator by three high-ranking police officers of the Republic of Bashkortostan in October 2018. The article considers the main investigative actions in a criminal case, such as interrogations, confrontations, and identifications, which were carried out with clear violations of the criminal procedure code of the Russian Federation and tactical techniques of criminology. The preliminary investigation authorities initially took the direction of the accusatory bias in the criminal case, not recognizing the arguments of the defense, which should have been checked. A certain significance in the case was played by the hype raised in the media, when the preliminary investigation bodies became hostages of constant public attention to this case. The court of first instance issued a guilty verdict in the case, because it did not analyze all the contradictions in the evidence, and even sent exculpatory evidence exclusively to the accusatory bias. The court of appeal issued an acquittal against the two defendants.

The article is devoted to the formation of the digital law doctrine in the Russian legal system. The authors propose to draw a parallel between the trends of fundamental research in the doctrine of innovation law in order to outline the main directions of the formation of the doctrine of digital law. The main federal laws adopted within the framework of the national program «Digital economy of the Russian Federation» are presented, the task of which is to form the legislative support for digital reality. It is concluded that the lack of the necessary legal environment leads to an increase in the cost of testing and implementing innovations, and also forces innovative companies to make their choice in favor of other jurisdictions, which can lead to a «brain drain». The authors review the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the innovation law doctrine, focusing on innovation, innovation activity and its subjects, and also identify key dissertation research that lays the Foundation for digital law. In conclusion, it is noted that the appeal to the doctrine of innovation law, the use of its advanced developments is necessary. After all, in its essence, digital law is a new stage in the development of innovative law, taking place in the context of revolutionary changes in science, technology, economics and law.

The article analyzes the change in approaches to determining the dominant position in digital markets. The authors indicate the main directions of improving the antimonopoly legislation in these directions. The paper also considers the problems of the quantitative criterion, which in turn leads to the conclusion about the increased role of qualitative criteria for determining the dominant position of the subject. The development of the digital economy forces us to develop other, alternative criteria. These alternative criteria include network effects and the mode of access to big data. In this regard, the authors consider the concept of a network effect, its features. In turn, the possession of big data is seen as a source of abuse in the digital economy.

This article deals with some features of an attorney and notary work in Germany. The main purpose of the article is to consider the functioning of the German institutions of the bar and notaries. The author emphasizes the possibility of combining advocacy and notarial activities in some regions of Germany, as well as the existence of the profession of "attorney-notary" in these regions. The article focuses on the procedure of passing state exams to become an attorney, describes in detail the procedure for conducting such exams, as well as the procedure of appointing German attorneys as notaries. According to current German law, state exams that give the right to become an attorney, a judge, a prosecutor, a notary can be taken only twice, and in case of an unsatisfactory result, you cannot become a practicing lawyer in Germany. In addition, German law has a different approach to the concept of an attorney from the Russian one. The article describes some aspects of the activities of German attorneys, as well as attorneys-notaries, and indicates the absence of a conflict of interest when combining advocacy and notarial activities. The author comes to the conclusion that the institutions of the legal profession and notaries in Germany function differently than in Russia, but despite the absence of the legislative possibility of combining advocacy and notarial activities in Russia, it is impossible to talk about their opposition.

The development of digital technologies leads to significant changes in the forms of communication between an attorney and his client, as well as in the procedure and conditions of storing an attorney’s dossier and other information received by an attorney that is a subject of attorney-client privilege. The article is devoted to the problems of maintaining the security of attorney-client privilege in attorney’s work with the confidential information using modern technologies including mobile phones and other technical devices. The author believes that in the digital era attorney should pay increased attention to the problem of interaction with information in electronic form, as well as its transfer and storage to maintain the security of attorney-client privilege. The author notes that training in the issue of interaction with modern technologies is an ethical duty of an attorney, indicates that in order to solve this problem is required the cooperation of bar association with technical specialists in the field of digital technologies is necessary. The main point of the article is to determine the measure of attorney’s reasonableness while storing and transferring confidential information and to develop additional recommendatory measures to protect information being the subject of attorney-client privilege.

The article substantiates the need to use foreign experience in regulating an advocate’s status as an important source of resources for improving the legislation of the Russian Federation. The formation of advocacy is influenced by many factors: the level of legal awareness and legal culture in society, the political situation, the social structure of society, economic aspects, lawmaking, law and order, and many others. According to the author, it is very important that the state belongs to a certain legal family. The author believes that the legal advocate’s status has significant specifics in each country, and it is possible to better understand the goals and objectives of the Institute of advocacy and predict its development, including on the basis of research on the systems of advocacy in foreign countries. The article is attempt to conside a question about further improvement of the Institute of an advocate’s status in the present legal system of the Russian Federation taking into account the legislative experience of the Federal Republic of Germany.The author explores such aspects as: getting education by representatives of legal professions, admission to the profession of advocate; rights, duties and responsibilities of advocate, restrictions and prohibitions in the activity of advocate; ethical requirements for the practice of law, and trends in the development of the legal profession. Special attention is paid to identifying a progressive legislative approach. By the author formulated a number of proposals to improve legislation on the advocate’s status in Russian Federation.

This article raises the question of the initiative to appeal to a lawyer in the process of international adoption of Russian children in order to monitor compliance with their interests and protect their rights. The author substantiates the need to allow minors over the age of fourteen to conclude independently an agreement on the provision of legal assistance with a lawyer on his own behalf without the consent of the legal representative in order to accompany the latter the process of international adoption of such a minor. In case of minors under the age of fourteen, the author proposes to impose the obligation of conclusion an agreement with a lawyer on the legal representative of the minor. The main arguments, given by the author in defense of his position, are: the ability of a lawyer to be a guarantor of protection the interests of the adopted child, the legality of actions in relation to the child and potential adoptive parents; gratuitousness of the provision of legal assistance by a lawyer in this category of cases by virtue of the law. The author also discusses the feasibility of lowering the age, which takes into account the child’s opinion, regarding his right to live and be raised in a family, and legal education measures for orphans and children left without parental care in order to exclude the possibility of abuse by legal representatives, in particular, by the guardianship authorities, their rights and (or) powers.