Press Release
Kazakhstan Bar Association Established
On May 16 in Almaty, the 1st conference of the republican public association "The Board of Commercial Lawyers “Kazakhstan Bar Association” (KazBar) took place. The initiators of KazBar establishment were the Heads of the leading law firms: Aequitas, Dechert, GRATA, Norton Rose, Olympex Advisers, Salans, Sayat Zholshi & Partners, Signum and the Group of Companies "Kazakhmys".
For the first time in Kazakhstan in the framework of the event there was a session of the "Regulation of the legal services market." It was attended by: Aidyn Bikebayev, Chairman of the Management Board of KazBar, Yerlan Kosmuratov, Deputy Chairman of the Registration Service of the Ministry of Justice RK, Anuar Tugel, Chairman of Kazakhstan Bar Association, Nikolay Turetskiy, Head of the ROO "Kazakhstan Union of Lawyers," Zhumageldy Yelyubayev, President of the Bar Association of Oil and Gas Industry (KPLA), Rupert D'Cruz, a representative of the Bar Council UK, Rashid Gaisin, Vice-President of the Kazakh-British Lawyers' Association and managing partner GRATA, Aigul Kenzhebayeva, managing partner of the Almaty office of the international law firm Salans, Inna Buyankina, and the Executive Director of the Kazakhstan criminalistics association.
During the heated debate, participants agreed that there was a need to regulate the market of legal services by self-regulatory organizations, as done in the whole civilized world by creating professional legal associations (Bar Associations). In most civilized countries of the world, there are such associations that are designed to improve the sphere of legal services and protect interests of the whole legal community, and are united in the International Bar Association (International Bar Association). The IBA today unites millions of lawyers around the world. Kazakhstan in this serious association is not represented. This significantly undermines the image of Kazakhstan in the world. Absence in Kazakhstan of self-regulatory organizations of practicing lawyers also prevents entering of Kazakh lawyers the international arena, which has a negative impact on opportunities for Kazakhstan and Kazakh enterprises to run fully foreign economic activity and protect their interests in international courts and arbitrations.