Ukrainian American Bar Association holds meeting, elects first woman president (07/06/97)

Ukrainian American Bar Association holds meeting, elects first woman president

TORONTO - As the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its establishment, it commenced its third decade by electing Bohdanna (Donna) T. Pochoday a president. She is the first woman to serve in this capacity.

The election of the new slate of UABA officers and board of governors took place at the UABA spring meeting held at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Toronto on May 30 - June 1.

The UABA had invited the Association of Canadian Ukrainian Jurists to attend and participate; the meeting commenced with a social reception on Friday evening. Attendees included a group of attorneys from Ukraine traveling with Danylo Kourdelchouk, presidentof Ukrinurkolegia (an association of Ukrainian attorneys for foreign affairs), as well as representatives of the Ukraine's Consulates General in Toronto and New York.

The presentations on Saturday covered current issues affecting Ukraine, as well modern law office trends. Col. Martinson of the Atlantic Council of Canada gave a timely overview of NATO's expansion into Eastern Europe and Ukraine's relationship with NATO.

Mr. Kourdelchouk spoke about the strong need for a code of ethics for attorneys in Ukraine, as well as the formation of an independent bar. He also participated in a panel discussion on wills and estate planning issues between Ukraine and the U.S./Canada, along with Petro Piddoubny of Drobenko and Piddoubny (New York) and Eugene Zalucky of Mitchell, Bardyn and Zalucky (Toronto).

Unfortunately, the main speaker invited to the meeting, Ukrainian National Deputy Volodymyr Stretovych, president of the World Congress of Ukrainian Jurists (WCUJ), president of the Christian Democratic Party, and chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Law Policy and Judicial Reform, was unable to attend due to a medical emergency. The Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian attorneys present at the meeting had planned to discuss the status and role of the WCUJ with Mr. Stretovych.

The UABA also reviewed organizational business matters, which included the financial report of Treasurer Bohdan Ozaruk, plans for commemoration of the UABA's 20th anniversary in the fall of 1997, as well as the UABA Scholarship Fund.

Scholarship Fund

The UABA Scholarship Fund had been administered by the late Ivan Shandor, one of the original members of the UABA, a former UABA governor and officer, who died in a tragic accident on April 30 in Chicago. Mr. Shandor left behind his wife, Lidia Boyduy Shandor, and their three young children, Mykola, Maria and Hryhorij (ages 5-9), his parents, Oksana and Vikentij Shandor, his brother Bohdan Shandor, also a UABA member, as well as other family members and many friends. He was remembered by his colleagues and friends with a moment of silence at the meeting.

Given Ivan Shandor's prior involvement in the UABA scholarship program, the Shandor family proposed the formation of an Ivan Shandor Legal Scholarship Endowment Fund under the auspices of the UABA Scholarship Fund Inc. A committee was formed, consisting of Orest Jejna, Walter Lupan, Andre Michniak and Bohdan Shandor, for the purpose of electing a new administrator for the fund, formulating future goals and programs and evaluating scholarship candidates for the IRC 501(c) (3) corporation.

It was also at this morning session that the nominating committee, consisting of Andrij Fylypovych, Taras Gawryk and Myroslaw Smorodsky, proposed the following slate of officers and governors for the next two-year period: Ms. Pochoday (New Jersey), president; Mr. Piddoubny (New York), vice president; Mr. Ozaruk (New York), treasurer; Jurij Pazuniak (Delaware), secretary; Orest Jejna (Arizona), chairman of the board of governors; Hilary Kinal (Pennsylvania), Vera Kachnykewych (New York), Tanya Karpiak (Massachusetts), Mr. Michniak (Pennsylvania) and Markian Silecky (New Jersey and Kyiv), member of the board of governors. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved by the attending members.

Mr. Jejna, the outgoing president, thanked the officers and governors, as well as his wife, for their support over the years.

The afternoon session consisted of three diverse presentations. The first was a computer/Internet presentation provided on-line at the meeting by Mr. Smorodsky of Rutherford, N.J. Mr. Smorodsky is a former president of the UABA and is one of the principals of Brama, Inc., an Internet server that administers the UABA home page, as well as the home pages of other Ukrainian community organizations (the Brama server may be found at http://www.brama.com).

The members browsed the various sites on the Internet and viewed practical applications of some legal software programs that can substantially increase the productivity level of attorneys and ultimately decrease the bills of their clients.

Operation "Wisla"

The second topic at the afternoon session was notably different and of a very serious nature. Evhen Ladna and Myroslaw Ivanek jointly delivered a presentation on "Operation Wisla," the tragic Polish military operation of ethnic cleansing of Ukrainian ethnic territories, i.e., the Lemko, Boyko, San River, Kholm and Pidliashia regions, which commenced on April 28, 1947, as ordered by the Polish communist government.

The commentators, who graduated from the University of Warsaw and currently reside in Canada, were part of approximately 150,000 Ukrainian individuals forcibly deported from their ancestral homes. Under this Polish military operation, over 1,000 Ukrainian villages and towns, and hundreds of churches were destroyed; thousands of men, women and children (including prominent members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and religious leaders) were imprisoned and tortured in the Jaworzno concentration camp (a branch of the infamous Auschwitz KZ-Lager concentration camp for Ukrainians kept operational in 1947-1949).

Mr. Ivanek presented slides of supporting documentation, including copies of top secret Polish government documents authorizing and ordering the military operation, and personal statements made by survivors of the operation.

Mr. Ivanek said it was clear from the orders given to the Polish Armed Forces' General Staff in the fall of 1946 that Operation Wisla was meant to be a "final solution to the Ukrainian problem in Poland."

Mr. Ladna focused on the horrific details of the Jaworzno camp.

Mr. Ivanek's and Mr. Ladna's presentations left the audience emotionally moved and pondering the many legal and moral issues and questions raise by the Polish operation.

The Saturday afternoon meeting ended with a brief panel presentation by five undergraduate students from different regions of Ukraine studying in the disciplines of law, medicine, economics, arts and management. They are participants in the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program, which was formed a few years ago by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies Foundation of Toronto to give students from Ukraine an opportunity to work and study in the Canadian Parliament and on election campaigns.

On Saturday evening, the keynote dinner address was delivered by Charles B. Loewen, president and CEO of Ukraine Enterprise Corp. in Toronto and the former head of the Toronto Securities Exchange. The attendees were refreshed by Mr. Loewen's positive and interesting perspective on doing business in Eastern Europe, particularly in light of the more recent negative commentaries about Ukraine made by the U.S. Congress as well as the domestic and international press.

The conference ended on Sunday with meetings of the newly elected officers and governors, and the UABA 20th Anniversary Commemoration Committee. The UABA has decided to celebrate its 20th anniversary in Washington (anticipated date November 15).

The UABA has established a toll-free telephone line and has constructed a home page on the Internet. Anyone wishing to contact the Ukrainian American Bar Association (UABA) should do so by either writing, calling or e-mailing: Donna (or Bohdanna) T. Pochoday, Esq., President, Ukrainian American Bar Association, Briarwood at Chatham Glen, 4-G Avon Court, Chatham, NJ 07928-1765; telephones. (888) UABA-LAW (toll-free in U.S.), (973) 635-3167, (973) 701-0544; fax, (973) 701-1309; e-mail, [email protected]; home page: http://www.brama.com/

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