Ukrainian American Bar Association celebrates 25th anniversary (10/06/02)

Ukrainian American Bar Association celebrates 25th anniversary

by Tamara Stadnychenko-Cornelison
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

PHILADELPHIA - Twenty-five years ago, on September 23-24, 1977, a group of Ukrainian American attorneys gathered in Cleveland to discuss an idealistic agenda. Their vision was to organize a national association of American attorneys of Ukrainian descent, an association that could provide a collegial framework in which individual attorneys could use their respective legal training and expertise to promote and defend the interests of the Ukrainian American community and bring to the attention of the international community the manifold human rights violations occurring in Soviet Ukraine.

Twenty-five years later, that association is a well-established fixture in the Ukrainian American community, one that has retained at its core the two principles that led to its creation. Today the Ukrainian American Bar Association is recognized as a professional body with a significant voice in both domestic and international legal issues.

On September 27-29, UABA members gathered at the Sheraton Rittenhouse Square Hotel in Philadelphia to participate in a professional conference, to celebrate their 25th anniversary and to honor a select group of individuals for their special achievements.

The event, which opened with a reception hosted on Friday evening by current UABA President Andre Michniak, was well attended. Professional seminars, each related to the theme of recent developments in American and Ukrainian law, began with a Saturday morning presentation by Nancy E. Medwid, a member of the UABA Board of Governors. Ms. Medwid spoke on recent developments in employment law in the United States. A session on how attorneys might use the World Wide Web to enhance their professional activities was presented by website designer Roman A. Lupan.

The afternoon session began with a workshop on Ukrainian foreign adoptions. Presenters were lawyers Peter Piddoubny and Svitlana Labets, Esq.; Darrell Clark, founder of Children Are Hope; and Steve Vetterlein, founder of the Ukrainian Orphaned Children's Fund of Philadelphia.

The second afternoon seminar, dealing with credit unions in Ukraine, was presented by Dean Mahon, director of microfinance and small business development of World Education Inc.

The UABA's gala banquet, preceded by a cocktail reception, was held on Saturday evening. Guests were officially welcomed by President Michniak, who spoke briefly about the founding of the UABA, citing the enormous challenges faced by the founders in the political climate of the day.

"The Soviet Union's power," he stated, "was at its height, and was consistently unleashed against Ukrainian writers, poets and lawyers." He cited the relentless Russification of Ukraine and the equally relentless attempts of the Soviet government to discredit Ukrainians in the diaspora by labeling them "Nazi collaborators" and traitors. Unfortunately, evidence supplied by Soviet sources, Mr. Michniak continued, was considered acceptable in American courts. The absence of proper representation, both for individuals and for an entire ethnic community, was more the rule than the exception. It was the dream of the Ukrainian American attorneys who gathered in Cleveland in 1977 to offer their time and professional expertise to correct this situation.

Today, Mr. Michniak continued, many things have changed. Having shed Soviet subjugation, independent Ukraine has been working to implement post-independence reforms and an adherence to the rule of law. Acknowledging that the paradigm shift is a difficult one, Mr. Michniak emphasized that the support of several extraordinary individuals has made a tremendous difference.

At this juncture, Mr. Michniak introduced the first honoree of the evening, Rep. Bob Schaffer from Colorado, who serves as co-chair of the Ukrainian caucus in the U.S. Congress. The Republican congressman, who has visited Ukraine eight times, is knowledgeable about Ukraine's historical struggle against Soviet domination and has nurtured valuable exchanges between members of the Ukrainian Parliament and American legislators. In recognition of his outstanding work in supporting independent Ukraine, he was presented with the UABA's first Rule of Law Award.

In his gracious and entertaining acceptance speech, Rep. Schaffer spoke of his Ukrainian grandparents, a grandfather who told stories of Ukraine's history and a grandmother who was instrumental in teaching him about the Ukrainian character - slow to trust and wary of financial, political and legal institutions. In an intriguing anecdote, Congressman Schaffer then described the path that led him to the creation of the Ukrainian caucus.

Elected to represent the people of the state of Colorado, he was determined to be an active advocate of their interests. Believing that he could benefit from the advice of a senior member of Congress, he asked Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia, how best to achieve this goal. Wolf's startling reply was that he should "pick a country, learn more about it than anyone else here and learn how to care for that country." The fledgling congressman was taken aback, but told his older and wiser colleague that his mother was Ukrainian and thus he was inclined to choose Ukraine. Rep. Wolf responded, "Well, it's yours. We need someone to think about Ukraine."

A serendipitous meeting with Pennsylvania Congressman Jon Fox, a longtime supporter of the Ukrainian community in his state, followed, and from this meeting came the idea of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus. The caucus now boasts 53 members and is one of the most active on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Schaffer spoke about his recent visit to Ukraine with Bohdan Futey, a federally appointed judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. As an election observer, the congressman visited Donetsk, spending time with the miners by "crawling on my belly underground." He explained that his experiences with ordinary people and with Ukrainian legislators and diplomats have left him with two impressions, the first of these being that the Ukrainian people must learn to believe in the power of a system that is based on the rule of law, and the second being that Ukraine has the potential to be a great nation.

He stressed, as well, that the legal profession has much to offer Ukraine, that it can provide much-needed assistance in developing, for example, a fair and uniform land code and a reliable legal code that supports an independent judiciary. He closed by citing the UABA for its "bridge-building" activities in encouraging Ukraine to evolve as a sovereign state built on the foundation of rule of law.

Mr. Michniak then introduced Judge Futey, the recipient of the UABA's second Rule of Law Award. In presenting the award, the UABA president commented on Judge Futey's commitment to Ukraine's new Constitution and the judge's role in influencing its formulation.

Accepting the award, Judge Futey recalled meetings with Ukrainian ministers unhappy about the lack of American investment in Ukraine. It was the ministers' lack of understanding about legal and financial impediments that made American investors wary of doing business in Ukraine that propelled him into an active role in helping Ukrainian legislators draft a new Constitution. Today, he stated, the Constitution of Ukraine merits recognition for its guarantee of human rights and because it is a document that represents the end of one era and the beginning of another.

The judge further commended Ukraine for making the transition to independence by means of the ballot box and diplomacy, but emphasized that many legal issues remain unresolved and that international observers of Ukrainian elections have noted that the elections are free, but not always fair. "The future," he concluded, is in Ukraine's own hands. "Outsiders can help or hinder, but their influence is marginal. It's really up to Ukraine."

As dinner was served, the UABA president introduced the Experimental Bandura Trio, composed of Julian Kytasty, Michael Andrec and Jurij Fedynskij. The incomparable Mr. Kytasty explained that the selections that would be played during the evening would include songs "taken out of the museum and given a modern sound." Those assembled seemed especially delighted by the "Bat Out of Hell Kozachok," one of several compositions and improvisations performed during the remainder of the banquet.

Dinner was followed by the presentation of awards recognizing the professional achievements of several attorneys who have changed in a significant way the lives of Ukrainian Americans long burdened by ill-deserved labels rooted in Soviet propaganda and in the turbulent struggles of World War II.

Mr. Michniak presented a brief review of the 1994 CBS broadcast "The Ugly Face of Freedom," calling it a scurrilous and bigoted attack on Ukraine and a "kick in the mid-section of the Ukrainian American community." He then spoke of the Ukrainian American attorneys who fought CBS in court, winning a victory that clearly taught CBS executives and others that they could not libel an entire ethnic community with impunity.

The three attorneys chosen to receive the UABA's Litigation Award in this matter were lead counsel Arthur Belendiuk, Bohdanna Pochoday-Stelmach, and Askold S. Lozynskyj. In accepting his award, Mr. Belendiuk defined the results of the lawsuit by stating that the "victory is that we have not seen any more programs like this." Ms. Pochoday-Stelmach commented that the action against CBS was a team effort, one that the litigators shared with a community that demonstrated, wrote letters and supported the attorneys in countless other ways. Mr. Lozynskyj was not present, but in a letter read by President Michniak, echoed the sentiment that the "award belongs to the community."

The three recipients of the second set of Litigation Awards were individuals who felt that Ukrainians who had suffered at the hands of the Nazis by being forced into labor camps for the benefit of the Third Reich deserved to be compensated for their pain and suffering. Filing class-action suits against Austrian and German companies that were the beneficiaries of slave labor, they were able to secure compensation for more than 600,000 Ukrainians.

Accepting his award, Myroslaw Smorodsky commented that the experience was a sobering one because it reopened horrible wounds. The compensation, he added, does not make up for it, but it is a step in the right direction. Danylo Kurdelchuk, the Ukrainian attorney who worked with Mr. Smorodsky to secure compensation for survivors in Ukraine, reminded those assembled that many of his compatriots returned from the German camps only to be transported to Soviet camps. Unable to attend the UABA event was Pyotr S. Rabinovich, who forwarded a letter expressing his gratitude for the award.

The Founders Award was presented to George Pazuniak, one of the Ukrainian American attorneys present at the meeting in Cleveland's Port of Call Inn where the Ukrainian American Bar Association had its humble beginnings. Mr. Pazuniak, who has been an active and committed UABA member since that time, accepted his award with a characteristic humility, protesting that "there was no founder; there was a group of people and this award should be shared with them." He made a point of singling out members of that group present in the audience, including those who were law students at the time, and sadly recited the names of some of those who had died in the intervening years. Like most of the previous award recipients, Mr. Pazuniak expressed his happiness at being recognized by a jury of his peers.

The final award of the evening was presented to an individual who is neither an attorney nor of Ukrainian descent. Steve Vetterlein, the founder of the Ukrainian Orphaned Children's Fund of Philadelphia became acquainted with the plight of Ukraine's orphans when he "just happened to see" a report on the subject that aired on the Ukrainian television program "Kontakt." Inspired to help these children, he organized a bike-a-thon to raise funds and to increase awareness of the problem. In accepting the UABA's Humanitarian Award, Mr. Vetterlein modestly stated his belief in the saying "Strive not to be a success, but strive to be of value."

The program ended with another musical performance by the Experimental Bandura Trio, one that included an amusing piece called "Advokat."

The following morning, UABA members convened in the Rittenhouse Conference Room for a business meeting. Reports were presented by UABA officers, the Board of Governors, and the Scholarship Committee. Before dispersing, the attorneys also discussed ongoing UABA projects and the 2003 conference venue and agenda.

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