Membership
The Eesti Ettevõtlusjuristide Ühendus (EEU) currently has around 70 members, all working as in-house lawyers. Estonian law states that private practice lawyers are not entitled to become in-house lawyers, unless they suspend their bar membership.
Status
The EEU is a sub-group of Estonian Lawyers Union (ELU), with whom it shares its office, budget and education and training programme. While members of Estonian Bar Association cannot become in-house lawyers, they can become members of the ELU. The ELU includes members who are representing all legal professions, e.g. judges, notaries, advocates, prosecutors, in-house lawyers, bailiffs, and students.
Current leadership
The EEU is run by a ten-member executive board, elected for a three-year term of office. The current EEU leader is Mrs Katrin Truve, in-house legal advisor at Rimi Eesti Food AS.
The EEU organises several ad hoc working groups, which advise the association on specific matters. One of these groups recently worked on a new certification programme for in-house lawyers (see below). Another is currently examining whether the ELU should expand its training and education programme to also include events specifically aimed at in-house lawyers. A third group is tasked with marketing the EEU in general, and increasing the number of members.
International links
The EEU has been a member of ECLA, the European Company Lawyers Association since 2000.
Current hot topics
Together with their colleagues at the ELU, the EEU recently undertook an initiative to enhance the status of in-house lawyers in Estonia. And, following a two-year campaign, they largely succeeded.
The campaign saw the ELU lobby the Estonian Qualifications Authority (EQA) to formally recognise their proposed ‘quality standard’ certificate for in-house lawyers. In 2006, the EQA agreed to the ELU’s proposal, and granted it permission to issue the certificates. Since the scheme was launched in 2008, 28 certificates – which remain valid for four years - have been issued.
The certification scheme establishes three different levels of qualifications for in-house legal advisors, depending on their level of education, their career history, and the outcome of an ELU-administered exam. Whatever level of certification they aim to achieve, all candidates are assessed on the following basis:
* Their general competences (i.e. management skills, IT knowledge, ethics)
* Their technical legal skills. This includes both legal knowledge and also skills in relation to drafting and negotiation.
* Their personal characteristics (i.e. analytical skills, accuracy etc)
In order to achieve the highest level of professional standards, legal advisors are required to complete both a university degree, and to have spent at least five years working as a legal advisor.
Going forward, the one of the main purpose of the project is to enhance the reputation of in-house lawyers. The EEU hopes that the Estonian Ministry of Justice, will grant legal advisors who obtain the highest level certificate, both legal professional privilege and the right to appear before the Estonian Supreme Court. At present, only members of the private practice Estonian Bar Association enjoy these special privileges.
EEU board member Tiina Sepa hopes that, in future, employers will increasingly regard the organisation’s certificate as a recognised quality standard when recruiting new in-house legal advisors. However, she admits it will take time for all employers to recognise the importance of this new qualification. “Most employers probably haven’t heard of the certificate, because it has only been available for a short time,” she says. “But we’re hoping it will become more popular in the future.”
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