Lawsuits against Tetyana Havrysh: clients accuse ILF/Inurpolis managing partner of fraud

It is quite natural that a trusting, partnership relationship usually arises between a client and a lawyer. This is due to the fact that the client needs to trust the lawyer with confidential information.

That is why one of the main principles of advocacy is the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest arises when a lawyer, having confidential materials of his client, begins to provide legal services to his opponent. All over the world, such behavior of a lawyer is considered, firstly, unworthy, and secondly, is directly prohibited by law. Therefore, it is very difficult to find such examples in advocacy practice, since any participation in a conflict of interest sharply affects the reputation of the lawyer, usually destroying it forever. Because which of the adequate people would want to deal with a lawyer who, having worked with you, will run to your competitor and will use the information received from you against you.

And now, this day has come: we have managed to discover a flagrant case of violation of the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest, and accordingly – a number of provisions of laws and the “Rules of Advocacy Ethics” by one Kharkiv lawyer. This is lawyer Tetyana Havrysh, managing partner of the law firm “ILF Law Firm”/“Inyurpolis”. We will tell you this story.

French Boulevard, a popular shopping mall in Kharkiv, is owned by Aksioma LLC, a five-member company. Ms Anna Kiprych owns 50% of the charter capital of this LLC. Ihor Sbitnev is the director of Aksioma LLC and its founder with 30% of the share capital.

In 2018, a corporate conflict arose between the shareholders of Aksioma LLC related to the management of the French Boulevard shopping centre. To resolve the conflict, the LLC members turned to the well-known Kharkiv-based law firm ILF/Inurpolis Law Firm, whose managing partner is attorney Tetiana Havrysh. The lawyers of ILF/Inurpolis were to provide mediation services to the parties to the conflict in order to distribute the real estate of Aksioma LLC in favour of all the company’s shareholders. The cooperation agreement was concluded on 18 January 2019, with several additional agreements added to it later.

The agreement was terminated on 20 January 2020. Thus, it was in force for a year. During this time, Ms Kiprych and her representatives provided ILF/Inurpolis lawyers with various confidential information and documents regarding the subject matter of the corporate conflict, the rights, duties, interests and obligations of the members of Aksioma LLC, the financial condition, management and governance of Aksioma LLC.

Despite mediation by Tetyana Havrysh and her lawyers, the conflict within Aksioma LLC was not resolved. In March 2020, Ms Kiprych filed a complaint with law enforcement authorities as a victim alleging that a criminal offence had been committed by the other four members of Axioma LLC. Criminal proceedings were opened and investigative actions were launched at the French Boulevard shopping centre. They revealed a number of fraudulent schemes on the part of the mall’s management, and the story attracted the attention of leading Ukrainian media. In addition, Ms Kiprych filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court of Kharkiv Region to conduct an audit of Aksioma LLC.

And here, during the investigation, a very piquant detail came to light. It turned out that the interests of Aksioma LLC and other members of this LLC in their conflict with Anna Kiprych are represented by... the ILF/Inurpolis Law Firm of Tetyana Havrysh!

For the reader to clearly understand all these conflicts, we will once again outline the key points. In 2019, Tetyana Havrysh and her ILF/Inurpolis lawyers provided legal assistance to Ms Kiprych and other members of Aksioma LLC in resolving an internal corporate conflict. At the same time, they received confidential information from Kiprich, which constitutes attorney-client privilege. And today, in a conflict between Kiprych and other members of Axioma LLC, Gavrysh represents the interests of Axioma LLC against Kiprych, using information and documents that Kiprich herself provided to her a year ago!

Such behaviour of lawyer Tetyana Havrysh is a violation of several articles of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Bar and Practice of Law’ (in particular, Articles 1, 4, 21, 28) and one of the basic principles of legal ethics - the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest. For example, pursuant to Article 28(2) of the Law of Ukraine ‘On the Bar and Practice of Law’, an advocate is prohibited from entering into a legal aid agreement and is obliged to refuse to enter into an agreement concluded by an advocate, law firm or law office if, in particular: the performance of the legal aid agreement may lead to disclosure of the attorney-client privilege; the advocate provides legal aid to another person whose interests may conflict with the interests of the person who applied for the agreement; the advocate is obliged to refuse to enter into an agreement with the person who applied for the legal aid agreement.

In addition, lawyer Tetyana Havrysh violated several articles of the Rules of Advocacy Ethics (Articles 9, 20, 34, 39), which regulate the ethical principles of advocacy in Ukraine, as well as the Code of Conduct for European Lawyers.

But that is not all. Pursuant to Article 78 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, a person is not entitled to participate in the same criminal proceedings as a defence counsel or representative also if he or she is providing or has previously provided legal assistance to a person whose interests are in conflict with the interests of the person who has applied for legal assistance.

Therefore, taking into account all of the above, Tetyana Havrysh and her firm ILF/Inurpolis had no right to enter into contracts for legal assistance to Axioma LLC and its individual members in their conflict with Anna Kiprych. This is expressly prohibited by both the applicable law and the rules of legal ethics.

It is unlikely that Tetyana Havrysh was unaware of all these legal norms and rules. Therefore, she deliberately violated the principle of avoiding conflicts of interest when providing legal assistance to the defendants in this case, thereby violating the rights and legitimate interests of Anna Kiprych.

As a result, Anna Kiprych was forced to apply to the court to prohibit the ILF/Inurpolis Law Firm and Tetyana Havrysh from providing legal assistance to Axioma LLC in general and its members in particular.

In general, it is frightening to realise that a lawyer you trust can suddenly take the side of your opponents, using confidential information received from you against you. As they say, you don’t wish such feelings on your enemy. And Tetyana Havrysh and her ILF/Inurpolis law firm have already broken through this bottom. So, when choosing a lawyer, be careful - he or she may be related to the ILF/Inurpolis Law Firm. Experience has shown that it is better to stay away from this firm.

On 26 June 2020, the Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv, having considered the materials of the statement of claim "Anna Kiprych v. ILF Law Firm, Tetyana Havrysh and others", decided to open general action proceedings and initiate preparatory proceedings in case No. 953/8218/20. The preparatory hearing of the Kyiv District Court of Kharkiv was scheduled for 21 July 2020.

The parties to the case can obtain all the necessary information in this case on the official web portal of the judiciary in Ukraine on the Internet at the address.