Master class "Why advocates defend criminals, or the art of advocacy"

On the Day of the Russian Bar, Elena Lvova – a well-known Moscow advocate – spoke on the high art of advocacy and on what to do if the advocate knows that the person is guilty.

A free master class “Why advocates defend criminals?” was held at the Pioneer cinema in the Gorky Park on May 31.

Elena Yulianovna spoke about complicated situations, in which advocates find themselves, citing examples of well-known Hollywood films, and shared her wide experience of splendidly won cases that had seemed hopeless at first.

E.Lvova has won her reputation as one of the best innovating advocates in the jury. In the course of the master class, she spoke of the moral bases of the profession and understanding of the defender’s role in the Russian system of justice as well as of the “people’s trial” (the jury), its involvement with the sentences.

"An advocate in trial is a warrior as much as an actor. In his competition against the prosecution, he must not abandon the field without having exhausted his entire arsenal: an unorthodox position, rigid defense tactics, figurative speech, the irresistible convincing power", - such is Elena Yulianovna’s conviction.

Elena Yulianovna Lvova, Doctor-at-Law, Head of the Penal Proceedings Practice of the Law Firm "YUST". Founder, director and actress of the Russian Realistic Studio Theater in Moscow.

Elena Lvova has always been interested in human psychology. She has always wondered: what motives could a person have, who is going to commit a crime? So she became an advocate.

«I started studying the fates of people trying to understand what they were brought to liability for. If one sees the most intelligent person, who is several steps ahead of others and is unjustly punished by the system for being that way, one loses faith in the system», - E.Lvova recollects.

Elena Lvova was awarded the Themis 1997 Higher Legal Award of Russia in the nomination “Human Rights Defender” in 1998. In 2001, she was included in the book of the best Russian advocates “Russian Bar at the break of the century”. She was awarded a diploma of the participant of the federal program “Famous women of Russia”.

E.Lvova participated in the GKChP case proceedings, worked as defense in the course of investigation of the October events of 1993 in Moscow, was involved with the elaboration of the Presidential side tactics in the proceedings of preparation of impeachment of Boris Yeltsin.

She was the defense attorney of advocate V.Parshutkin (an international adoption case). She managed to obtain a series of acquittals from the Moscow Region Court with the participation of a jury.

Elena Lvova recounted her experience in two popular books for advocates: “Defense in a Criminal Case” and “Proving in Criminal Proceedings”.