Broadening Legal Horizons: UP Finalists at the Business Ombudsman Council

Victory is always a significant achievement. But what if it doesn’t mark the end of the road — what if it launches a new chapter? That’s exactly what happened to the finalists and winners of the UP 2024–2025 internship program, organized by the Ukrainian Legal Clinics Association.

On June 23, 2025, students from the legal clinics of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the State University of Trade and Economics met with the team of the Business Ombudsman Council. Council representatives shared real-life cases from their practice, talked about the kinds of challenges businesses typically face, and explained the legal protection mechanisms that actually work. Special emphasis was placed on the core values that guide the Council’s work: transparency, accountability, and effectiveness.

For the students, this was an opportunity to see the law in action, ask questions and get firsthand answers, and better understand the role a lawyer can play in protecting business rights.

“Thank you for this opportunity and for the motivation to keep going. The work of the Business Ombudsman Council is a powerful example of what a modern legal defense front should look like,”
— shared students from the State University of Trade and Economics.

Encounters like this help future legal professionals expand their networks, witness the real-world application of the law, and build a value-based foundation — with integrity as a defining feature of the legal profession.

The visit was organized with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and funded by the Government of Sweden.