The “Himoya”Academy is lighting up new stars: a corporate law school was held in Dushanbe.
12 seniorstudents and law graduates have completed their studies at the Himoya Academy.For a month, they studied the practical aspects of the work of corporatelawyers under the guidance of the best specialists of the Himoya Law Firm, theTax Committee and the Patent Information Centre of Tajikistan.
During the4 years that our company has been working in the corporate law market, we haveconducted many interviews and made sure from our own experience that there arevery few specialists who know corporate law from a practical point of view. Lawfaculties of Tajik universities regularly produce new and new specialists, butmost of them go to government agencies, bypassing private companies.
The HimoyaAcademy is a program for the practical training of lawyers in the field ofcorporate law. The theoretical base that is obtained in universities isimportant, and legal education was the main requirement for the participants ofthe Academy. But in the practice of a corporate lawyer, there are manysubtleties and difficulties for which universities do not prepare. This isexactly the kind of training we tried to give at the Khimoy Academy.
The participants got an idea of what they might face in their work with tax andpatent offices from the employees of the same structures. This is such anecessary minimum, without which it will be difficult for a graduate at thebeginning of his practice. It is possible that in the next streams we will adda course on labor law to this minimum and increase the number of hours in othercourses.
Everyweekday evening for a month (from September 14 to October 14), 12 young guys -graduates and senior students of law faculties - gathered in the office of ourcompany. Under the careful guidance of specially invited lecturers, theystudied the fundamentals of the work of corporate lawyers..
Our projectwas supported by the British Embassy, and the PR-specialist of the Embassyeven conducted 2 optional trainings for the students of the Academy: "Howto write a successful resume" and "The basics of publicspeaking." In general, the training program included trainings oncorporate and tax law, intellectual property protection and English forlawyers. We received more than 40 applications, and only 10 people wereplanning to recruit, so the selection was rather tough. The applicationincluded a resume and a letter of motivation, then each selected on theapplication was interviewed. There were many strong guys, and in the end, wetook 12 people. It was important for us that as many girls as possible receivedthe opportunity to study at the Academy. As a result, we managed to maintain agender balance: we had 6 guys and 6 girls.
Before thestart of the trainings, the company "Himoya" received a license fromthe Agency for Supervision in Education and Science under the President of theRepublic of Tajikistan "On conducting educational courses." Corporatelawyers constantly interact with government agencies in their work. Therefore,we decided that it was their representatives who would be able to show thepractical side of the work well. We sent an official letter to the TaxCommittee and the Patent Office with a request to allocate specialists toconduct trainings, which they themselves appointed. To some extent it wasrisky, we did not know who would be sent to us. But the fears turned out to bein vain. Farkhod Boirzoda, head of the legal department of the PatentInformation Center, is simply a rare specialist to look for. At his trainings,I myself learned a lot. Nazirjon Nazirzoda, senior specialist of the TaxCommittee, also turned out to be a good professional and did an excellent jobwith the task that we set before him. When preparing the training program, thelecturers relied on our main requirement - not to go far into theory, theAcademy participants were already well acquainted with it.
At the endof the course, the participants took an exam and received certificates ofcompletion.
Accordingto the feedback from the participants of our Academy, many were able todetermine their future specialization and plan to continue in the field ofcorporate law. This is encouraging, because we counted on this when creatingthe project. This area is greatly underestimated by university graduates, butit is here that talented lawyers can have decent incomes and earn honestly,without bribes.
Someonedecided to study patent law more deeply. They certainly won't become corporatelawyers, they are called patent attorneys. This status must be obtained fromthe patent office itself. Patent attorneys are independent and necessaryplayers in the legal services market. For example, according to the laws of Tajikistan,all foreign organizations are required to register their trademarks andproducts through such attorneys. A highly qualified specialist in this fieldalso makes very good money.
In additionto the fact that the participants of the Academy took the right direction inthe profession, some of them may have already found their first job. I myselflooked after a few guys. Our company also felt the consequences of thepandemic, now we still cannot afford to expand our staff. But as soon as thesituation stabilizes a little, I want to invite them to my work.
Since theproject was being developed long before the pandemic, we planned to invitedirectors of various companies to the final ceremony to present our graduatesto them. Unfortunately, we had to abandon a large-scale event in order tocomply with security measures. We are often contacted in search of specialists,now we can offer resumes of our graduates. The very fact of their employmentand further work will help us understand how effective our course was.
The HimoyaAcademy also brings longer-term benefits. The more competent corporate lawyersa society gets, the easier it is to fight corruption. Of course, we cannot yettalk about its eradication, but we can move towards its reduction. Many companiesdo not have their own lawyers, they do not know what the law says on certainissues and cannot protect their rights from those who use it. A qualifiedlawyer will protect the company from both unauthorized checks and varioustricks used by ransomware.
By reducingthe level of corruption or bringing the work of companies to internationalstandards thanks to the presence of lawyers in the state, we directly andindirectly influence the position of Tajikistan in various ratings ofinvestment attractiveness. Positive, of course. Here's an example. A foreigninvestor, opening his company, where there is at least one of the foreignemployees, is obliged to obtain a license to carry out activities related tothe attraction of foreign labor. The statutory condition for obtaining thislicense is mandatory legal support. In practice, this means that a foreigninvestor, opening his company in the Republic of Tatarstan, where at least oneof the employees is a foreigner, receives the above license and he simply needsa lawyer on his staff.
Of course,12 graduates of the Academy cannot completely cover this need, but a start hasbeen made. We plan to do this on an ongoing basis. We do not yet know iftraining at the Academy will remain free. But since the project has real socialsignificance and effect, we hope for donor assistance.
This isreally a pilot, in some way innovative, project. I have not seen alternativesin Tajikistan yet. Usually, trainings of a narrow focus are held, but there wasno law school yet. When we approved the training program, we decided tosupplement it with optional courses on resume writing and writing motivationletters, as well as on the basics of public speaking. I conducted thesetrainings for them. I had something to share: I studied public speaking inAmerica according to the methodology compiled by the speechwriter of BarackObama, and have ten years of speaking experience.
During thetwo days that I spent with the guys, they managed to surprise me. This wasarguably one of the most demanding audiences I have come across. The generallevel of education and intelligence of the participants is high - they wentthrough a rather tough selection. I really liked that they were involved andrealized the value of this knowledge. Therefore, it was especially pleasant toreceive positive feedback from them about the training. I also attended thetrainings of other teachers (as part of the monitoring activities) and waspleased with them. The main idea behind the academy - more practice, lesstheory - was fully followed. Only practical knowledge and life hacks fromspecialists working in this field!
I reallyhope that the Himoya company will continue their initiative, on a paid basis orusing donor support. Because one of the main criteria of the projects that wesupport is sustainability.
Ourdepartment is often asked to provide training for entrepreneurs. It's alwaysinteresting, but the organizers of the Himoy Academy had special requirementsfor the training program. Therefore, the preparation and the classes themselveswere a new and interesting experience.
Thetrainings were intense, we had to deal with many topics: patenting, trademarks,inventions, geographical indications, breeding achievements, copyright andothers. The guys are very active. Some already knew a little about our field.But this area is very difficult for lawyers. In all of Tajikistan, you can findonly 10-15 good specialists in patent law. They are needed in Tajikstandart, inthe Organized Crime Control Department, in the prosecutor's office, in customsstructures, in the Ministry of Justice. I'm not even talking about commercialenterprises.
Half of theAcademy's participants became interested in patent law. Of course, the threetrainings that I conducted are not enough to start practicing in thisparticular area. It is necessary to take additional courses. Our departmentconducts such courses. However, this is a good base for yesterday's graduate. Ithink some of the guys will make good patenting specialists.
If thereare new streams of the Academy, I will gladly participate.
I learnedabout the Academy itself from my teachers at the university, and only then fromsocial networks how to get there. During my studies, I went through manydifferent trainings, but we have not yet had a corporate law school in ourcity. I applied without hesitation.
Ourteachers analyzed the material of the trainings with us on the example of realcases from the practice of Tajikistan. Now I already understand how to advisecorrectly, how to direct them to the correct rule of law, what to do in generalif a person turns to me for help.
I have anamazing experience of the courses of Parviz Jamalov. It is so important towrite your resume correctly. It turns out the rules can differ depending on theprofession. But this is not taught anywhere! In the course of English forlawyers, which was taught by Sino Safarov, we studied specific terminology andthrough games we removed the language barrier.
I was veryinterested in patent law. Our teacher showed some of the intricacies of theprofession, and I wanted to learn more about it. When the courses start at thePatent Information Center, I will definitely submit the documents.
I reallyenjoyed all the courses. There was only practice, this is not in textbooks. Forexample, we were shown how to register a company with the tax authoritiesonline.
Ispecialize in administrative law, so the trainings given by a specialist fromthe Tax Committee were especially helpful.
After theAcademy, we got more confidence. Now we know more about what we will face on adaily basis at work, we can do more. The classes were conducted byrepresentatives of government agencies and they showed how exactly you need tointeract with them. We were taught how to write a resume that will not bethrown away by a future employer. This is a good start for graduates.
“Practicalaspects of the tax legislation of the Republic of Tajikistan” where thelecturer was the leading specialist of the Tax Committee under the Governmentof the Republic of Tajikistan Bahrom Nazirzoda;
"IntellectualProperty", where the lecturer was Farhod Boirzoda, Head of the Departmentof Legal Support and Special Unit of the National Patent Information Centerunder the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Republic ofTajikistan; "
Practicalaspects of corporate law, where the lecturer was the General Director of theLaw Firm“ Himoya ”;
“Oratory”,“resume writing and writing motivation letters”, where the lecturer was thepublic relations specialist of the British Embassy Parviz Jamalov;
“Englishfor Lawyers”, where the lecturer was the director of the language center“Polyglot”, Sino Safarov;