A chance speaking engagement by ISBA President Bob Downs at a Chicago area Rotary Club developed into his becoming a host for a few days to a Russian human rights attorney.

Dmitriy Kondratiev, owner of Vera Juridical Services in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, was in the United States on a Rotary cultural exchange. He was accompanied by fellow Novosibirsk Rotarian Edward Shornik, executive director of YMCA-Smile

Downs introduced the two Russians to officials of the American Bar Association, and he accompanied them to an International Visitor Leadership Program on Jan. 19 at The John Marshall Law School.

He also brought them to a meeting that day in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office of the Illinois Property Tax Lawyers Association, headed by Donald T. Rubin of the State and Local Taxation Section Council.

Rubin's question to Kondratiev about the Russian jury system elicited a laugh, followed by a description of a typical venire of retired judges, prosecutors and police officials.

Bail is set so high and so far out of reach that the average defendant cannot afford it, he added, but Russians take things the way they are and work with the system.

Shornik told the group that there is no such thing as a charitable deduction in Russia, where the individual tax burden is about 65 percent. Legal services for the poor are non-existent, because lawyers get no break for providing pro bono representation.

Kondratiev had spoken to the International Practice Section of the Washington State Bar Association last August on “Judicial Corruption in Russia: Ethical Challenges Facing Lawyers Under the Russian Code of Professional Responsibility.”

He drew a distinction between “real corruption,” such as taking bribes, and “false corruption,” which he said is characterized by judicial incompetence and inexperience.

A graduate of the Novosibirsk Law School of Tomsk State University, Kondratiev is a founder of a regional lawyers' union and recipient of a Siberian Themis Award from the legal community for outstanding contributions to the cause of jural state development.

He has trained Russian lawyers for practice in the European Court of Human Rights, prepared federal bills for the Center for Legal Investigations, and served on an anti-corruption organization.