Victoria Kulik
This is not the first time the bar association has mobilized in response to Ukraine's geopolitical struggles. The group came together in 2014 to protest Russia's annexation of Crimea. At the time, Kulik, who has long been active in the bar's leadership ranks, was serving as a member of its board of governors.
Kulik spoke to Law360 Pulse on Friday about the bar association's efforts to help victims of the war. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How has this conflict affected you?
My entire father's side of the family lives in central Ukraine, and Russian forces are just about reaching that area. They have not had as much shelling or suffering as Kharkiv or Kiev. However, there, they are having to spend nights and cellars and there's air raids and sirens going out there as well.
Nobody is safe in Ukraine right now.
What are you feeling called to do right now?
We're doing the best we can, and everybody's doing what they can on an individual level. The Ukrainian American Bar Association is partnering up at this time with the New York State Bar Association to put together a Ukraine taskforce. And there are numerous committees, one of them is the immigration committee, which I'm a co-lead of. We built a centralized website for services and assistance where people can file forms, so you can match opportunities with attorneys [who want to help]. The American Bar Association has been collecting lists of volunteers.
The Ukrainian American Bar Association also signed a letter in support of grants of Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians.
What are vetted resources people can contribute time and money to?
There's an official account set up by the National Bank of Ukraine to donate directly to Ukrainian armed forces and to humanitarian groups as well, for those who want to directly contribute to communities. The other way is, there are U.S.-based organizations collecting money, such as the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
There will be information that we can share on [the UABA's] website, and everything is being developed in real time. We are putting in place infrastructure as I mentioned, as part of the Ukraine task force. Locally, if folks want to reach out to their law schools and state and city bar associations and see what they are doing, everybody can do their part, especially being an attorney.
What has the response been like overall from the U.S. legal industry and from the U.S. in general?
It's been wonderful, and from Americans who are not Ukrainians. It's overwhelming and very, very much appreciated. We can always use more, obviously, because there's so much need right now on the ground, for medical supplies, for food, for shelter. So many Ukrainian nationals were displaced. I think it was a million in just eight days.
At my firm — and I'm speaking as the president of the Ukrainian American Bar Association, not for the firm — I'm working with Alston & Bird's director of pro bono and community engagement to inform people. And people are reaching [out], and they're offering to help, asking what they can do, and that's great, obviously.
As far as a workload, obviously that's the challenge. Some of it I just have to divert to somebody else to take over because I just haven't had the bandwidth, being the president of this organization and the face of the UABA and getting so many emails and calls and conference calls, and it's very overwhelming.
What does it mean to you to take on this role?
I'm Ukrainian. I was 16 years old when I left Ukraine. To me, it's just as close as anyone who is on the ground there. My classmates are fighting out the front — these are the guys that I went to school with for years and years and years and grew up with. And it's like that for all Ukrainians around the world. And that's what it means to me. They're fighting there, and we're fighting here doing the best that we can.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
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