Chamber of Lawyers candidate promises drastic reforms if elected president

Kromvel Grigoryan, a public defender running for the president of Armenia’s Chamber of Lawyers, says he will lead efforts to root out the existing imperfections in the system in case of being elected.

Speaking to Tert.am, the lawyer said his very first task will be the fight against what he called the ins and outs ideology that has existed in the Chamber in the past eight years, since the election of Ruben Sahakyan as their president.

The lawyer says he has had conflicts with Sahakyan over the past period, ever since he voted against him at the Chamber’s elections in 2004.

Grigoryan promises to put an end to the existing divide in the big family of lawyers.

“A public defender can be only the one who is considered an ‘in’ person. Do you know what it means to be a lawyer who is just a beginner? That’s someone who doesn’t yet have either clients or a name and needs help at the beginning of his or her career. Those who receive the president’s favor to become public defenders are secured with a monthly stable salary on the one hand, and come to be known by potential clients on the other. So, a promotion in that office is the ‘in peoples’ monopoly, as a matter of fact,” Grigoryan noted.

He further promised to do everything possible to restore the Chamber’s reputation.

“The memorandum signed by the Chamber’s president and the chief of police is not something normal for me,” he said, referring to a memorandum of understanding signed with the Armenian Police last year. “What the memorandum says is that the Police actually perform their duties prescribed by the law. But they sign a memorandum for some reason.”

The candidate considers his chances of election high, feeling confident that he enjoys a big support among the lawyer colleagues.

“I have been involved in very high profile cases. I have been principled and never taken an action against a client. Agencies responsible for a proceeding have many times before made collaboration offers, which have always been rejected,” Grigoryan added.

The Chamber is electing a president on September 14. The campaign is now under way. Four lawyers – Ara Zohrabyan, Kromvel Grigoryan, Ashot Tadevosyan and Tigran Atanesyan – are running for election this year.