I was with some Swedish tourists yesterday. One of them is a lady lawyer and belongs to an association called lawyers without frontiers. This is a new association and last month they've sent two reps to Turkey to sit on a court hearing. The case was against a Turk who had written some pro Kurdish articles. He refused to hide and went to Turkey for trial. Last minute, the Turks called the trial off. Was the presence of the foreigners the reason? Or what?
The lady met two Armenian lawyers and had a friendly chat. Some irrelevant/relevant facts:
There are 3000 lawyers in Sweden, a county with 8 million population and 500 in Armenia, with approx. two million population.
In Sweden, 10 percent of them is female, in Armenia close to 30 percent.
The legal structure of both countries is quite similar. (For details go and see a lawyer or two.)
In Sweden they pay exorbitant membership fees to Lawyers' association, in return, (among other things) get a monthly magazine, get courses (but have to pay for it), and very essential for them, get insurance coverage.
In Armenia, lawyers (among other things) get to use the building of the association for an office if they need to (can't afford to have their own office), get free lectures, no insurance for the lawyers yet. X-Soviet countries still discussing the subject matter.
Future job opportunities in Armenia: establishing private law firms and insurance coverage for lawyers.