MOSCOW, December 11 - RAPSI. The system of rendering legal services in Russia needs to be reformed, Chairman of the Moscow City Bar Association (MCBA) Henry Reznik said at the "Dialogues on the Future" Second International Legal Congress.

"Literally anyone who wants to can render legal services in Russia. There are no special requirements for these people. They don't need to have any kind of education. It is disgraceful," he said.

The federal law on the bar adopted ten years ago does correspond to international standards, Reznik believes, and the bar itself does not need to be reformed.

"There are gaps in the law, but they do not concern the basic principles of the bar's activity," Reznik said.

He highlighted two main criteria when speaking about training specialists for rendering legal services. The first was higher legal education and second was transparent criteria of the profession's compliance with set standards and the legal practitioner's abidance by ethical standards.

Reznik also believes the activity of these professionals should be monitored by self-regulating organizations.

Pepelyayev Group managing partner Sergey Pepelyayev then reported that as well the 66,000 attorneys in Russia, at least 300,000 individuals render legal services in the country without a special professional status.