EVOLUTION OF THE ATTORNEY’S SPECIALIZATIONS: DIGITAL AGE CHALLENGES

The tendencies of specification of advocacy as a general trend of development of the legal services market and a method of increase of competitiveness of attorneys in the conditions of formation of digital reality are considered. It has been proven that this practice is prevalent in many many countries and complies with international standards of advocacy. It was noted a change in the concept of understanding of specialization in the legal profession, which used to be seen as the accumulation of long-standing knowledge and practice, so that attorneys with extensive experience were best prepared for any case. This concept has now changed and specialization has come to be understood as a built practice in a particular area of law. Attention is paid to the dynamics of the attorneys's specializations, because some of them lose importance, and others on the contrary actualize. Now the most promising ones are those related to technology, intellectual property, medical and pharmaceutical sphere, etc. Subsequently, each of them may appear a new, more profile specialization. Many attorneys are trained, for example, in digital law, in which a wide range of relationships is expanding with the development of digitalization, that covers legal relations on electronic information exchange and storage, social networking, creating business models on the Internet and other technological innovation products. It has been proven that the development of digital technologies and the related changes in legislation offer attorneys significant prospects. Consequently, the legal community cannot ignore the challenges posed by the development of digital reality, which transforms the legal competence, working methods, specializations. The Bar of Ukraine, professing professionalism as the basis of functioning, can not ignore the worldwide trends in the development of this sphere. Its reform should take into account the experience of countries that have gone much longer than the domestic legal profession, the way of standardization the attorney branch specialization.