Psychology of technology: Anna Volynets about how the work of a lawyer combines mathematics with a “living language” for Vecherny St. Petersburg
Anna Volynets, head of projects at Prime Advice, told Vecherka about how the work of a lawyer combines mathematics with a "living language" and why a popular scientific explanation can be decisive in a lawsuit. The case under whose leadership won the nomination "Business for Business".
— How and when did you realize that you want to develop in the legal environment?
— There are lawyers in my family, and as a child I was told: look what a wonderful profession this is. After graduating from the Faculty of law, you can become a judge, a prosecutor, an investigator, a lawyer, and a lawyer at an enterprise ... For a 17-year-old man, choosing a profession on this basis seemed quite pragmatic.
However, in the 3rd year, I realized that I would not have so many options. I realized that I would definitely not be able to become a prosecutor, investigator, or criminal defense lawyer. Too empathetic for that.
But in the end, I like the profession. It combines the love of solving mathematical problems and the desire to write texts well. On the one hand, there is argumentation. On the other hand, a living language. So the path is pragmatic, but successful.
Lately, psychology has been increasingly needed in this mix.
— At what point does psychology "connect" to the work of a lawyer?
— I deal more with court cases, and psychology occupies a large place in such processes. The lawyer not only convinces with formal arguments, but also constantly monitors reactions. You need to focus on the judge, quickly catch the feedback.
There is also a place for psychology in transactions — there are always a lot of negotiations.
Plus, if we are talking about mediation — and there are processes where it is objectively better for people to negotiate — it is important to be able to feel both your client and opponents.
— Is mediation, a method of peaceful conflict resolution, becoming more "accepted" in Russia? There is an opinion that in courts people often tend not to negotiate, but to prove their case before the final one — it happens that to their detriment.
— Often, even lawyers themselves consider negotiations and any mediation as an indicator that we have "given up" and are not confident in our abilities. But it seems to me unprofessional to put personal ambitions above an objective assessment of the situation. When we see that, for example, the case is complicated and the prognosis of the outcome is extremely uncertain, we suggest that clients consider the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the dispute.
I notice that people in the current realities are striving for clarity. On the contrary, waiting for a court decision is always an uncertainty. First instance, appeal, cassation… And the terms of the settlement agreement — regardless of what they are — the client knows immediately. And he puts an end to the matter faster.
— It is also always curious how a lawyer chooses "his" practices. What was your path?
— Why are many people so attracted to judicial work? If you do not take on an ultra-narrow specialization, then you remain in the field of a wide variety of activities. This is diversity.
Bankruptcy — one might say, my second specialization — also includes a large block of judicial work. If bankruptcy is complicated, then there are many conflicts and isolated disputes inside. And there is a constant interest in this too: bankruptcy is like a chess game. It focuses on strategy, because one lost dispute does not solve anything yet.
— However, in the case of electronic bidding, with which you became the winner of the Citywide rating of VP lawyers, you had to act strategically…
— The case was related to the sale of a land plot, but the most important points concerned not real estate and land law issues, but a completely different area — technological. Namely, the problems of signal transmission from the user's computer to the server of the electronic trading platform and the issues of processing these signals by the server.
This is the case when my colleagues and I had to draw visual diagrams: where the router is located, where the server is, how the signal passes ... of course, it was difficult for the judge to understand this. Yes, we already had the conclusions of technical specialists. But this is 10-15 pages of complex text on technical issues, and the judges are already overloaded. That's why we decided to invite a specialist expert with specialized education from Bauman Moscow State Technical University to the court session, who was able to explain the essence of the problem in simple words, but professionally. He answered our questions in the presence of the judge. And this is the only way to convince the court that it is necessary to demand data on Internet connections from communication service providers, which will be evidence in the case.
A separate question is how we then analyzed these provider data. Providers are used to responding to requests from law enforcement agencies, but we needed information in a slightly different way.
— In general, have technologies become more often "mixed in" with the usual lawsuits?
— Yes, courts have been having technical issues with Internet connections lately. For example, there was a case when in a bankruptcy case they tried to prove the imaginary sale of a country house by a debtor: they provided information that the debtor stayed in this house for about 200 days a year after the alleged "sale", as evidenced by mobile data from his number. The data was received through towers that are located nearby. Yes, it is extremely difficult to do this, but attempts are being made. It is too early to judge their success.
Of course, digitalization and Internet technologies are penetrating into all spheres. And there will only be more issues related to this in our work.
The case of Anna Volynets
1st place
A client of the lawyers (a St. Petersburg entrepreneur) took part in electronic auctions for the sale of a plot conducted by bailiffs and the Federal Property Management Agency as part of enforcement proceedings.
After the client's bid at the auction, the website of the electronic trading platform (ETP) became unavailable. With the resumption of the resource, it turned out that the auction ended after the bid of another participant, moreover, at a low price of 11 million rubles (with a market price of up to 200 million rubles).
The task is to invalidate the auction in court, proving that access to the ETP is disabled for the client.
The lawyers presented the conclusions of IT specialists, who, after analyzing the ETP log files and the responses of Internet communication providers, came to the conclusion that the ETP did not provide equal uninterrupted access to the auction to all its participants.
The complexity of the case consisted in disclosing to the court the subtle technical issues of the transmission of connection signals from the bidder's devices to the ETP website, in demanding evidence from communication service providers and in proving the ETP's hidden blocking of participation in the auction.