#WolneSądy

Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram is an attorney at law, mostly involving strategic litigation. She has worked at Clifford Chance in Warsaw for 13 years.

She is a co-creator of the civic initiative “Free Courts” and the Justice Defence Committee. Since April 2016, she has been an NGO Relations Coordinator at the Warsaw Bar Association. She is a member of the Board of the Association pro memoria Professor Zbigniew Hołda, originator and coordinator of the “Constitution Week” project. She is the co-author of the book: “Constitution. Rule of law. Judicial power. Current problems of the third power in Poland”

In her pro bono work, she has pursued a mission of supporting the development of a civic society in Poland. In 2016, Sylwia was awarded the title of pro bono lawyer of the year. As part of her work for the Justice Defence Committee, she represents Supreme Court and Supreme Administrative Court judges of over 65 years of age in proceedings with the objective to prevent their removal from active duty pursuant to the 2017 Act on the Supreme Court.

She also represents clients before the CJEU in proceedings initiated by preliminary rulings regarding the independence of the judiciary.

Maria Ejchart-Dubois is a human rights lawyer. She has been working for the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights – the largest NGO in Poland – for nearly 20 years. Within HFHR she has been coordinating various legal programs and working as a trainer and expert in human rights, both in Poland and abroad.

She is a member of the Social Council at the Ombudsman Office which supports Ombudsman in performing statutory tasks and co-chair of the Expert Committee of the National Preventive Mechanism.

Since 2015 she has been the President of the Management Board of the Association pro memoria Professor Zbigniew Hołda. She is a co-founder of the #FreeCourts Initiative. Since 2018 she has been coordinating the activities of the Justice Defence Committee (KOS), which was established in 2018 as an agreement of 13 leading NGOs operating in the area of the protection of human rights and the rule of law, as well as organisations associating judges and prosecutors. Within KOS, he represents repressed judges before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg.

Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik, a member of Warsaw Bar. She specialises in healthcare law, especially the Pharmaceutical Law, the Reimbursement Act and the Act on Medical Activity. Recommended for many years by Polish (Rzeczpospolita and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna) and international (Chambers Europe, Who’s Who, PLC Which Lawyer) rankings as the best specialist in pharmaceutical law in Poland.

Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik is also a co-founder of the Lege Pharmaciae Foundation, a non-governmental organisation formed to analyse and hold a public debate on defects in legal regulations in the healthcare sector. Paulina Kieszkowska-Knapik works with the Civic Legislation Forum at the Stefan Batory Foundation on the introduction of European lawmaking standards in Poland. She advises patient organisations pro bono, including the Polish Coalition of Cancer Patient Organisations, the Alivia Foundation and the Federation of Polish Patients.

She is a member of the Forum for Dialogue. One of the initiator and organiser of the #solidarityintruth action. Member of the #WolneSądy (#FreeCourts) initiative defending independence of the Polish judiciary.

A winner of the title “Female advocate of the year 2017” for her pro bono and civic activity.

Michał Wawrykiewicz is an attorney at law. He has been managing a practice in Warsaw since 2003. He specializes among others in constitutional law, European law and human rights law. He has been involved in the defence of the rule of law in Poland since the beginning of the constitutional crisis in 2015.

An expert of parliamentary working teams on Constitutional Governance and the Rule of Law, as well as on the Reform of the Judiciary, author of numerous opinions for the Parliamentary Analyses Bureau on legal acts regarding the judiciary. He was also an expert of the LIBE parliamentary committee (in the European Parliament) during the preparation of the report and during the hearing in the EP on the rule of law in Poland. He is a co-author of the book entitled “The Constitution. The rule of law. Judicial authority. Current problems of the third authority in Poland”, which describes breaches of the rule of law and the defence activities taken up by legal and civic circles.

He jointly established the civic initiative #FreeCourts and was one of the initiators of the Justice Defence Committee (KOS) in 2018. Within KOS, he represents repressed judges of the ordinary courts and judges of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court aged over 65 in proceedings intended to block their removal from active service under the Act on the Supreme Court of 2017. He appears on behalf of the judges of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court before the Courts of Justice of the European Union in Luxemburg.