WHO WE ARE

The European Lawyers Foundation promotes access to justice, training of lawyers, activities relating to the exercise of the profession of lawyer, the rule of law and legal services and substantive developments in the law itself, the defence and protection of human rights and human rights defenders, and international justice.

The Foundation works at both European and international level. The Foundation, which is a network composed of Bars and Law Societies from Europe, fulfils its objective through the implementation of projects together.

The Foundation is composed by three bodies (Board of Directors, Supervisory Board and Advisory Committee) and a management team. This structure brings a vast experience in managing projects that have already created European added-value projects for the benefit of the legal profession in the EU.

Board  of Directors

The Board of Directors (BoD) is composed by 3 members appointed by the Supervisory Board.

Among other tasks, the BoD establishes guiding principles for day-to-day affairs with regard to the functioning of the Foundation, checks on a regular basis all the information related to the Foundation’s finances, presents the budget of the organisation and the annual financial report to the Supervisory Board, and approves the participation of the organisation in projects.

The following are members of the Board of Directors for the period 27/05/2024 to 26/05/2026.

The Board Members shall not receive any remuneration for the performance of their Board-related duties.

  • DOMINIQUE ATTIAS

    Chair of the Board (France)

  • SILVIA GIMENEZ-SALINAS

    Member (Spain)

  • PÉTER S. SZABÓ

    Member (Hungary)

Supervisory Board

The Supervisory Board (SB), which is composed by 5 members, examines all financial aspects of the Foundation, including projects considered by the Foundation.

The Supervisory Board monitors the financial evolution of projects and expenditures, and may at any time request the Board of Directors to provide any information relating to cash flow, accounting, accounting records and any other information relating to finance and accounting.

The following are members of the Supervisory Board for the period 27/05/2024 to 26/05/2026.

The Board Members shall not receive any remuneration for the performance of their Board-related duties.

  • MARTA ISERN

    Chair of the Board (Spain)

  • ALEX TALLON

    Member (Belgium)

  • LAURENT MARTINET

    Member (France)

  • CALIN-ANDREI ZAMFIRESCU

    Member (Romania)

  • COSIMO PAPINI

    Member (Italy)

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board shall deliver opinions on projects and strategic matters and other matters of great importance, and all matters raised with it by the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board.

The Advisory Board shall appoint four (4) members of the Supervisory Board from among donor members and shall be empowered to dismiss them.

The Advisory Board shall nominate to the Supervisory Board candidates for the Board of Directors, proposed by the donor members.

Any opinion of the Advisory Board shall be delivered to the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board.

The Advisory Board shall examine, on request, the annual financial report, the annual budget and shall assess the annual strategic plan containing the areas and proposals which the Foundation intends to deal with and give advice on these.

The Advisory Board shall give recommendations to the Supervisory Board regarding amendments to the Statutes proposed by the Board of Directors.

The Board Members shall not receive any remuneration for the performance of their Board-related duties.

The following are members of the Advisory Board:

  • Michael Jürgen Werner (Chair of the Board, Germany)
  • Michael Pallauf (Austria)
  • Tomislav Toshkov (Bulgaria)
  • Maria Koustai (Cyprus)
  • Lenka Vojířová (Czech Republic)
  • Dominique Heintz (France)
  • Nathalie Attias (France)
  • Eero-Pekka Uotila (Finland)
  • Christian Lemke (Germany)
  • Stefan von Raumer (Germany)
  • Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece)
  • Anne Tuite (Ireland)
  • Laura Ristori (Italy)
  • Piotr Chrzczonowicz (Poland)
  • Dan Oancea (Romania)
  • Michaela Chládeková (Slovakia)
  • Josep Canicio (Spain)
  • Albert Sierra (Spain)
Secretariat 

The Foundation’s Secretariat is responsible for the Foundation’s day-to-day business.

It is composed of people with knowledge of both the legal profession and project management.

The Secretariat is composed of a Managing Director, a Project Manager and a Senior Project Counsel.

For the renumeration of the staff we refer to the Financial Statements.

PRESIDENT OF HONOUR

 

Professor Friedrich Graf von Westphalen is the European Lawyers’ Foundation President of Honor. 

He served as the first chair of ELF’s Board of Directors from 27th August 2014 till 2nd February 2017.