Markku Fredman appointed as professor of practice

Lawyer, Docent Markku Fredman has been appointed as professor of practice in advocacy law at the University of Helsinki from the beginning of the autumn semester 2023. The position is for three years and part-time (40%). He will also continue handling assignments as an advocate.

From the university's press release:

The task of the professor of practice is to teach advocacy law and supervise research in legal units. In addition, the position supports the teaching of procedural law at universities: alongside traditional court proceedings, arbitration procedures and mediations are playing an increasingly significant role, in all of which advocates have a very central role. The position is located at the University of Helsinki, but it includes the obligation to teach and supervise research also at other legal education units in Finland.

Markku Fredman, Doctor of Laws, Docent of Procedural Law, who was appointed to the position of professor of practice, completed his bar examination in 1989 and has worked as an advocate since then. He has served as a member of the Board and Council of the Finnish Bar Association and as chairman of three expert groups. Fredman has taught advocate's ethics in legal education units and other training events. He has been in the management team of the Advocacy Law Guild for a long time and as guild elder since 2017.

Fredman defended his doctoral dissertation in 2018 at the University of Turku, and his dissertation "The Role of the Defender: The Development of the Role of the Counsel for the Suspect and the Accused in Finland from the 1980s to the Present Day" as well as many of his other publications deal with advocacy law and matters centrally related to the lawyer's tasks and role. In 2019, he was appointed Docent of Procedural Law at the University of Helsinki.

"Markku Fredman has practiced as an advocate for decades in a small law firm, with a focus on litigation, criminal law, family and inheritance law, human and fundamental rights, and administrative and civil service law. Fredman's appointment deepens the understanding of the versatility of the advocate's role," summarize Dean of the Faculty of Law Johanna Niemi and Chair of the Board of the Finnish Bar Association Foundation Kari Lautjärvi.

The professorship is an endowed professorship. The Finnish Bar Association Foundation and the Finnish Bar Association share its costs.