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Daniel Bilak

OXGS Fellow

Daniel Bilak is Senior Counsel at Kinstellar, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading international law firms. A Canadian-qualified lawyer with 30 years of professional experience in the CEE region, Daniel is an experienced private sector and institutional reform practitioner. 

He currently advises clients in the energy, agribusiness, infrastructure and technology sectors in the region. Recently, he served three years as Chief Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and established and directed UkraineInvest, the Ukrainian government’s foreign direct investment promotion agency; during his tenure, UkraineInvest unlocked US $3 billion of investment from existing and new investors. As Deputy Chairman of Ukrainian Railways and Supervisory Board member of the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, Daniel gained extensive experience regarding the reform of corporate governance of state-owned enterprises.

Daniel’s public sector experience extends to rule of law, judicial reform, administrative reform, and anti-corruption matters. Daniel twice served as principal adviser and chief of staff to the Minister of Justice of Ukraine. He was also senior integrity and democratic governance adviser to successive presidents and prime ministers of Ukraine.

In these capacities, Daniel obtained intimate knowledge of the machinery of government in transition democracies and the practical application of reforms. He helped develop new transparency procedures, establish internal and external oversight mechanisms to enhance public accountability and improve service delivery, and institutionalise citizen participation and feedback in government decision-making. He was engaged in the restructuring of the ministries of justice, health, education, agriculture, social policy, environment, and economy in Ukraine.

Together with Professor Denis Galligan of Oxford University, Daniel assisted the governments of Bulgaria and Lithuania with administrative justice reform as part of their European Union accession programmes. The projects resulted in the drafting and passage of a new Administrative Procedure Code for Bulgaria and improvements to the functioning of Lithuania’s system of administrative tribunals and administrative court system.

Related activities

 

Policy, Consultancy and Advice   Advice and consultation on institutional reform, including rule of law, judicial, administrative justice and public administration reform an anti-corruption measures in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Lithuania; UNDP, World Bank, USAID, CIDA, SIDA, DfID

Blue Ribbon Commission for Ukraine   United Nations-sponsored high-level Commission on a new reform agenda for Ukraine; authored proposals adopted by the Government of Ukraine on judicial reform, governance and administrative reform

National Commission on the Strengthening of Democracy and the Rule of Law   Appointed as a member by the President of Ukraine to facilitate Ukraine’s European integration process, engaged in drafting a national integrity strategy and laws to eliminate corruption in the judiciary and the criminal justice system.

Selected publications

 

Administrative Sanctions: Rejecting Soviet Doctrinal Interpretations in Topical Problems of Contemporary Academia in the Research of Young Scientists, 2005; Special Edition, Part I, Ukrainian Administrative Law: Present Status and Prospects for Reform, IV National Scientific-Theoretical Conference, 20-22 May 2005, Simferopol, Ukraine, p.62 (in Ukrainian)

Author of Ch. 2, State and Citizen: Improvement of the State in Blue Ribbon Commission for Ukraine: Proposals for the President, A New Wave of Reform, United Nations Development Programme, Kyiv, January 2005, pp. 19-32 

Administrative Justice Reform in Bulgaria: Necessity and Opportunity (with Professor D.J. Galligan). United Nations Development Programme, Ministry of Justice of Bulgaria, Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria, British Embassy, Sofia, 2003

Administrative Justice in Lithuania: An AssessmentUnited Nations Development Programme, Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, Ministry of Justice of Lithuania, Vilnius, 2003

Areas of expertise

  • Improvement of foreign investment climate
  • Corporate governance reform of state-owned enterprises
  • Administrative justice reform
  • Judicial reform
  • Public administration reform
  • Anti-corruption initiatives