A long-term expert on the roller-coaster that Ukrainian life can be
Home – that is , Cleveland , Ohio – may not be withing walking distance for lawyer Helen Kryshtalowych of the international law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L. B., but most everything else in Kyiv is. From her apartment on Khreshchatyk to her office on Yaroslaviv Val, or to one of her favorite Kyiv restaurants – the fusion restaurant Pena – it’s a short 15-minute walk.
That’s a good thing for Kryshtalowych, who admits to having a penchant for exploring. She’s certainly had enough time to explore Kyiv, not to mention Ukraine and many surrounding countries, in her 12 years living and working here as a founding partner of her firm’s Kyiv office. When Squire, Sanders & Dempsey made a “strategic” decision to enter the young Ukrainian market in 1992, they encouraged Kryshtalowych to come, and she jumped at the chance.
“It was a great opportunity to open an office in the country of my ancestors,” Kryshtalowych says. “It was a once in a lifetime thing.”
Her parents – Ukrainians who fled to Germany during World War II before resettling in the American Midwest – were just as thrilled at her decision. At first, that is. However, they soon began to dislike her career move. “They were upset because I was there and not at home,” she says.
As it is, when she’s not poring over the details of some privatization contract or trademark application at work, Kryshtalowych spends her time trying to milk the most out of the Ukrainian capital. Doing so gives her a sense of balance between work and pleasure.
“It’s important to enjoy what you’re doing,” she says after a sip of mineral water (Hr 16), “but not lose focus. There are always other opportunities and other options.
“Life here gives me not just the excitement of my professional life, but the opportunity to indulge my wanderlust,” she says.
Krystalowych is a native Ukrainian-speaker who grew up in Cleveland’s tightly-knit Ukrainian community, where she underwent what she calls a “typical American experience in a big city.” She had two older brothers and a younger one to taunt and tease her, she did high jump in high school, and she originally dreamed of being a classical dancer. But her parents encouraged her to study “hardcore” academic subjects such as math and the sciences. Later, at Ohio State University, during her undergraduate years, she thought she’d maybe even become a teacher, but she ended up studying law at the Marshall Law School at Cleveland State University.
She interned her first summer out of law school at Squire Sanders and, by the time the summer was out, she had been offered an associate partner position with the firm.
The Perfect Fit
“When I became a lawyer,” Kryshtalowych says, “I couldn’t believe how perfect the fit was – and still is.”
Over a portion of spicy Indian soup (Hr 58 from 12 to 4), Kryshtalowych considered her life as a legal professional.
“It’s a professional challenge and never boring,” she begins. “No matter where you are, it’s always changing, the laws are changing, the clients, the people, the deals – everything. You have to use your brains, your people skills, your good judgment and, especially here, your business skills, as it is a service industry.
“It taps into everything that you’ve ever learned.”
Obviously, Kryshtalowych has made her clients happy: She’s been a lawyer for 25 years, and with the same firm – a rare feat these days.
Because Squire, Sanders & Dempsey have offices worldwide, Kryshtalowych enjoys frequent opportunities to travel on business to Western Europe and the States (where she goes once every quarter). “I don’t get the isolation,” she says of living in Ukraine.
Perhaps one reason why Kryshtalowych never feels isolated living here is that she’s often not home. If she is, she’s often entertaining guests.
One of Life’s Adventures
One memorable experience Kryshtalowych fondly recalls was a recent road trip to the fortress town of Kamyanets-Podolsk in southern Khmelnytsky oblast.
She and some friends in Kyiv drove out during the day and had planned an overnight trip, giving themselves plenty of time to explore the local castles and historical landmarks along the way. However, they were immediately sidetracked, overcome with that “wanderlust” that bade them stop here and there to pick wildflowers and to have impromptu picnics in open fields.
By the time they made it to the Kamyanets-Podolsk castle it was dusk and too dark to see anything, so they headed to nearby Chernivtsi for the night. The next day they stopped in Khotyn to again picnic and marvel at that castle and its walls, perched high above a cliff overlooking a stretch of the winding Dniester River. They toured around everywhere they could, and when they arrived back in Kyiv at 3 a.m. the next day the sun was just coming up.
“You can always have an adventure without planning it,” she says, “and be spontaneous instead of thinking anything through for long.”
When Kryshtalowych’s main course arrived – the colorful Caribbean jumbo prawn salad with mango (Hr 102) – the conversation moved to her office’s new affiliation with the Silecky firm, which came about just last September. The move, she says, has increased her firm’s capacity to service all their clients, which makes her quite proud. She also mentions that she and Markian Silecky are the only ex-pats who work at their respective firms.
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
Talk also focuses on what it’s been like for her to live in Ukraine for a dozen years, through boom and bust. She speaks at length of the hope and promise she’s witnessed in Kyiv. She remembers when things were “bleak and gray” following economic collapse in the early 1990s, and the period from 1995 to 1998 when it seemed that “things weren’t happening fast enough.” She’s amazed at how Ukrainians have endured.
“Those early years were like a roller coaster,” she says. “Things went down, but they always went back up.”
The reality in the early 1990s was that nothing was easy, but now the country – with its strong economy, beautiful scenery and friendly people – has “turned the corner” and is on its way up.
“Everyone who comes here is amazed,” Kryshtalowych says with a smile from behind her dark sunglasses.
“My college roommates came here for a reunion in 1999 and they loved it,” she says. The four all came from immigrant families and knew what it was like to resettle elsewhere. When they returned to Kyiv last year, Kryshtalowych says they were thrilled to see how much it had developed in such a short time.
Among Kyiv’s many virtues, there is in Kryshtalowych’s opinion only one downside.
“It’s a little hard to get here,” she says. “You have to be talked into it. But once you get here, you love it.
“I’ve met many people from other than Ukrainian backgrounds and, once they’re here, they look for ways to stay,” she says. “It’s a place for anybody.”
