Team

Yulia Shapovalova is a Principal Counsel at the Legal Transition Programme (LTP) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and works in areas of dispute resolution and public procurement reform. Yulia joined the EBRD in November 2017. Yulia has over 18 years of professional legal experience, having started her career at the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic in 2000. Since 2007, she has worked with various international donor organisations, such as USAID, IFC World Bank Group, ADB and OSCE on providing legal and policy advice to government officials in the implementation of legal reform aimed at improving the investment climate in developing countries. With academic qualification and professional experience in both civil and common law jurisdiction, Yulia was awarded a master’s degree in International Business Law at Queen Mary University of London (UK) in 2015, specialising in international investment and trade law and international commercial arbitration. Yulia is qualified as a Solicitor of England and Wales.

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Patricia Zghibarta is a legal consultant at the Legal Transition Programme (LTP) of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), where she focuses on reforms in the area of dispute resolution in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Prior to joining the EBRD, Patricia was a senior staff attorney in the USAID-funded Open Justice Project, where she advised on the development of an integrated case management system for the courts in Moldova. Patricia also has extensive experience in providing legal and policy advice to government officials in the implementation of legal reforms aimed at improving the business regulatory and investment climate. Patricia trained in both Moldova and the United Kingdom, where she pursued an LL.M. at the University of Cambridge as a Chevening and Cambridge Trust Scholar. Following graduation, she was awarded a Pegasus Scholarship and is currently a Weinstein JAMS Fellow. Patricia is qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales.

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Illia serves as an Associate Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the EBRD. Before this role, he consulted the EBRD as a Dispute Resolution Reform Regional Advisor, implementing various justice sector reforms across Europe and Asia.  

Previously, Illia served as Director-General for the Rule of Law Directorate at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and advised the President of Ukraine through the national commission on legal reform. Before that, Illia worked as a Senior Assistant to the President of the Supreme Court of Ukraine and acted as the Supreme Court’s focal point for the European Court of Human Rights under Protocol 16 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Illia has also advised several international organisations, including the Council of Europe and the European Union, and completed a Visiting Professional with the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court. 

Illia holds master’s degrees in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford and in International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University of London, and is a Fellow of the European Law Institute.

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Svetozara Petkova has over 20 years of experience as a rule of law advisor and researcher with a solid history of working in the development sector. She has Masters Degrees in Law from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and from Warwick University in the United Kingdom. Her areas of expertise include comparative legal research, judicial reform, civil procedure, legislative drafting, legal analysis, project design and project management. She has provided services to the World Bank, USAID, UNDP, Ernst Young Bulgaria, Dentons Poland, America for Bulgaria Foundation and others in Bulgaria, Greece, the Western Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Croatia, Russia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

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Dr Vihar Georgiev is a governance and evaluation consultant with over 16 years’ experience and an Assistant Professor in the European Studies Department at Sofia University. His expertise includes strategy development, digital transformation, stakeholder engagement, evaluation and impact assessment, and public policymaking. He has worked with organisations such as Dentons, EY, KPMG and the World Bank, and has contributed to projects funded by the EU, EEA, World Bank, EBRD, the Global Fund and other international donors.

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Dr Alejandro Ponce is the Executive Director of the World Justice Project. He leads global research and data collection, including access to justice and rule of law surveys in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico and across the EU. Previously, he was a researcher at Yale University and an economist at the World Bank and the Mexican Banking and Securities Commission. His research focuses on behavioural economics, financial inclusion and justice indicators, and has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Law and Economics. He holds a BA from ITAM (Mexico) and an MA and PhD from Stanford University.

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Adam Bodnar is a Polish legal scholar, human rights defender and politician. A graduate of the University of Warsaw and Central European University, he holds a PhD and habilitation in law. He served as Poland’s Commissioner for Human Rights from 2015 to 2021 and Minister of Justice and a Senator. He is Dean of the Faculty of Law at SWPS University and a visiting professor at the University of Cologne. Bodnar has worked with numerous European and UN bodies and is a member of several international advisory boards. He is the founder of the Congress of Civil Rights Foundation and a recipient of major international awards, including the Rafto Prize and the Legion of Honour.

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Georg Stawa, former Judge, Head of Department and Secretary General in the Ministry of Justice, now Judicial Attaché for the Western Balkans at the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade. He participates in international research projects, is Guest Lecturer at the Panteion University Athens, member of “UAjucticeinwar” Expert Group of the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and has a long experience in justice reform projects in countries of Central and (South) Eastern Europe in leading positions. Georg Stawa is long-term member of the Commission for Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) of the Council of Europe, for which he served as President.

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Jos Uitdehaag is First Vice-President of the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ), representing 99 countries. For over 25 years he has worked as a legal reform and drafting expert, primarily in enforcement law, for organisations including the European Commission, World Bank, IMF, EBRD and USAID. He is currently active in the Western Balkans, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Laos and EU Member States. He lectures at universities and judicial academies and is involved in major European projects on digital assets, blockchain, cyberjustice and AI, including work with the European Law Institute, UNIDROIT and the Council of Europe (CEPEJ).

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Oleksandra (Sasha) Popova is a Private Sector Analyst in the World Bank’s Business Ready (B-READY) project, where she leads the Taxation topic. She has over five years’ experience in private sector development research, with a focus on dispute resolution and taxation, and contributed to the creation of a global dataset on business reform committees. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she worked in commercial law at a Ukrainian law firm. She holds an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington and an LL.M. from Kyiv State University.

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Raman Moroz leads the Dispute Resolution topic of the World Bank Group’s Business Ready (B-READY) project, overseeing indicators on court litigation and alternative dispute resolution. He previously led the Enforcing Contracts indicator and contributed to Resolving Insolvency under Doing Business. His research focuses on comparative law, law and development, and law and economics. Before joining the World Bank Group, he worked for the OSCE and clerked at the Constitutional Court of Belarus. He holds an LL.M. from the University of Notre Dame (Fulbright Scholar), a law degree from Belarusian State University, and a degree in Political Science and European Studies from Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.

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Dr Tatjana Zoroska Kamilovska is Full Professor of Civil Procedural Law at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. She heads the Civil Procedure Department and postgraduate and doctoral studies in civil law, and is a member of the University Senate (2023–2026). She has been a visiting professor and researcher at leading European institutions, including the Max Planck Institute (Luxembourg), the University of Pavia and Jagiellonian University. She is the author or co-author of seven books, four monographs and over 80 scientific papers, and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

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