Olha Chernovol, Ph.D., is a Ukrainian lawyer and scholar who joined the University of Ottawa through its Scholars at Risk program after fleeing Kyiv during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Her research spans corporate law, criminal law and policy analysis, focusing on anti-corruption.
Currently, Chernovol is investigating Ukraine’s anti-corruption mechanisms, analyzing both recent developments and pre-war risks. Her passion lies in developing effective legal frameworks to fight corruption and ensure justice. “What drives me is the chance to advance transparency and accountability across all levels of government and public service,” she says.
Her work also aims to strengthen Canadian legislation on remediation agreements by drawing on international experiences, especially from Ukraine. This research is pivotal for enhancing Canada’s anti-corruption measures and building more resilient, fair systems.
Olha holds a PhD from the V.M Koretsky Institute of State and Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, awarded in 2019. In November 2024, she was inducted into the Royal Academy of Sciences of Canada’s College of New Scholars.
Her publication, entitled “Anti-corruption Policy in the Baltic-Black Sea Region”, offers a glimpse into her expertise in the perpetually relevant fields of organizational criminal liability and anti-corruption. Over the past several years, she has worked primarily on matters related to integrity due diligence, anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and financing terrorism in her role as a Project Coordinator at COSA LLC and as an Executive Director at the NGO ‘Transparent Democracy’. Since 2020, she has been a member of the Ukrainian National Bar Association, and she has 7 years of experience in legal practice in different areas of law in Ukraine, including civil law, corporate law, administrative law, criminal law, tax law, banking law, military law and labor law.