Yevhenii Petrovych Hudyma, 28 years

My name is Yevhen Hudima, and today I am the owner and managing partner of the law firm «Hudima & Partners» in Kyiv. My core areas of expertise are tax disputes, tax consulting, transfer pricing, and legal support for businesses.

My career in law began quite early: while still in my second year at university, at the age of 18, I started working in the legal field. I went on to work at several companies, gradually building my professional expertise. The most formative stage was my time at «Sayenko Kharenko» — one of Ukraine’s strongest law firms. That is where I laid the foundation in tax law and gained experience working with major clients and high-value tax disputes. In 2021, when I was about 24 years old, I decided to start my own practice as a tax attorney in Kyiv. It was a pragmatic decision: starting earlier means taking fewer risks and reaching your own business model sooner.

I started out practically on my own — with an assistant and my first clients, gradually building a law firm and a client base. This stage laid the groundwork for the law firm «Hudima & Partners», which today provides comprehensive legal services to businesses.

How did you come up with the business idea?

The idea of starting my own practice came from a strong inner feeling that I no longer wanted to remain an employee and wanted to work independently, for myself. My entire career path had gradually led me to this point: a law degree, an early start in the profession, and accumulated experience in tax practice. Over time, I realized that I had acquired the basic skills and knowledge, and that the time had come to start building my own law firm.

What key skills helped you launch the business?

My foundation was a strong work ethic and a willingness to work as long as it took to get results. That meant early starts, workdays without going home, and working through the night. This approach also helped me in my employee career — it helped me get into strong law firms and build effective working relationships with managers and colleagues. I would also highlight my habit of investing in professional development: when I felt unsure of myself in complex areas, particularly transfer pricing, I deliberately strengthened my expertise through training.

What were the 3 most difficult challenges you faced in the first years?

The impact of the war. After the full-scale invasion began, the flow of new clients dropped sharply. Until September, there were almost no new inquiries, apart from mandatory tax assignments with strict deadlines. Staffing. Finding lawyers became extremely difficult. Against the backdrop of an overall shortage of specialists, salaries rose substantially. The age barrier at the outset. In the first years of running my own practice, I was often asked about my age in meetings and faced skepticism. This was especially noticeable because I sell an intangible product: expertise.

What crises has your business faced, and how did you overcome them?

After 2022, the market became much more challenging. The share of informal arrangements grew, with clients facing tax audits being pressured to resolve matters through unofficial payments rather than in court. I categorically refuse to work that way, and it directly affects conversion: there were cases where clients declined to sign an agreement because other lawyers promised a guaranteed result, even though they charged two or three times as much. There was also a difficult case in which we lost a dispute on behalf of a client involving 6 млн грн.

It was psychologically difficult to explain that litigation risks are an inherent part of the process, especially given how significant this amount was for the client. Legal risks related to employee reservation from mobilization and critical-enterprise status brought further uncertainty. We performed only the lawful part of the work — preparing documents, submitting them to ministries, and securing an order granting critical status. However, in the case of one company, it turned out that someone unaffiliated with us had later effectively been selling reservations, which created problems. After that, we limited our consulting on this matter to clients we knew and trusted.

Which decisions proved most effective in growing the company?

Bringing in external sales professionals on commission. Through their contacts in the financial audit community, they refer clients to our legal services and receive a share of the deals. My principle is simple: it is better to earn 200 and give away 100 than to earn 50 on your own. Investing in training. I deliberately deepened my knowledge of transfer pricing by attending conferences, consulting practitioners, and paying for access to professional resources.

This is a high-responsibility field, and penalties can range from 500 тис. to 20 млн грн, so training enabled me to take on complex projects with greater confidence. Being principled in choosing clients and approaches. I do not take part in informal arrangements during audits, even if that means losing some clients in a market that has changed substantially.

Which mistake do you now consider your most valuable learning experience?

I consider it my most valuable mistake that I could have invested in training earlier and more intensively, and moved faster. This also applies to the start of my career: I could have tried earlier to get directly into a top law firm. In general, I often find myself thinking that many decisions should have been made a little earlier and that I should have acted a little faster.