An immigrant returns to his homeland only to face death threats from the mob and ongoing war. It’s a riveting story of survival that sounds like a movie script, but for Ukrainian attorney and author Alex Frishberg, JD ’88, it’s his real life.
It began when Frishberg and his family left the Soviet Union in 1974 to escape antisemitism and landed in St. Louis, where he eventually attended WashU School of Law.
“I owe my career success to WashU,” he says. “I had the best professors, who taught me how to calmly dissect arguments. Nothing compares to a WashU education.”
After graduation, Frishberg worked for Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and Ukraine became an independent nation. Frishberg wanted to return to his homeland in his new capacity as an American lawyer, so he moved to Kyiv in 1991 and started his own practice.
“Ukraine was open for business,” he says. “I was the only foreign lawyer there, and I spoke fluent English, so I represented embassies and global corporations moving into Ukraine.”
Although business was good, life in Ukraine was dangerous. “In 1992, racketeers began coming around to businesses to collect money,” Frishberg says. “I was almost killed twice.”
The first death threat occurred when drug addicts came by his firm to demand money. Police arrived and stopped the situation from escalating. The second death threat happened when one of his clients asked him to fire an accountant who was stealing from him. Unfortunately, that accountant had mob connections.
“Two mobsters came and told me not to take this case to court,” Frishberg says. “They threatened me and my wife, but I had an obligation to my client to finish the job.”
Needing protection, he reached out to a government connection, who provided him with a highly trained bodyguard. This bodyguard met with the mobsters and scared them off. Frishberg then began using him to help other clients who were also dealing with racketeers.
While racketeering is no longer a problem in Ukraine, Frishberg is now living through a brutal war with Russia.
“Our windows reverberate from nearby explosions and rocket launches,” he says. “We live under the constant threat of nuclear attacks. Electricity is turned off for several hours each day because of the energy crisis. Business is hard, too. No one is coming to Ukraine.”
No matter what the future holds, Frishberg says Ukrainians won’t give up. “We cannot live under Putin’s dictatorship,” he says. “Ukrainians will fight with sticks and stones until they die before they give up. We’ve been through trials and fire before, and we’ve emerged on the other side. We’re waiting for the good times, for the war to end.”
