Asters and the Ukrainian office of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners have announced that they will merge on October 1, 2018, operating thereafter under a name which they have not yet disclosed.
According to a joint press release issued by the two firms, "the combined firm will have offices in Kyiv and Washington, D.C. and will be Ukraine's largest with 26 partners and more than 140 associates. The firm's total headcount will include 250 employees. Consolidation of Asters and EPAP Ukraine combines the professional experience of the best legal practitioners and substantially enhances capabilities in transactional and regulatory areas, as well as in dispute resolution matters."
The firm will be managed by a committee of three Partners: Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Serhii Sviriba, and Armen Khachaturyan. The merger will be completed upon receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals.
EPAP Ukraine's Managing Partner Serhii Sviriba comments: "Our combination with Asters opens up a new page for further progress and creates a better environment for our clients. We are grateful to Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners and two of our partners who opted for a different career path for our productive work with them in CIS's largest law firm.
Asters Managing Partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy added: "The combination with EPAP Ukraine secures strong synergy for the benefit of our clients. We have common values, corporate culture, and good experience of joint work. Together we create the strongest player in the Ukraine's legal market."
Editor's Note: After this article was published Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners (EPAM) issued a statement declaring that it would be retaining "a boutique office in Kyiv, focusing on corporate transactions and investment projects."
According to EPAM, "Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners congratulates its Kyiv office friends and colleagues [on] this new achievement, which allows us to continue our cooperation in a new more effective format."
"Our colleagues are among the best lawyers in Ukraine and we are proud to have been their partners," said Dimitry Afanasiev, Chairman of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, of former EPAM lawyers who are merging with Asters. "We intend to continue to cooperate on legal issues of common interest of our clients, primarily foreign investors, as the two leading national law firms."
That same EPAM statement quotes Serhii Sviriba, the former Managing Partner of the firm's Kyiv office, who will become the Co-Managing Partner of the newly-merged firm, as saying: "Our partnership with Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners has been a true success. We have developed real trust thanks to the many years of our teams working together, which we intend to use in the interests of our clients”.
Editor's Note: On September 27, 2018 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine cleared the merger of the two firms, and the newly created firm, named Asters Law Firm Attorneys' Partnership, was registered on October 1, 2018.
