CEELM: Can you walk us through your career leading you up to your current role?

Sanctions imposed by the U.S.A, the EU, and other jurisdictions in relation to certain Russian individuals and legal entities have had a substantial impact on international arbitration involving Russian parties. There exist serious concerns as to the ability of sanctioned Russian parties and their contractual counterparts to realize their right to defend themselves in the course of arbitration proceedings. These concerns have led to changes in market practice regarding the choice of the arbitration forum and to some legislative proposals in Russia that, if implemented, would have a dramatic impact on international arbitration involving Russian parties.

I feel a sense of optimism about Russian’s legal market that I have not felt since the dark days of the Crimean Crisis in 2014.

Debevoise & Plimpton has advised Norilsk Nickel on the upsizing and extension of its December 2017 syndicated facility agreement.

Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners has advised the Uralsoloto Group of Companies on its acquisition of securities of Petropavlovsk PLC.

White & Case has advised VTB Capital as auction organizer and financial advisor to UTLC on its RUB 60.3 billion (around USD 968 million) auction sale of a controlling stake in Russian railway container operator TransContainer.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Russia has advised Enisey THC, a subsidiary of the Siberian Generating Company, on its RUB 10 billion acquisition of Krasnoyarsk GRES-2 from OGK-2.

CMS Moscow's Head of Real Estate & Construction Artashes Oganov has been promoted to Partner at the firm.

Russian lawyer Vakhtang Fedorov has joined Art De Lex as Head of its Criminal Law practice.

Lawyers from CMS in Ukraine and Poland have joined the firm's multi-national team advising the EBRD on the acquisition of a stake in Uzbek food retailer Korzinka. Uzbek law firm Leges reportedly advised the EBRD as well, while Dentons advised the sellers.

Liniya Prava is an official partner to Russia's "Great Heart" charity fund.

The Russian Migration Authority responsible for the Moscow region recently started to enforce laws requiring foreign employees to be present in Russia at regular intervals, and providing for the cancellation of a work permit if a foreign employee is not in Russia at least at certain intervals. This potential cancellation of a work permit even applies to employees classified as highly qualified specialists.

Finland's Castren & Snellman law firm has closed its Moscow and St Petersburg offices and withdrawn from Russia.

Dmitry Koronchik, former Director of Legal Affairs at YIT, has joined Accountor as the head of its legal department.

Former Dentons Partner Konstantin Tretyakov, who led the firm's White Collar Crime practice in Moscow, has joined Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, bringing along his team, including senior lawyer Konstantin Elfimov and lawyer Maria Kilesso.

Why would a lawyer in private practice strive to make partner? That may come across as a strange question. An old saying holds that a soldier who doesn’t aspire to become a general is a bad soldier. Partnership as an ultimate goal is often taken for granted.

Norton Rose Fulbright today named Ayse Yuksel Mahfoud as its Head of Cross-Border Practices, a new position at the firm that it says "will strategically address clients’ needs for high-quality cross-border legal advice and cutting-edge market intelligence."

On December 18, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that NSP had advised IBS IT Holding on its acquisition of Aplana Software from the Aplana Group. We reached out to Eugene Peskin, Head of Strategy at IBS, for more details.