CEE Legal Matters
In-depth coverage of the news and newsmakers that shape Europe's emerging markets
Public private partnerships and concessions are effective tools to allow governments to partner with the private sector to develop and finance key infrastructure projects. These forms of collaboration are particularly relevant in Russia, where infrastructure investment needs are estimated by the World Bank to be about USD 1 trillion.
The winners of the 2017 CEE Deal of the Year Awards were announced at the first ever CEE Legal Matters Deal of the Year Awards Banquet last night in Prague. The biggest smiles in the joyous and music-filled celebration of CEE lawyering, perhaps, were on the faces of Partners from Avellum and Sayenko Kharenko, which, along with White & Case and Latham & Watkins, won the award both for Ukrainian Deal of the Year and CEE Deal of the Year for their work on the 2017 Ukraine Eurobond Issue (a story initially reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 2, 2017).
"The biggest challenge for companies in Russia today is the serious administrative burden," says Andrei Gusev, Managing Partner at Borenius Russia. "There are a huge number of outdated conglomerate regulations in various sectors, applied since the Soviet times, that leads to contradictions among requirements and regulations."
Former Hogan Lovells Partner Alexander Rymko has joined the Harneys law firm in Cyprus as International Senior Counsel in the firm’s banking and finance and investment funds and regulatory practices.
Clifford Chance has announced the promotion of 26 lawyers to the firm's global partnership, including Vladimir Barbolin in Moscow and Milosz Golab in Warsaw.
Five CEE lawyers — Eleanor Johnson, Tomas Osicka, Piotr Staniszewski, Konstantin Tretyakov, and Marketa Tvrda — are part of Dentons worldwide partnership round, which included 36 lawyers overall.
On January 8, 2018, CEE Legal Matters reported that the X5 Retail Group had acquired a supermarket chain operating under the "O’Key" brand in Russia. Later we learned that the acquired supermarket chain was LLC Razvitiye Malykh Formatov. We invited Tatiana Sumarokova, Head of M&A Legal Support Division at X5 Retail Group, to share her thoughts on X5's cooperation with external counsel in the transaction.
Konstantin Bochkarev is joining the Moscow office of CMS as the Head of Technology, Media, and Communications.
KIAP attorney Georgy Karaoglanov has been named head of the firm’s Employment practice.
Dispute Resolution lawyer Alexander Popelyuk and IP lawyer Boris Malakhov have been promoted to Partner at Lidings.
Ekaterina Rudova has joined Integrites as a Partner in the firm’s Moscow office.
Russia's KIAP and Architecture of Law tax boutique have announced a merger that will result in Architecture of Law becoming part of KIAP’s professional team.
Ivanyan & Partners has promoted Counsel Sergei Kushnarenko to Partner.
Although January was “a little bit quiet in the market” in Russia, February was more promising, according to Eric Michailov, Partner at White & Case Moscow, who reports seeing more deals and new investors coming into the country. “I am particularly optimistic — even more so than I would have been six or twelve months ago,” he says. “Business is good. Not great — it is not a full easy go — but pretty good.”
Maxim Ali has become the head of Intellectual Property and Information Law at the Maxima Legal firm in Russia.
Bryan Cave and Berwin Leighton Paisner have announced that the two firms will merge as of April 2018. The new firm, which will be called Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, will have a combined revenue of over USD 900 million.
The Russian tax landscape is going through a period of transformation. The average value of assessments as a result of tax audits is increasing and taxpayers are losing more disputes. Various changes to the tax laws have acted as a contributing factor. The introduction of the anti-abuse concept of “beneficial ownership” in domestic legislation, the development of tax residency and CFC rules, and the enactment of new thin capitalization rules are just a few of the recent changes that are already having an impact on taxpayers in Russia.
Tatyana Nozhkina, Partner at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, has become Head of the firm's Criminal Law practice in St. Petersburg.
Founded in 1993, Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners is the leading full-service law firm in the CIS with offices in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and associated offices in the UK, the USA and Cyprus.
We advise its clients in many areas of law, including: dispute resolution in Russia and abroad, corporate law, M&A, antitrust issues, project finance and PPP, restructurings and insolvencies, energy and natural resources, property management and privatization, environment, technical regulation and industrial safety, banking and finance, intellectual property, criminal law, real estate and construction, taxation, family and labour disputes, marine and transport law, and international trade and customs.
We combine high academic qualifications, internationally acknowledged moral and ethical values, senior partners' professional experience and practical abilities with the vigour and knowledge of younger attorneys that enables thus providing clients with reliable, first-class service according to both Russian and western standards through a flexible structure.
All News about, and Legal Analysis by, Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners can be found here.
Firm's website: www.epam.ru
