Category: Russia

Vadim Konyushkevich has left Liniya Prava to co-found the VK Partners Law Firm in Moscow along with former Silvercliff Capital Partner Ilya Kudryashov.

Konyushkevich was the Head of the Foreign Investment and Digital Law practices at Liniya Prava, where he had been since 2016. Prior to that he was a counsel and Head of the China Desk at Lidings. Earlier still he worked as a senior lawyer in the corporate development department of Energoprom Management (Renova), a mid-term associate with Advokatfirmaet Selmer, an associate with Studio Associate Legale Tributario, and a lawyer with the Financial Industrial Company Capital Active.

Kudryashov has been Partner at the Silvercliff Capital consulting firm since 2017. Prior to that he was Counsel at the Russian Direct Investment Fund from 2013 to 2016, and earlier still he was an associate with Dentons (and legacy Salans) from 2007 to 2013.

Konyushkevich informed CEE Legal Matters that a third partner, who he declined to name at this point, will be joining the firm within a week.

Gorodissky & Partners has made Sergey Medvedev a Partner.

Medvedev is a trademark & design attorney with more than ten years of experience. He specializes in intellectual property and information technologies, Internet and e-commerce, advertising, unfair competition, and media law, IP and information technologies, copyright, and anti-piracy.

Medvedev has been with Gorodissky & Partners since 2007. He also worked at Partridge Partners as a Foreign Visiting Attorney. He received his law degree from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and a subsequent LL.M. in 2007 from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Artem Zhavoronkov has joined Borenius as a Specialist Partner in the firm’s St. Petersburg office.

Zhavoronkov specializes in corporate, antitrust, banking/finance, and cross-border M&A transactions. Before joining Borenius, he worked at Dentons (and legacy Salans) for 11 years, and he headed that firm’s corporate practice for the past five years. Prior to joining Salans in 2002 as an Of Counsel he was a Senior Associate with Beiten Burkhardt. 

As Denton’s Head of Corporate and M&A in St. Petersburg, Zhavoronkov led the team advising the unidentified sellers on a deal in which Service-Telecom acquired a 100% stake in Link Development (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 2017).

CMS has advised RESO-Garantia on its acquisition of ERGO Insurance, a Russian subsidiary of the ERGO Group, from ERGO International AG. Alrud advised ERGO International on the sale. Financial details were not disclosed and the acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals.

The deal involves SPAO RESO-Garantia acquiring the ERGO Non-Life business in Russia, including the customer portfolio, staff, and IT systems. According to CMS, the acquisition is part of SPAO RESO-Garantia’s growth strategy, which includes expanding the motor insurance portfolio and maximizing cost synergies.

Established in 1991, SPAO RESO-Garantia is a Russian insurance company headquartered in Moscow. ERGO is an insurance group in Germany and Europe. The group is represented in over 30 countries worldwide. ERGO is a part of Munich Re, which is a reinsurer and risk carrier.

The CMS team in Russia consisted of Partner Vladimir Zenin, Counsel Gregor Kennedy, and Associate Elizaveta Rakova. The team in Germany involved Partners Igor Stenzel, Rolf Hempel, and Ralf Kurney and Associate Julian Hornberg. 

The Alrud team was led by Partner Alexander Zharskiy and included Senior Associates Sergey Khanaev, Associates Ksenia Erokhina and Marina Yufa, Senior Attorneys Elina Arazakaeva and Ilya Khodakov.

Ekaterina Smirnova has joined Ivanyan & Partners to head the firm’s newly-formed Competition and Antitrust practice.

Smirnova, who joins as Partner, has over ten years of experience. According to Ivanyan & Partners, “she specializes in issues concerning the violation of Russian Antimonopoly legislation and public procurement questions. She represents interests of companies in cases of anticompetitive agreements, including agreements with public bodies, develops procurement policy for companies partially owned by the state, and represented clients’ interests before the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service and in court disputes with public authorities.

Ivanyan & Partners Partner Khristofor Ivanyan commented: “the establishment of the practice meets the market demand for all-around assistance in antitrust regulation matters. The involvement of such a specialist as Ekaterina will allow us to integrate, systematize, and significantly expand the firm’s expertise, and to protect our clients’ interests even better.”

Prior to joining Ivanyan & Partners, Smirnova was a partner at Yakovlev & Partners. Earlier she worked at The Urals Industrial Holding. She graduated from the Ural State Law Academy. She also studied EU Competition Law at the Cambridge University and King’s College in the UK and Public Procurement at the Academy of European Law in Germany.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has advised the Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund on a RUB 2 billion secured loan for the construction of a new terminal at Khabarovsk International Airport servicing domestic flights and the airport infrastructure.

According to BCLP, “the new passenger terminal for domestic flights at Khabarovsk International Airport is being built to expand the air transport network and ensure the requisite passenger service quality, safety, and efficiency at the largest air hub in the Far Eastern Federal District. The construction of the new terminal of Khabarovsk Airport (Noviy) for domestic air lines should be completed in 2019.”

The total project is worth RUB 4.9 billion, according to BCLP, while the amount of joint financing by the VEB.RF State Development Corporation (the former Vnesheconombank) and the Far East and Baikal Region Development Fund is RUB 3.9 billion.

The Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner team was led by Partner Oleg Khokhlov and Senior Associate Igor Zhivotov, supported by Partner Matvey Kaploukhiy, Counsels Inna Firsova and Dmitry Ilyin, and Associates Anastasia Kudryashova and Victoria Malashenkova.

Clifford Chance has advised IHI plc, owners of the Corinthia Hotels Group, on the acquisition of a property at 10, Tverskaya, in Moscow, related to the recently announced Corinthia Hotel & Residences project in Moscow. The Moscow office of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner reportedly advised the seller, Cyprus’s Barlands Holdings Limited.

Clifford Chance reports that the property “has a listed facade and houses the famous 19th century Filippov Bakery.” According to the firm, “further, permits in hand allow up to 43,000 square meters of development behind the retained frontage, as a result of which the consortium proposes to create a luxury Corinthia Hotel and branded serviced apartments. An element of high-end retail will also be featured on Tverskaya Street.”

The Clifford Chance team was led by Moscow-based Partner Marc Bartholomy, with the support of Counsel Nick Diakoumis, Senior Associate Anna Krutik. and Associates Anastasia Ovchinnikova and Alexandra Kuznetsova.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner confirmed that it had advised Barlands Holdings Limited on sale of the Tsentralnaya Hotel on Tverskaya street. The firm’s team was led by Partner Rustam Aliev and included Senior Associates Oksana Orlovskaya, Alexey Koshelev, and Kirill Rubalskiy, Counsels Dmitry Ilyin and Andrey Neminuschiy, and Associate Director Anna Zvereva, and Andrey Neminuschiy, as well as London-based Partner Roman Khodykin, Moscow-based Counsel Yuri Babichev,  and Hong Kong-based Partner Ian Ivory.

Ilyashev & Partners has convinced a Russian court to issue an enforcement order in a dispute between PJSC Alfa-Bank against businessman Kirill Podolsky, the former owner of the online agency Anywayanyday, in the amount of more than USD 12 million.

According to Ilyashev & Partners, “the Rostov Regional Court upheld the petition filed by the firm’s lawyers to enforce the relevant Order of the Commercial Court of the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in England and Wales in [a] suit filed by the PJSC Alfa Bank against Kirill Podolsky in the territory of the Russian Federation.”

“This decision [sets] a precedent for Russian case law,” Ilyashev & Partners reports, “since it entails the enforcement of the English court judgment in Russia. As a rule, decisions of English courts are not enforced in Russia due to the absence of the relevant agreement between the countries on the provision of legal aid and a fairly critical attitude of Russian courts to the ways the parties are served notifications in the UK.”

“As a next step in this case,” according to Ilyashev & Partners, “the firm will actually act to collect money from the debtor within the framework of enforcement or bankruptcy proceedings.”

A team from Moscow’s Kulkov, Kolotilov and Partners has successfully assisted RBC PJSC avoid what it calls “unjustified subsidiary responsibility” in a bankruptcy case in the Moscow Arbitration Court.

According to the firm, the Court “agreed with the position of RBC PJSC that the plaintiff did not bear the burden on any of the elements of the subject of proof; correctly applied the ‘old’ version of Art. 10 of the Bankruptcy Law (as the plaintiff tried to impute the Respondent with actions allegedly committed prior to the introduction of Chapter III.2 of the Bankruptcy Law), despite the claimant’s submission after July 1, 2017; [and] recognized the arguments of the claimant to transfer the business (RBK Money payment system) from the debtor (formerly a subsidiary of PJSC RBC) to another former subsidiary of PJSC RBC.”

The KK&P consisted of Partner Nikolay Pokryshkin and Senior Lawyer Artyom Antonov.

Russian lawyer Alexei Zakharko has been elected Russia Managing Partner at Dentons. In his new role, he will be responsible for the development of the firm’s Moscow and St. Petersburg offices.

Alexei Zakharko commented: “I am honored to be elected to this role. As Managing Partner, I will focus on further strengthening Dentons’ leading position in Russia in order to meet our clients’ growing needs for top quality legal services and innovation.”

Dentons reports that Zakharko has “extensive experience in acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, corporate finance and leveraged acquisitions, [and that] he also has considerable experience in private equity transactions, port/terminal transactions and bank equity deals.” He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2003 and received a law degree from Cornell University in 2005. He joined Dentons’ Moscow office as a trainee in 2002 and worked in the London office from 2007 to 2008. He was appointed Partner in 2011 and Head of the Energy and Natural Resources practice in 2017.

Zakharko takes over leadership from Florian Schneider, who was Russia Managing Partner from 2012 until 2018, and who will continue working as a Partner in Dentons’ Real Estate and Corporate/M&A practices. According to the firm, “under Schneider’s leadership, Dentons strengthened its Corporate/M&A, Private Equity, Life Sciences, Capital Markets, Energy, White Collar Crime and Competition practices.”

Tomasz Dabrowski, Chief Executive Officer of Dentons Europe, commented: “Dentons has a powerhouse team in Russia and I am confident that under Alexei’s competent leadership, we will maintain and grow our position as the top international law firm in Russia and CIS.”

Florian Schneider added: “Alexei’s knowledge of the Russian legal environment, strong leadership skills and commitment to clients will ensure his success in this new position.”