Irina Nazarova Among the Senior Lawyers of the International Litigation Conference
March 16, 2009
Irina Nazarova, Asters' partner and head of its Litigation Practice Group, was among the invited peers of the 1st International Preferred Firm's Litigation Partners Conference organized by Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, an international City of London law firm, on 26-27 February 2009 in London.
The conference brought together senior litigation and dispute resolution lawyers from over 40 firms across 35 countries and 4 continents. The event provided the participants with an opportunity to debate on some of today's hot litigation topics, including how different law firms are organising themselves to provide contentious services to their clients, the Commercial Court's role in international dispute resolution, international arbitration and litigation, legal actions on cross-border insolvency, the growing use of US-style class action litigation in Europe, and others.
Among the keynote speakers of the conference were Lord Woolf of Barnes and Lord Justice Aikens, two of the most experienced judges of England and Wales.
Commenting on the event, Mrs. Nazarova said: "First of all, the conference proved to be of a very practical character, as it gathered together partners heading the litigation practice at firms from around the world. The forum provided for lively discussion, and it also was a well-organised networking platform where participants were able to explore areas of common interest, as well as common capabilities and experience (e.g., how to freeze assets, render injunctions etc.) to foster further cooperation during the financial crunch, in the area of cross-border insolvency among others".
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Asters is a Kyiv-based Ukrainian law firm founded in 1995 as Shevchenko Didkovskiy & Partners. The firm is among the most recommended law firms for Ukraine according to reputable international legal directories The Legal 500, PLC Which Lawyer?, Chambers Global, IFLR 1000, and Ukraine's legal market research publications. A list of the firm's clients includes major international corporations, such as Beiersdorf AG, Coca-Cola, News Corp., Nissan Motor, Nokia Corporation, Philip Morris, Renault, Sopharma, Telenor ASA, Toshiba Corporation, and the world's leading financial institutions Barclays Capital, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, EBRD, IFC, ING Bank, Standard Bank and Swedbank AB.
Asters and Its Partners Receive High Accolades in
Ukrainian Law Firms 2009 Handbook
March 11, 2009
The newly published Ukrainian Law Firms 2009. A Handbook for Foreign Clients, the 7th edition of the annual research Ukrainian publishing house Yuridicheskaya Practika (Legal Practice), has reconfirmed Asters’ and its partners’ leading positions in the market in key practice areas.
Asters is ranked as the No.1 law firm for Antitrust, Corporate, and Communications in Ukraine. It is also recognised as one of the Top 5 players in the market with respect to M&A, Commercial Law, Investment, Banking and Finance, International Finance, Securities, Administrative Proceedings, Labour & Employment, Foreign Trade, and Insurance.
The Handbook recommends Asters' Managing Partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy for Communications, Insurance, and Investment law matters. Senior Partner Armen Khachaturyan is acknowledged as a prominent expert in Banking and Finance, International Finance, Securities, and Labor and Employment. Partner Vadym Samoylenko is ranked as a leading practitioner for Commercial and Corporate. Partner Oleksandr Padalka is recommended for Antitrust, as well as for Medicine law matters – as a driving force in developing the pharmaceuticals legal team. Partner Iryna Nazarova is listed among lawyers with experience in representing clients' interests at all stages of the Bankruptcy procedure. And Partner Igor Svechkar tops the ranking of key experts for Antitrust in Ukraine.
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The survey for the Ukrainian Law Firms. A Handbook for Foreign Clients aims to cover the latest information about the Ukrainian legal market, as well as to provide fresh trends and services for foreign clients planning to start and do business in Ukraine and cooperate with law firms. The rating is based on such criteria as details on the firms' biggest public deals, openness, efficiency and reputation among peers and clients.
Asters is a Kyiv-based Ukrainian law firm founded in 1995 as Shevchenko Didkovskiy & Partners. The firm is among the most recommended law firms for Ukraine according to reputable international legal directories The Legal 500, PLC Which Lawyer?, Chambers Global, IFLR 1000, and Ukraine's legal market research publications. A list of the firm's clients includes major international corporations, such as Beiersdorf AG, Coca-Cola, News Corp., Nissan Motor, Nokia Corporation, Philip Morris, Renault, Sopharma, Telenor ASA, Toshiba Corporation, and the world's leading financial institutions Barclays Capital, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, EBRD, IFC, ING Bank, Standard Bank and Swedbank AB.
Andriy Vishnevsky Speaks at a Round-Table Discussion on the Issues of Restructuring Business, Corporate Law and M&A
March 1, 2009
On 24 February 2009, Andriy Vishnevsky, a partner at Asters, was the keynote speaker at the regular round-table discussion entitled "Restructuring Business, Corporate Law and M&A. Legal Advice for Business" organised by the Ukrainian legal weekly Yurydychna Gazeta.
In his report, Andriy Vishnevsky focused his attention on the pressing issues of rendering legal services with respect to restructuring business, which is in significantly greater demand in light of the economic crisis. He also commented on the particularities of the internal organization of a law firm’s activity for serving clients’ demands in projects concerning the restructuring of their companies.
In particular, Mr. Vishnevsky distinguished two basic trends in restructuring a business – restructuring the legal entity and restructuring the business group. Furthermore, he emphasised that restructuring is a long and complex procedure, and therefore, as a general rule, it requires assigning lawyers of various practice groups of the firm for each individual case. As a result, it is unlikely that an individual practice group could be created in the firm, which provides the complex legal services, to support restructuring projects. Furthermore, Andriy Vishnevsky pointed out that the period of the crisis is the most optimal time for analysing the degree of business group structure – either in preparation for sale, or for issuing an IPO and simply improving the structure of corporate management – and thus demand for legal advice on issues of structuring and restructuring business will only grow.
Other topics of discussion were the current state and forecasts for the M&A market in Ukraine, bankruptcy as one of the means of restructuring a business, competition on the part of corporate lawyers, and the formation and promotion legal services during the crisis, including various approaches for establishing prices for such services.
In sum, the participants of the meeting were in agreement that in order to attract additional capital or to be sold – during the crisis or even after it – the majority of business groups and serious companies will need to structure and restructure their business, which for the most part operates under the principle of hands-on management and on the basis of personal connections. Furthermore, lawyers as well as financial consultants and auditors will be hired. The price and the range of legal services to be rendered, innovative methods for establishing prices and approaches for working with clients – these all depend on the individual firm, and there is no universal recipe for the national legal market as a whole.
Asters Law Firm Support to All-Ukrainian Capital Markets Law School
February 26, 2009
Within the framework of its corporate program developed to support legal education in Ukraine, Asters Law Firm was general partner of the All-Ukrainian Capital Markets Law School, which was organised by the Ukrainian Bar Association Students' League and held in Kyiv from 20 February through 22 February 2009.
The school sessions were attended by 35 law students from a number of higher learning institutions from various regions of Ukraine. The school's agenda included presentations and lectures by practicing lawyers, as well as student round-tables, contests and debates, which provided the students with ample opportunities to show their knowledge and ability to defend their positions before their colleagues.
The School academic sessions focused on the following issues:
Legal regulation of the capital markets
Impact of the reforms of the joint stock companies laws upon the development of the Ukrainian stock market
Primary and secondary securities markets
Securities market infrastructure
Mutual investment funds
Securities traders' organization and functioning
Oleksiy Yatsenko, an associate with Asters' corporate law practice group, made a presentation entitled "Some Legal Aspects of Corporate Relations and Securities Turnover". Yevgen Kravtsov, an associate with the firm's financial and securities practice group, acted as legal expert and judge at the student round-table debates.
In sharing his impressions of the school and its participants, Oleksiy Yatsenko stated "Such events, which bring together the most proactive students from all over Ukraine and the best experts in the field, prove to be an invaluable forum for the exchange of experiences and fresh ideas. They inspire young people to pursue advanced research and further academic achievements, and increase practicing lawyers' awareness of our responsibility for the proper and timely transfer of knowledge. The school lectures proved to be more than mere recitation of the prepared materials; it was a genuine student-expert interactive exchange".
