Salans
Salans enjoys 25 listings over 10 practice areas. The firm has offices throughout the CIS region, and we feature lawyers from four of them in this year’s research.
Under the dispute resolution practice Salans is the only firm to see three of its partners listed in commercial litigation and arbitration.
Mikhail Ivanov is the managing partner of the firm’s St Petersburg office and head of the Russian litigation and arbitration practice. A “very able practitioner”, he specialises in disputes between foreign investors and Russian companies.
His colleague Yuliya Mitrofanskaya heads the arbitration, litigation, IP and employment practices in the same office and has experience under ICC, SCC and UNCITRAL rules. She also features in the oil and gas chapter and has represented major oil companies in dispute resolution and competition matters.
Aigoul Kenjebayeva has been managing partner of the firm’s Almaty office since it opened in 1994, and is widely regarded as “first class” for arbitration and litigation. She is also known for her M&A work relating to oil and gas issues. She is the former in-house counsel to Oryx in Almaty, and has acted for British Gas and Haliburton on foreign investment issues. She enjoys a mention in all four chapters. Also featuring in M&A is Oleg Batyuk who “knows what he is talking about” according to one interviewee. He also makes an appearance in project finance alongside the “impressive” Glenn Kolleeny.
As the managing partner of Salan’s Baku office James E Hogan is considered “really very good”. His main focus is M&A and oil and gas, particularly joint venture transactions in the scope of corporate, commercial and natural resources matters. He has represented and advised a number of natural resources companies both in Azerbaijan and internationally, and has been involved in facilitating finance for foreign oil and gas companies. He is joined by the “sophisticated and pragmatic” Abai B Shaikenov who has extensive experience in oil and gas and banking matters and has acted as Kazakhstan counsel on a number of cross-border financing deals.
The construction and real estate section holds four entries. Timothy Stubbs advises multinationals, in real estate matters. He is head of the Russian banking and finance department and earns a place in the corresponding section for his extensive knowledge of advising European and US property and construction companies on financing.
Florian Schneider is head of the firm’s global retail practice. He specialises in real estate development, construction, structuring acquisitions of rights to land plots, purchases of premises and formulating contractual instruments. Vagif Ahmadov advises on foreign investment in property matters in Azerbaijan. He is joined by Ophelia Abdullayeva who is well thought of for her experience in advising on financial issues relating to property and corporate tax. She counts KPMG and the government of Azerbaijan as clients. Also lauded is co-chair of the firm’s global tax practice Evgeny V Timofeev who has built up a wealth of experience in tax litigation against Russian tax authorities.
In Moscow labour lawyer Marina Ryzhkova set up the firm’s Russian employment practice and is known for her leadership, experience and formidable knowledge.
Denis Voevodin is head of the Russian Trademark/IP Practice. He is “outstanding” in preparing due diligence reports in trademark, copyright and patent issues.