The expansion into the new practice area is due to the increase in the number of projects involving client representation in international commercial arbitration in Russia and abroad.
The new division is headed by Konstantin Astafiev, partner, lawyer and a founder of the Firm. Best Lawyers named Konstantin Best Lawyer 2013 in litigation. The practice team has also been joined by Mikhail Samoylov, senior associate and associate member at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), and Irina Suspitсyna, senior associate, LL.M.
The last year also saw a significant increase in the number of clients expecting the Firm's lawyers to become involved in international commercial arbitration proceedings, execution of foreign arbitration awards within the Russian Federation, negotiation and facilitation of pre-trial settlements in this category of cases. Other engagements involve indentification of assets in Russia and abroad for the purposes of judgment execution, as well as gathering, analysis and legalization of body of evidence in international arbitration.
The Firm's track record in this area includes a number of successful engagements in coordination with foreign partners before the International Commercial Arbitration Court, the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre.
The recent highlights include joint and independent representation of a major chemical group in a cross-border dispute spanning five jurisdictions (London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, and South Africa) over contract termination and damages in excess of US$800 m. No less high-profile was the representation of a major Irish bank in a series of litigations related to the bankruptcy of a major international financial group, including the execution of a number of foreign judgments and involving submissions to the Presidium of RF SCC (the amount at issue: 200+ mln euros).