The Legal 500

‘Excellent firm’ Salans ‘has a very good team and is excellent value for money’. It remains the market leading force in employment law in Russia. Practice leader Marina Ryzhkova is recommended for her ‘experience, passion for her work and client focus’. The firm’s clients include both international and Russian companies such as AstraZeneca, Baltschug Kempinski, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Bourjois, Caterpillar, CNN, Coca-Cola, Richemont and Volkswagen.

Alrud Law Firm’s employment team is ‘capable, experienced, knowledgeable and realiable’. The firm advises on highly complex matters including multijurisdictional transfers, settlement agreements, compliance issues, conflict dismissals, labour disputes and incentive schemes. Irina Anyukhina’s team’s clients include AVON, NEC Inforcommunications, Olympus Europe, Solvay and FIAT Group Automobiles.

Baker & McKenzie – CIS, Limited’s employment practice in Russia is ‘well known’. Igor Makarov and Maxim Kalinin head the practice in Moscow and St Petersburg, respectively. The firm is currently advising Merck, Sharp & Dohme on Russian employment and migration issues related to its global merger with Schering-Plough.

Employment law boutique Personnel Law Bureau remains hugely popular with clients. Sergey Kuksa is ‘always ready to help, ready to share his knowledge’, and ‘has very good knowledge of the Russian judicial system’. Olga Kuksa is ‘very good at analysing the text of agreements’ and ‘gives very well thought through advice’.

CMS Russia’s employment practice is led by dispute resolution and commercial partners Sergey Yuryev and Christophe Huet. The firm deals with mass reductions and restructuring, trade unions and collective bargaining agreements.

At Clifford Chance, counsel and tax specialist Alexander Anichkin also deals with employment matters. The firm’s clients include Barclays, Diageo, ABB International and Macquarie.

Clients are ‘still getting a great service’ from DLA Piper. Clients of Vladislav Mazur’s employment team include Philip Morris, Saint Gobain, UCB, Boeing, Burger King, General Electric and Pfizer.

At Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Olga Chislova ‘is highly responsive and offers a deep understanding and knowledge of Russian labour law matters’. Clients include Bank Credit Suisse, Bristol-Myers Squibb, EADS, Eni, Mitsui and Nomura.

Anna-Stefaniya Chepik’s employment, pensions and benefits group at Goltsblat BLP has advised clients such as Mars, Danone, Nike, STS media group and RBS. She is ‘always able to solve issues thinking “outside the box”, without breaking compliance rules’.

Herbert Smith CIS LLP’s employment group is praised for its ‘good response times’. Led by Dmitry Kurochkin, the team recently advised Nortel Networks on employment and migration law issues including the transfer of its employees to other employers in Russia. Marat Agabalyan is also recommended.

Counsel Ekaterina Petrova leads the employment group at Hogan Lovells (CIS). Her team has recently advised Texas Instruments on management issues of its Russian offices, and Puma on the substitution of its CEO.

Korelskiy Ischuk Astafiev and Partners, Attorneys at Law’s ‘team never gets ruffled under pressure and tight deadlines, always remaining calm and collected’. Konstantin Astafiev is an ‘effective attorney with comprehensive knowledge of employment law. He is recognised across the marketplace as a safe pair of hands for his advice on sizeable collective disputes and trade union cases’.

Linklaters CIS lost Henry Rutstein but associate Evgeny Ulumdzhiev returned following a sabbatical. Associate Anna Ivanova joined the firm from Baker & McKenzie – CIS, Limited in 2010.

‘Very ethical and client oriented’ Julia Borozdna is head of the ‘professional, competent and reliable’ employment and migration group at Pepeliaev Group. The firm successfully represented a producer of household appliances in a dispute for a claim for wrongful dismissal.

PricewaterhouseCoopers CIS Law Offices BV’s employment practice is led by Yana Zoloeva. The firm advises its clients on issues such as employment relations, employees’ stock-option plans and long-term incentive programmes.