GC Powerlist Russia Teams

The activities of Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical equipment company ABB in the Russian market are overseen by a group of highly flexible and ambitious lawyers, led by seasoned Russian professional Dmitry Popov. Maintaining close relationships with the business, the team is an active participant in all material issues facing ABB and acts as a ‘team player’, and on certain occasions even as a ‘team leader’ to other functions. The team actively adds strategic value to the business, by ‘opening the eyes’ of their business people to real opportunities and risks from both legal and other standpoints. In addition, the team has impressed with its active engagement in business development initiatives such as M&A transactions, greenfield projects and import substitutions. ABB’s legal team in Russia has seen a dramatic change in the content of its work in recent past; the structure of major transactions that the department deals with has become more complicated due to two main factors. A combined effect of a more aggressive business and legal environment in the sector has occurred due to the economic crisis in Russia, and new legal theories introduced in Russian law in the last two years also have an impact. In addition, the lawyers at ABB in Russia are now spending more time dealing with antitrust issues, bankruptcies and other litigation, US and EU sanctions, state procurement regulations, as well as with securing key transactions.

ABBYY is a global software company that develops documents capture and language-based techniques that is headquartered in Moscow and has 14 offices scattered around the world (including Europe, the USA, Japan and Canada). Currently the Moscow office houses both ABBYY headquarters, a segment that develops all products for the company that are sold globally, and ABBYY Russia, a unit overseeing all sales in the Russian region. The highly rated ABBYY legal team based in Moscow supports both of these segments, while operating separately from legal teams based in international offices. Assigning legal resources to the various business functions at ABBYY, including sales and software development, the legal team has shown a capability to always be appropriately engaged in the business process. Over the past two years the Moscow based team has showcased an ability to provide concise legal advice, while adding clear commercial value to the business. In particular, ABBYY’s lawyers have made an impression with their work on intellectual property matters (IP related work comprises approximately 90% of the work completed in the department). The biggest dispute that ABBYY’s team have faced in the recent past arose a few years ago when one of ABBYY’s competitors released a product that included the Lingvo trademark. ABBYY’s legal team managed to win the dispute even before the trademark was well known.

The legal department at Acron, one of Russia’s leading vertically integrated mineral fertiliser producers, is led by Igor Kuznets and is comprised of 12 lawyers focusing on strategic and international matters, as well as relevant projects of importance. In addition, the Moscow team oversees local teams where necessary, with each production and mining facility having its own legal function of varying number of lawyers and providing operational legal support to the relevant facilities. Being business-minded and client-oriented, the legal team’s advice has always been focused on finding ways to allow the company to achieve its goals rather than functioning as a roadblock to revenue generating functions. This attitude has brought many commercial benefits to the company and has allowed senior management to regard legal as a partner to the business. Acron’s legal team is known in Russia for its ability to implement impressive innovations to its operation and structure. In particular, the team has developed and are implementing a 100% server-based data centre of all legal workflow. Documents, contracts and other project-related or single-appointment work is now stored and processed online and is accessible by every lawyer within the legal team 24/7 at his or her work place and over a VPN. While supported by an exchange-based access to an e-mail server, the innovative system has dramatically enhanced the quality of the legal function by allowing the team to provide its service to its clients in a sufficient and timely manner. Recently, the legal team received credit for successfully completing the purchase of a mining license and a simultaneous sale of minority stakes in a potash mining project to three investors thereafter. The project took almost four years to implement and required the engagement of almost every member of the team. The most serious challenge currently faced by Acron from a legal perspective is dealing with international sanctions implemented against Russia. When the sanctions were first imposed, the legal team was faced with new business risks which needed to be covered as soon as possible. These were, among others, risk of default under international facilities which were dependent on the team’s representation, risks related to funds used for sanctioned parties or purposes and risk of declined insurance payment under international insurance policies and re-insurance slips.

Supporting the activities of the largest airline and national carrier in Russia, Aeroflot’s legal team is described as a ‘fantastic group of experts’ that possess an outstanding level of professionalism, persistence and a results-oriented attitude. Employing over 20,000 people, Aeroflot has a legal department of approximately 60 lawyers who support its large-scale activity in a timely and efficient manner. The legal support provided by the department, which is led by seasoned lawyer Vladimir Alexandrov, has been key in keeping Aeroflot’s leading position in the market and simultaneously making a tremendous contribution to Russia’s dynamic legal system. As the company makes thousands of flights in Russia and abroad each day, the legal team has demonstrated the flexibility necessary to deal with not only the national legal system, but also with the legal systems of many other countries serviced by the company. The number of court cases won by the team, which range from employment and consumer disputes to complex international litigation, has been consistently higher than other teams in the industry. Perhaps the key to the team’s success has been their methodology and work process, which one source describes as ‘perfectly structured’. Apart from dealing with internal corporate work, Aeroflot’s lawyers contribute on an ongoing basis to the development of the Russian legal system. As Russia’s leading air carrier, Aeroflot is proactively involved during the drafting of key legal regulations in the area of civil aviation that have a lasting impact on the industry. Aeroflot’s lawyers are also involved in preparing legal opinions regarding the regulation of Russian legislation in the area of aviation law and draft relevant amendments. In 2015, the team assisted Transaero on its bankruptcy. They accomplished the complex task of securing passengers’ rights whose flights had been cancelled and ensuring that the money paid for Transaero’s tickets was repaid. Thanks to Aeroflot’s assistance, a transport collapse in Russia was avoided by undertaking some of Transaero’s flights and transporting Transaero’s passengers.

Alfa-Bank’s legal department currently consists of 120 lawyers. Alfa’s legal team leader is Mikhail Grishin, a well-known person in a Russian legal market as a bright legal manager with outstanding professional and communication skills and is deputy chairman of the management board. The legal team is divided into several legal practices, each headed by a highly-qualified professional, with excellent reputation both within the bank and in the Russian business community. Within the last two years the Russian economy has been affected by a severe crisis that has had an impact on both consumers and companies, as well as regional financial markets. In this challenging situation Alfa-Bank still maintains its position as one of the biggest and most successful Russian private banks an achievement which would be impossible without active cooperation of professionals within the bank, including lawyers. The bank’s legal team has elaborated new documentation for both old and new products which considers current economic and political situation. These measures have granted legal comfort for the bank’s international partners and allowed further mutually beneficial cooperation. Alfa-Bank remains one of the most active participants in capital markets and the legal team has elaborated standard forms of annexes to ISDA, GMRA, RISDA as well as several framework agreements, which allow to provide custody and brokerage services to a wide range of clients. Tough times in Russia's financial markets have demanded close cooperation with Alf-Bank's partners and participation in lengthy litigations. The number of court proceedings has increased in the past year and this has given a chance for bright legal team members to show their high-level professionalism and ability to work under pressure. Alfa-Bank is well-known for its persistence and steadfastness when it comes to arbitration or litigation with individual in-house professionals taking part in court proceedings, developing strategy, coordinating investigators and collecting evidence. All these measures have enable Alfa-Bank to maintain its reputation of reliability among its counterparties and clients.

The centralised legal department at the global and national leader in the mining and production of natural diamonds, Alrosa, consists of 25 lawyers, 14 based in Moscow central office and 11 lawyers in a central office in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), a region that houses most of the company’s mining fields. In addition, there are 73 lawyers working across the structural divisions, representative offices and branches of Alrosa. The legal department was at the heart of important structural changes within the group, including its transformation from a CJSC (Closed Joint Stock Company) to OJSC (Open Joint Stock Company), a company initial public offering that saw a combined sale of a 14% stake by the Russian Government and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and a major privatisation of company shares. In addition, in order protect the rights and interests of Alrosa, other diamond mining companies and their customers from synthetic diamond producers, the legal department was instrumental with its preparation of legislative initiative, supported by the majority of the participants in the diamond industry that saw important changes in the laws of the Russian Federation regarding precious metals and precious stones. The proposals have been implemented in practice and are reflected by current legislation. The legal team has also helped Alrosa save costs in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) by defending the position of the group with regards to the need to align company mining policies with representatives of the indigenous peoples of The North, Siberia and the Far East. They have also been required to secure the absence of a legal obligation to make additional payments on the socio-economic development of the region in excess to what is already required by federal legislation.

Asteros is a leading Russian IT organisation that has enjoyed an extremely high growth rate over the past decade. The company specialises in the implementation of complex projects in the field of the construction of engineering, IT and security infrastructure, consultancy, business applications and IT outsourcing. To support the astonishing growth of the company every month the award winning legal team deals with interesting, new and complex projects. Composed of lawyers that are recognised as distinguished professionals with in-depth knowledge of the sector, the team is widely viewed as one of the best for its ability to tackle complex stock transactions, deals to attract capital and M&As. To respond to the growing need of Asteros, a few years ago the team underwent a process of strategic transformation of the legal service , which resulted in a higher standard of legal service that corresponds to the position of Asteros as one of the leaders in the Russian IT market. The team now is able to provide quality legal support to the company across its full portfolio of products and competence and enable Asteros to develop log-term relations with key customers.

The Moscow based legal team that supports the French multinational retail group Auchan in Russia, consists of approximately 40 legal professionals that have consistently shown the ability to immediately solve significant operational issues with major risks behind them. To support the activities of an organisation that has a large geographical span across Russia, the team is split into four sections; a real estate section, a section that supports individual stores, a section that deals with corporate and commercial activities and a section that deal with topics related to alcohol. Working closely with other divisions, Auchan’s legal department in Russia has been at the pinnacle of major commercial activities of the company overseeing all major transactional work and supporting its effort to expand in the region. The team has recently been instrumental with its support of a successful launch of a franchise contract for CIS and other countries with exporting goods for Russia and its lobbying activities against worsening of trade law regulations. In addition, the department has added value to the company by securing all alcohol operations and amicably resolving a four year antitrust case with the Federal Antitrust Service of Russia.

Russia’s largest automaker AvtoVAZ, majority owned through an alliance between French car manufacturer Renault-Nissan Alliance and the Rostec Auto BV company, celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year. From some of the largest production facilities in the world it has, for half a century, produced the vehicle most commonly associated with Russia: The Lada. Today, at its plant some 500 miles east of Moscow, it also produces Renault and Nissan cars for both the domestic and export market. The legal team has had to endure a period of turbulence recently, with changes to senior management reflecting the difficulties the carmaker has faced since the onset of the economic crisis. Nicolas Maure has stepped in as the new CEO charged with leading AvtoVAZ out of recession as it seeks to modernise manufacturing processes and improve product quality. Nonetheless, the legal team has remained a calming presence throughout difficult times, with one senior nominator crediting it for ‘introducing a much needed dose of stability while continuing to deliver all-round excellent service to the business’.

The 70-strong legal team at Bank Saint-Petersburg, a prominent Russian financial institution, performs a wide range of technical and research activities across the corporate, transactional and dispute resolution divisions. Well known in Russia for its innovative focus, the department works to achieve the bank’s goal to “go digital”. A lot of the strategic efforts of the department recently have been focused on creating an impeccable legal structure that allows the bank to implement a digitisation strategy, a process that demands that the unit embraces its creativity so as to make new delivery models. Two innovations recently implemented by the team include the development of a process for derivative transactions using an online banking system, and the creation of a legal basis for fully automated facilities of loans in online banking and smartphone apps. The most prominent organisational changes implemented by the team are related to its structure, which now allows the team to better address the challenges of highly specified banking business. The lawyers work exclusively on specific areas, such as projects, investment projects, international dispute resolution and any others that become necessary. Recently introduced automatisation of different standard processes allows the team to focus its time on the most crucial issues. This structure allows the bank to use external legal assistance only when acting in foreign courts. Last year the lawyers at Bank Saint-Petersburg have been praised for their contribution to winning and settling a number of international disputes, two of which included court proceedings in several jurisdictions.

The past year has been one of increasing opportunity for major oil producer Bashneft. On the back of an increasingly positive business outlook, with credit agency Fitch upgrading the company’s Long-Term Foreign and Local Currency Issuer Default Ratings and proclaiming the business stable, a number of business ventures and other agreements have been entered into. The major company Lukoil is the business partner for a joint venture under the name of LLC Vostok NAO Oil Company, which is aimed at unlocking the potential of oil fields located in the Nenets Autonomous District. These fields are believed to hold significant reserves, and preliminary drilling operations commenced in March 2016. The company has also strengthened its corporate social responsibility efforts. An example of this includes the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Orenburg region, which will see RUB 30m allocated to the region for social projects. Bashneft’s legal team is headed by vice president, corporate governance and legal affairs, Kirill Andreychenko. Andreychenko was appointed to the position in 2009, after a career that has moved across a range of in-house roles. Andreychenko and the rest of the legal team’s experience looks set to be called into action increasingly in the future as Bashneft seeks to capitalise further on its recent successes.

Basic Element Group, one of Russia’s largest diversified industrial groups, has over 275 legal employees, with a core team of 25 lawyers working within the holding company and more than 250 legal professionals performing various legal duties throughout the group. As the group encompasses a broad range of various industries including mining, automobiles, agriculture, banking and construction among others, lawyers within the team have to demonstrate a strong commercial focus and deep understanding of applicable laws and regulations. Led by the group general counsel Igor Makarov, the legal team has gained recognition with its work on facilitating the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games. As Basic Element Group was one of the main investors in the Games, it was actively involved in building key infrastructure projects including the international airport in Sochi, the Olympic Village, a bypass highway, several tunnels, and a cargo port. As the projects had to be completed in a very short time frame and in accordance with very high quality standards, the department’s mission proved to be extremely challenging. The team achieved their goal by demonstrating determination and resilience, whilst dealing with a variety of private and public sector organisations and had to deal with several high-profile disputes. Recent technical and managerial innovations within the legal team include the introduction of electronic databases and a virtual education program for in-house lawyers, a talent-retention policy among lawyers, a KPI evaluation system and annual performance review of individual legal managers.

The legal team at the Moscow-based real estate business BEL Development is actively involved in defining the strategy and tactics behind the development of landmark projects on the Russian market and has demonstrated an ability to interact effectively with all of the divisions within the company. Over the past several years, the team has managed to impress by winning all of its strategic litigation and by minimising the necessity to resort to courts for the protection of violated rights and legal interests. This was achieved through careful due diligence of projects undertaken by the lawyers, deep and thorough analysis of current perspectives and the elaboration of a well-defined legal roadmap. The high level of planning and preparation demonstrated by the legal team can also be witnessed in the implementation of a number of successful real estate projects. These projects required non-standard approaches to be adopted by the legal team, whilst remaining fully in line with current legislation and existing legal strategies.

The world’s largest aerospace company and second largest defence contractor by revenue, as well as one half of a global duopoly on commercial airliners, The Boeing Company maintains a significant presence in Russia. Russian airlines, along with many others globally, are partially reliant on Boeing aircraft for their operation and this has led to the company assuming a great deal of importance to Russia as a whole. Indeed, plans in November 2015 by the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) to ground all Russian Boeing 737 short-haul aircraft over safety fears caused a brief panic, before the decision was quickly reversed. While these safety concerns have retreated, they outline how the stakes in aviation law are invariably high and reaffirm the importance of a highly competent legal team at companies such as Boeing. Other areas in which the legal team at Boeing have demonstrated their importance over the past year include ongoing talks to provide a number of highly valuable 747 'Jumbo Jets' to AirBridgeCargo Airlines, a freight transporter. Head of legal and country legal counsel (Russia and CIS) Igor Kornev is in charge of operations at Boeing in Russia. An experienced legal professional who has been described as ‘an exemplary lawyer’ and ‘excellent project manager’, Kornev has been at the forefront of Boeing Russia’s activities, from the founding of non-profit organisations to the transnational asset and share sales that characterise the legal department’s work. The variety in scale and complexity of these tasks is indicative of the ability of the legal team to adapt to the tasks at hand. This has been attributed to their ability to attend to ‘the minutest of details’ as well as choose ‘the most rational position’ consistently.

The relatively small, but highly mobile and effective legal department at the Moscow office of real estate developer Capital Partners, has impressed with the speed of its ability to execute complex real estate transactions in the Russian market. The function headed by Roman Gurochkin has been involved in the implementation of some of the most significant, landmark real estate projects in Russia, including the construction of the only Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow and the Metropolis shopping centre. The latter project had an unprecedented success in the Russian market, reflected by its subsequent sale to Morgan Stanley for $1.2bn, which ended up being the largest transaction in the Russian real estate market during the year. Capital Partners’ legal team is highly rated internally, frequently receiving high praise for colleagues in revenue generating functions for both the depth of understanding of legal matters within the function and strong business orientation of individual lawyers in the team.

The legal department of Cherkizovo Group, Russia’s leading producer of poultry and pork, has recently been reorganised in accordance to the requirements of the business and now includes three centralised divisions: contractual legal support, litigation and real estate, each playing a key role in setting the direction of the entire legal support function. Led by a highly experienced Russian in-house lawyer, Yuriy Dyachuk, the team of 95 is involved in all major decisions for the company and cooperates with the different layers of the management structure and shareholders on an ongoing basis. This close communication with all levels of management, as well as the strong team ethic within the legal function have been the key factors behind its success. The department at Cherkizovo is characterised by a deep specialisation of lawyers, automatic and highly efficient processes and great opportunities for continuous growth of lawyers. Providing legal support to several key projects and all activities of the company, the team has most recently caught the attention of the Russian in-house community with their work on notable M&A deals and restructurings in Russia, as well as dealing with ever changing Russian court practice.

The major Russian national cinema network Cinema Park, currently consists of 30 cinemas in 18 cities across the country. Its legal team is involved in a wide variety of activities ranging from contracts for anything to do with real estate and film licenses to advertising legislation, regulation of food and drink (including alcohol products) and claims related work. The department is often heavily involved in disputes with customers related to the Consumer Protection Law and has to deal with Russian federal laws and restrictions concerning protection of children from content harmful to their health. For example, a few years ago the legal function was involved in an administrative case with The Federal Service for Drug Control that wanted to fine all cinemas based in Novosibirsk that showed the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”. As a result of the team’s involvement, the case was dismissed for lack of administrative offense.

The legal team at CTC Media, the leading Russian independent broadcasting company, supports work across a wide spectrum of activities including four federal television channels, international broadcasting, production companies, an internet business and merchandising. To manage this diverse workload the department is structured according functionality, allowing for example, lawyers involved in copyright to accompany all issues related to copyright across the entire group of companies at CTC Media. Despite this, lawyers are known for their ability to work as part of a team with a focus on results. Totalling approximately 20 employees, the team is known internally for its high levels of ‘customer focus’, which is highlighted by an increasing internal ratings of the department in recent past. Lawyers in the department are integrated in CTC Media’s business processes and business goals and participate actively in the process of generating company profits. In addition, they have shown an ability to mobilise rapidly to address acute problems whenever they arise. For example, the team has impressed with its ability to oversee the creation of a new federal channel ‘CTC Love’ within 2 months. The team did a fantastic job by registering procedures, obtaining necessary permits and signing a great number of contracts to fill air time.

Danfoss is a global leader in the production of energy and heating solutions, compressors, drives and units for powering mobile machinery. The legal and compliance team that oversees the activities of the company in Russia is known for its drive to succeed at all costs and exceed expectations. Supporting eight manufacturing-retail entities in the CIS region, the department has added value to the company by implementing creative and sometimes 'unexpected' solutions assisting sales. For example, it was a significant relief for Danfoss Russia's sales team to use an electronic drafting of contracts, as it allowed them to significantly reduce time. Credited for being able to solve both ordinary and unique tasks with the highest level of efficiency, the team has impressed with impressive litigation victories, conduct of commercial negotiations and supporting important corporate activity, such as establishing, M&A and liquidation of entities. Recently, the department has gained acclaim with its support of the construction of a plant based in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod region, a project that required the team to suggest a reasonable balance between the interests of all participants, while protecting the interests of Danfoss.

Don-Stroy Invest is one of the most well-known and actively growing real estate developers in the Moscow property market. The legal department that supports the core group on more than 50 projects with a total area of over, 4,500,000 square meters, is comprised of 23 lawyers and is headed by Ekaterina Regeda. Over the past five years, the team has accumulated a flawless reputation both internally and externally for the speed of executing real estate transactions, as well as for efficiency of processes within the function. The secret behind the success of this team lies in the collective efforts of all employees to introduce important innovations. Since 2011 key processes within Don-Stroy Invest’s legal department, such as legal examination of contracts, document management and management of forensic work were gradually transformed from paper to electronic work in a major internal project that is still ongoing. More recently, the department has introduced a motivation system based on employee KPIs, as well as strict standards of performance for each functional area. The department is currently evaluated on three fundamental and fixed elements: the dignity of the individual, level of professionalism and excellence of service.

Efes Rus was formed four years ago after a strategic alliance between two Russian companies, Moscow-Efes Breweries and SABMiller Rus. Today it is one of the leading companies in the Russian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector and is the second-largest brewer in the Russian beer market. The legal department at Efes Rus was created after the merge of the departments of both companies on the principle of collecting the most efficient practices and successful experience and integrating it into the combined company. As a result of the changes, the department currently incorporates three functional segments: a team that supports business units and the back office, a function that supports production and a corporate and project support function. Striking a perfect balance between centralisation and decentralisation, the team has shown an ability to support Efes Rus across six plants located in various regions in the country. In the past several years, the team has made an impression with its ability to navigate the company through the challenging regulation in the Russian alcohol sector, in particular tackling important changes that took place in Russian government regulation in 2012.

The legal department of Eldorado, one of Russia’s largest consumer electronics retailers, consists of 19 lawyers and three clerks. The lawyers are grouped into separate divisions - real estate, supply and marketing, civil law practice, sales, corporate practice and taxes. These professionals are known as experts in their field with a deep professional knowledge of their company and industry and have been demonstrating an ability to provide legal advice with maximum efficiency and an ability to resolve the barriers of legal formalism. The team is also recognised for its involvement in several notable cases, including the industry’s largest antitrust case, in which the company was accused of price collusion, cases for the protection of the Eldorado Trademark and several M&A projects and projects involving complex structuring. The team is led by Pavel Ostashkin, who has been with the company since 2005 and is known for bringing his lawyers and business closer together, thus achieving better efficiency within the function.

Registered in Yekaterinburg and with a central office in Moscow, Enel Russia is one of Russia’s major power generation companies. Comprised of 16 in-house lawyers based in Moscow and 8 legal professionals working across the company’s four power plants, Enel Russia’s legal department is divided into two distinguished segments, corporate affairs and legal affairs with the latter incorporating a civil and public law unit. Led by Zhanna Sedova, head of both legal and corporate affairs segment and acting as corporate secretary, the team is known for its innovative approach to litigation based on the estoppel principle, a major novelty to the judicial practice in Russia. The legal team of Enel Russia pioneered the use of this principle in the environment of the Russian courts. In addition, Enel Russia’s legal unit is one of the few Russian legal departments to adapt the ‘zero external counsel approach’, with the regular use of outside law firms substituted by fully-fledged in-house capabilities and very rare cases of external counsel involvement (only in cases where it is required by foreign law or strictly recommended by the business). The team has also made an impression with its proactive recommendations to management, one example being on best corporate practices relevant to Enel Russia’s status as a public company with a diversified shareholding structure. The team have also made a significant impact on Enel Russia through its design of universal standard forms of contractual structures aimed to decrease legal risk.

Led by highly distinguished lawyer Valery Sidnev, a professional with over 20 years of in-house legal experience in the Russian energy sector, the legal team at the major nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer, EuroChem, is a vital element of the company’s commercial affairs. With more than 70 lawyers based in 12 locations, the team manages the entire spectrum of issues facing the company and supervises all corporate, contractual and litigation matters (both Russian and international), including M&A and financial transactions. In addition, the team sets the strategic direction of EuroChem with its involvement in strategic planning, review and analysis of all legal documentation, mitigation of business risks, as well as planning and negotiating deals. Among a broad range of transactions and arbitrations, the team received acclaim for its involvement in a debut of a $750m syndicated project finance loan facility closed in December 2014 that won the ‘Deal of the Year’ by the Infrastructure Journal. More recently, in January 2016, the team reached a settlement with Shaft Sinkers, a provider of shaft-sinking services to the mining industry, in a dispute relating to a Russian potash mine. In 2015, the team was involved in the €660m engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Maire Tecnimont for a new ammonia plant in Russia.

The Austria headquartered utilities business, EVN is a major international investor in Russian infrastructure with a total volume of investment of about $1.65bn that has been conducting business in the country for the past 20 years. The legal function of EVN in Russia was established in 2009 and immediately saw the introduction of key innovations, such a system for time keeping, hour-rates and internal billing between subsidiaries and project companies. This led to a significant increase in efficiency internally and a reduction of the amount of work allocated to outside counsel and subsequently a significant reduction in internal cost. Since its inception, the department gained a reputation for its provision of invaluable internal advice on major pioneering projects in public utilities (water, wastewater and waste) and the energy sector in Russia, an achievement that has had a significant influence on EVN’s strategic direction. As a result, the team is now an element of the decision-making process from both legal and commercial perspective.

The London headquartered Evraz is a multinational vertically integrated steel making and mining company that derives most of its revenues from Russia. The Directorate of Legal Affairs, based in Moscow, supports Evraz across its operations in the country and is comprised of a corporate department, department for the legal support of projects, and a department that deals with contractual, claim work and legal support of administrative, tax, customs and currency regulations. Evraz’s legal function has received praised from colleagues within the company’s Moscow office, as well as peers in other businesses, for providing timely advice on anti-competitive vertical and horizontal restraints and on monopoly regulation. It has also been praised for successfully dealing with rapidly changing regulatory framework within the industry. The project support legal team has been recognised for its work on high profile cross-border M&A transactions and negotiations on Evraz’s initial public offering and debt restructuring. More recently the team has received acclaim for contributing to the deal of a long-term contract with Rosneft for the supply of natural gas to Evraz’s Sverdlovsk facilities.

Widely recognised within the energy sector for the quality of its legal advice, the team of in-house lawyers at the leading generator and supplier of energy in Russia, Fortum OJSC has received wide praise from both in-house and private practice lawyers. ‘I consider the in-house lawyers of Fortum OJSC as a team of highly qualified professionals who are dedicated to the common cause, ambitious and decisive,’ one source says. Besides their exceptional legal competence, the lawyers are said to be aware of all innovations in the sphere of energy generation. Fortum OJSC is the Russian branch of the Finnish energy holding company, Fortum. Only a decade since the operating procedures of the branch on the territory of the Russian Federation were build, the department has become an invaluable element of the company’s project based work in the region. In the past couple of years numerous large-scale projects directed towards the development of the energy sector in Russia and the branch itself have been implemented. This fast development was ultimately achieved due to the decision making system within the company that involves guidance from the legal function. In addition, the legal team at Fortum in Russia was imperative in its negotiations with the Government regarding a major wind park project, the first alternative energy project in Russia that gained support from the government. Sergey Aboymov, the charismatic leader of the team, is described as a ‘role model‘ to his team-members and is praised for finding innovative approaches to solving complicated issues that arise suddenly. Speaking about the team broadly, a source says that ‘as Russia enters a new phase of development, professionals such as the in-house lawyers of Fortum make this transition as soft and laconic as possible’.

The global e-commerce marketplace Frendi, operates in a highly innovative hi-tech industry, where new developments can impact businesses in an instant. The team that provides legal support to the company in Russia, led by Irina Novikova, incorporates extremely bright and analytical lawyers, who are able to generate innovative solutions in a limited timeframe. Reporting to the global legal department in the USA, the Russian team is highly flexible in providing day-to-day management of legal affairs of the business and is able to tackle all contract work and litigation in a timely fashion. Comprised of generalist lawyers that support the company in everything it does in Russia, the team has been able to increase its work capacity due to the introduction of technological innovations. For instance, two years ago it switched to a system of electronic signatures of documents, which allowed lawyers to spend less time on contract review.

The legal team at Gazprom, a leader in the extraction, production, transport and sale of natural gas, is no stranger to multi-tasking. The company’s dual role as public joint stock company and state-owned 'national champion' has meant the legal team has been required to maintain a diverse skill-set in response to a variety of challenges. Actions undertaken by the legal team have run from M&A activity, through company restructure, to high-level dispute resolution; demonstrating the breadth and depth of the team’s expertise. Over the past year, the company has been re-named as a public, rather than open, joint stock company in response to Russian regulatory requirements. Additionally, in October Gazprom agreed an asset swap deal with Wintershall Holding whereby a stake in future developments of part of their Urengoy oil and gas field was exchanged for a larger stake in a number of European gas trading and storage companies. In a further high-profile case, state-owned and private Turkish companies initiated legal proceedings against Gazprom in response to a gas price disagreement. All cases relating to this dispute were settled this year by the legal team. Considering the diverse range of challenges Gazprom faces, the legal teams are dispersed throughout Gazprom’s subsidiary companies which have responsibility for different resource fields and business concerns, in addition to a centralised group legal department. Nikolai Dubik heads the group legal department, after rising through the ranks from deputy division head when he was first employed by Gazprom in 1997. Dubik now sits on the management committee of the business, showing that legal personnel have a seat at the table of the highest levels of the organisation. Partly because of its size and sector, partly because of its role as one of the flagship companies of the Russian Federation, Gazprom is subject to a range of external forces that impact the successful operation of the business. That the legal team has been able to provide effective solutions to these problems is a credit to their professionalism and ingenuity.

Gazprombank, the third largest bank by net assets in Russia, has operations in a variety of countries. These have been expanded somewhat recently, but external factors have also meant reconsidering the bank’s commitments, with the effect that certain markets have been closed, for the moment at least. The Gazprombank legal department has been involved in these efforts, which require the team to be competent internationally, as by definition they include extra-jurisdictional work. Gazprombank’s office in London, for instance, has recently ceased operations, after laying dormant for some time. The company is not in retreat across all fronts, however. It has remained proactive in other markets by making agreements aimed at raising capital. An example of this was its agreement with in March 2016, along with Deutschebank and UBS to undertake a Swiss-franc Eurobond external bond initiative on behalf of Gazprom. Similarly, in June 2016 a cooperation agreement between Gazprombank and SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state oil producer was signed. This accord will see a Gazprombank subsidiary, Cryogenmash, supply SOCAR with a nitrogen unit for use at one of their polymer projects. Hailed as the beginning of a ‘strategic partnership and cooperation’, this agreement is an example the scale and complexity of deals routinely supervised by Gazprombank’s legal team. It also shows how important the company is not only to the business world in Russia, but to the winder political world also.

Offering corporate, retail, investment, brokerage, pension and insurance services and with assets exceeding $58bn, Otkritie is Russia’s largest independent financial services group. Otrkitie’s group general counsel Alexander Tarabrin is internationally recognised as a stand-out in-house lawyer and was commended by several senior partners for his stewardship of the group. A member of Otkritie’s management team, Tarabrin has significant expertise in corporate law and Russian business matters and is described by nominators as ‘among the best general counsel internationally’ and ‘a commercial adviser in the fullest sense – someone who excels at the strategic level’. Within the wider Otkritie group several other figures were singled out for praise, including Victoria Beleva, senior legal counsel (M&A) at Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation – one of Russia's largest private listed banks – and Ravshan Khalikov, head of legal at Otkritie Capital.

The American multinational technology and consulting corporation IBM undertakes a variety of activities in the Russian market, ranging from technology sales to professional services. To protect the interests of the company in Russia and several CIS countries, the legal team have to stay on top of commercial affairs in the sector, constantly adapting to the changing nature of the business and finding new approaches to support the company’s ever expanding portfolio of products and services. Relatively small in size, the legal team, led by Alexey Amvrosov, has individual lawyers that are expected to provide advice across all aspects of the law. The lawyers in the team are praised for having excellent commercial skills that enables them to provide proactive and pragmatic advice to clients. The team is viewed internally as a business advisor rather than a back office function called upon to provide opinions reactively, and because of that is involved with work on complex transactions and business strategies from the get-go. The aim of the department is to help internal clients achieve their goals in a way that is both ethical and beneficial from a business perspective.

Ilyushin Finance Co is a dedicated leasing and finance subsidiary of the Ilyushin Aviation Complex, a major Russian aircraft manufacturer and design bureau. It provides a range of financial services to its parent company and other manufacturers in the aviation industry. The small but highly effective legal team at the company, composed of five legal and three non-legal employees, has received praise within the industry. Formerly, the function was predominantly focused on domestic work, but the changing nature of the business required it to adapt to an international business environment within a very short timeframe. Headed by the experienced financial lawyer Alexey Kuznetsov, the team has recently demonstrated new international legal expertise in support of the company’s entry into new markets. Supporting the expansion of products and services are ongoing as well as the need to secure international transactions, M&A deals within the Russia and CIS region, as well as completing work on international tax, corporate and compliance matters. Amongst a series of innovations, the team has made an impression with the introduction of a compliance programme in the company’s the day-to-day practice.

Inter RAO is a major energy holding company in Russia that incorporates the manufacture and sale of electric and heat energy both in Russia and abroad, energy asset management, engineering and supply of equipment. The group owns and operates a great number of energy generating and distributing assets across several countries in Eastern Europe, which requires ongoing legal support from a highly organised and mobile legal force. The parent company’s legal team is arranged on a sectoral basis, with individual lawyers focusing on specific areas, such as tax, law-making, claims, contracts and international legal work. The department boasts an impressive organisational structure that allows it to provide support to a company across a wide variety of business areas and locations that includes an advanced control systems to monitor subordinate units within the group, a sophisticated internal control system of claim-related work and the presence of regulated business processes for each functional orientation. Over the past two years, the legal department at Inter RAO has been at the heart of commercial affairs for the business, coordinating the legal position of the group on large cases and disputes. In 2014 alone, with the help of the in-house team, RUB 3bn was reclaimed in the form of tax provisions and successful cases. Recently the legal team won an important dispute for the company that saw the return of RUB 633m to Tomskenergosbyt (a sister company of Inter RAO) from the EDF-controlled Tomsk Distribution Company.

Vladimir Potanin’s Interros – a major Russian conglomerate with interests in a diverse range of sectors – is one of the few privately held Russian entities with sufficient investment capital to take advantage of the current distressed market. Over the years, Interros’ legal team has helped oversee its diverse portfolio of legal work, protecting the company while allowing it to capitalise on new opportunities. Currently led by Olga Voitovich, the small but highly efficient team of 20 lawyers helps the company handle everything from multi-billion dollar litigations to big-ticket M&A while advising on general risk management. Zakharova has taken the interesting step of structuring the in-house team like a law firm. Under this model, ‘senior associates’ are able to gravitate toward their chosen specialism while more junior staff learn the ropes by handling routine matters.

The legal team of KIA Motors in Russia supports the company across a network of 170 dealers and has recently brought its relationship with them under antimonopoly law. Led by Artur Allaliev, the team has deeply improved agreements with these dealers, which now regulate a wide spread of terms, such as: vehicles and spare parts distribution, warranty and non-warranty repair, joint marketing activities and providing trademark rights. Following the AEB Code of conduct, Allaliev and his team have drafted several internal policies and roadmaps regarding both full size and service dealers, independent service stations, special equipment and data access, transparent candidate selection procedure, discounts and bonuses. KIA Motors’ legal team has a distinct organisational structure, whereby roles are assigned in a highly efficient way, so that any area of legal work can be easily managed by another team member. The legal team works in close cooperation with KIA’s business and has an ability to determine the brand’s long-term strategy in Russia.

Lenta is one of the main retail chains in Russia and currently the country’s second largest hypermarket chain. The legal team at the company provides support to over 122 hypermarkets in 63 cities across Russia and 27 supermarkets in the Moscow region alone. Fully integrated in a well organised and highly flexible team, individual attorneys at Lenta have to work in close cooperation with other divisions to supports the activities of the company across Russia. The team is also involved in the training Lenta’s non-legal personnel spread across several regions. Constantly focused on resolving legal issues and looking for ways to improve processes, lawyers within Lenta’s department have demonstrated their ability to form close-knit cross functional teams and operate as a single unit when providing legal support for complicated projects and M&A transactions.

Leroy Merlin is a major home-improvement and gardening retailer headquartered in France and owned by the Adeo Group, with almost 400 stores in operation across 12 countries. Leroy Merlin East, the Russian subsidiary, operates 46 of these stores and has plans to increase that number to well over 100 in the next five years. As such, it is a major retail player in the Russian market and requires a legal team to match these ambitions. The legal department at Leroy Merlin has a broad portfolio of day to day work, which has primarily involved supporting the business in its expansion efforts. This has mostly included due diligence work on the plots outlined for possible use, by undertaking detailed research on the sites’ history, formation, and generally assessing potential legal risk. In addition to the due diligence work, the department has been involved in reactive measures, dealing with claims levelled at the company by local regulators, and has also been involved in corporate transaction work. The most notable of these was the acquisition of a 100% stake in a real estate company, Kievskoe AS, in June of 2015. The Leroy Merlin East legal team has been described as having ‘a high level of professionalism’, and its members have been praised as possessing ‘exceptional personal qualities’. Reporting to the global legal team based in France, the Leroy Merlin East team is of great importance to the parent company given the ambitions and expansion plans they have in Russia.

A major oil company with almost 1% of all proven global oil reserves, Lukoil is subject to the same external market forces that are the root causes of the challenges faced by many oil companies in recent years. Falling commodity prices have had a knock on effect at departmental level, as all elements of the business are forced to tighten purse strings in order to remain economical. Indeed, Lukoil has been particularly hard hit even among oil companies, reporting a 2015 full-year profit of 20% less than the previous year. It is during these trying circumstances that the Lukoil legal team has had to maintain their high quality of work for the company. By supporting the company to complete the range of asset sales and disputes which have characterised their work over the last year, the team at Lukoil has been at the heart of the company’s business strategy. A dispute with Rosneft over the management rights of an oil and gas field in the Krasnoyarsk Territory was particularly salient, as it saw the two most valuable Russian oil companies in opposition. This lengthy dispute saw a positive outcome for Lukoil and their legal team, as government overseers found in their favour and awarded them their requested license for the contested field. A further high-profile case saw Lukoil involved in litigation against Barclays over a performance bond clause in a drilling contract. Once again, the legal team achieved an historic win for Lukoil, as the courts again found in their favour and ordered Barclays to pay all outstanding sums. Headed by vice president and general counsel Ivan Maslyaev, the team is located at the second level of the company hierarchy, evidence of the importance of the legal team to the business. Maslyaev, a veteran of legal business affairs, also has a seat on the management committee of the business and provides input to the strategic direction of the company as a whole.

M.Video began trading in Moscow in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and has followed the same spirit of enterprise ever since. The company, which runs over 300 stores specialising in the sale of home appliances, media and entertainment products, is now the largest Russian consumer electronic retail chain by revenue and the first and only listed company in its sector. Chief legal officer Vera Reznikova leads a team of over 40 lawyers that cover everything from e-commerce, real estate, marketing, regulatory and compliance, M&A and contentious matters. As an example of the legal team’s contribution to the company, one nominator points to the role it has played in protecting M.Video’s unique store design from infringement by competitors. Another commented that ‘M.Video is a great example of a Russian company doing things well and [Reznikova] and her team are very much a part of its success’.

Joint stock company Tander, trading as Magnit, was formed in the mid-1990s, in the wake of the opening of market conditions created by the recent breakup of the Soviet Union. The business is now the largest retailer in Russia and operates a vast array of supermarkets, convenience and other stores throughout the Federation, numbering well over 7,000. Given its size, prominence and the range of products that it sells, it is essential for Magnit to maintain a sizeable and competent legal team to be able to react to whatever issues may present themselves during the operation of the business. Over the past year, the legal team has had to deal with a range of issues, including having to respond to import restrictions initiatives linked to sanction efforts by the Russian government. Relating to this area, the Tander team was involved in February 2016 with a consumer rights watchdog over issues related to Magnit selling potentially prohibited products. The Tander legal team, however, managed to successfully defend the case, with the court finding that the products were not in contravention of import regulations. Despite threats such as these, and a lowering of growth forecasts for the coming year to the lower end of previous predictions, the legal team has supported the company ably. The company can remain optimistic about the future as, while forecasts have been lowered, they remain predictions of growth rather than stagnation or contraction. Given the market pressure that Magnit is under, the legal team can take much credit for this.

Global mining and metals company Mechel is home to a formidable legal team including standout figures such as director of legal affairs Artem Simonov, deputy heads of legal Svetlana Lashchuk and Tatiana Prokofieva, and senior legal counsel Elena Lysenko and senior intellectual property counsel Svetlana Moshnina. With operations covering the extraction of coal and iron ore and the production of steel products, the legal team has to keep on top of a broad range of on-site risks while also helping the company to survive in the fiercely competitive Russian commodities sector. Nominators praised the team’s ability to manage the hundreds of highly complex issues it faces on a daily basis while consistently paying attention to the long-term strategic interests of the business. The company, which is owned by prominent investor and businessman Igor Zyuzin, has recently agreed a plan with shareholders that will see it restructure over $5bn worth of debt, an important step that will help the company weather a period of weakened demand and low coal and steel prices.

All corporate counsel face huge responsibility in protecting their company’s interests, but the in-house team at Medsi Group, one of the largest private clinics in Russia, face the additional responsibility of protecting the patients’ interests. Overseeing the dual responsibility is a team of 16 lawyers led by Dmitry Konorev, Medsi Group’s vice president, corporate and legal. Konorev’s team centralised in the Moscow headquarters rather than divided among the various clinics operated by the group, as is common in the private healthcare industry. This strategic centralisation allows the team to pool information on risk and work efficiently as a unit. The centralised team is then divided more or less evenly into two units, the first of which oversees all contracts related to the company’s day-to-day operations (including contracts for provision of medical services and the maintenance of hospitals) while the other works on the investment and financial activities of the company, including implementing joint projects, M&A, new facilities, and bulk acquisition of medical supplies. The team is also responsible for handling disputes with insurers, a hugely important part of the business’s risk management. Medsi’s lawyers have also made key contributions by helping the financial division to structure equipment contracts, bringing down borrowing costs for new equipment while protecting the company from legal challenges. For all these reasons the Medsi legal team is recognised as among the best in Russia.

Formerly known as North-West GSM, Megafon is Russia’s second largest mobile phones operator and the third largest operator of telecoms. To support the activities of the company that cover the entire territory of Russia, the legal function includes both a compact team of approximately 40 employees based in Moscow and strong legal teams in each of Megafon’s 'macro regions' (the company has eight branches) and each of the regional offices. The Moscow based team is said to be a highly effective legal force that supports major transactional work and constantly adds value to the business, whilst impacting the strategic direction of Megafon. It is split into three segments: a corporate practice, a team that supports the operation of the commercial side of the company (including the launch and development of client products, advertising etc in all its segments) and a team that supports infrastructure. Recently the team provided support of the purchase of a $282m stake in a Moscow property firm with an intention to use its Oruzheyny Building as its new corporate headquarters having separately signed a ten year lease deal. Megafon’s regional legal teams are also known for the excellence of their work, with lawyers expected to solve important legal tasks, rather than merely providing typical technical support. There is a constant and ongoing interaction between the core and regional teams that is achieved via video conferences. In addition, Megafon’s corporate resource database ‘Best Practices’, offers lawyers from the regions and central office to exchange approaches and solutions to various legal problems.

As the company with the largest portfolio of direct distribution contracts in Russia, Megapolis is a logistics powerhouse with extensive operations across the country. One the company’s most significant operations is in tobacco transportation, and the Megapolis has distribution contracts with some of the largest players in the tobacco industry, including Phillip Morris and Japan Tobacco International. The company also provides logistics services for alcohol, soft drinks, energy drinks and coffee. Recent activity that the Megapolis legal department has been involved in in recent years involve the monumental acquisition of a 20% stake in the company by Phillip Morris and Japan Tabacco Inc. in 2013. This cemented the relationship between Megapolis and these two tobacco majors, going a long way to securing this vital part of the company’s future. The legal team has also been involved in responses to anti-tobacco initiatives taken by the Russian government, which has lately been looking to regulate the market further. Amongst all this activity, the legal department at Megapolis has been through an overhaul period, with a number of changes being implemented aimed at improving the team’s effectiveness. The legal team has now been reorganised to be more transparent and accessible across all the group companies, and new internal processes have been unveiled aimed at quality and process improvement. The general counsel at Megapolis, Aleksey Andronov, heads up the team. He brings with him a wealth of experience in both private practice and in-house roles, which makes him ideally suited for oversight of these comprehensive process improvement measures.

one of the leading Russian steel and mining company, a global producer and supplier of iron ore and metallised products, and a regional producer of high quality steel, Metalloinvest is guided by a legal team that comprises some of the most talented corporate counsel in Russia. General counsel Dmitry Babenko oversees a team that includes head of legal Alexei Kostin, senior corporate lawyer Lyubov Radkova, senior transactional lawyer Mirshod Aliev, senior litigator Dmitry Cherednichenko and senior property & real estate lawyer Andrey Nedelkov. The mining sector has faced a challenging period lately, but Metalloinvest’s skilled legal team has, according to nominators, been consistently engaged in driving the company forwards. The company has steadily increased its share of high value-added products supply and has recently completed an ambitious international financing. One senior partner spoke of the difficulties this transaction introduced and praised the legal team for showing ‘the type of first-rate commercial and technical skills that one would normally associate with a top-tier law firm.

The Moscow based legal department of METRO Cash & Carry supports the activities of a company that has a presence in 46 regions of the country. This ambitious task is achieved by a very advanced level of structural organisation within the function that includes standardised processes and a highly effective training programme for personnel on the ground, so that non-legal managers of commercial centres and their deputies are well versed in the typical legal matters that they encounter on a day-to-day basis. The legal department in Moscow is divided into two segments, a corporate and real estate support unit. The corporate legal department provides support across the entire spectrum of activities of METRO (with the exclusion of real estate) and is comprised by lawyers supporting either ‘back office’ or ‘front office’ functions. The team has overseen the rapid expansion of the business in Russia, working alongside other divisions and external lawyers on the implementation of new projects. In the past five years, the department has undertaken a unification and optimisation of its processes, leading to a reduction in cost and increase in response times. Recently, the legal team has received praise for its work on facilitating changes in legislation, arising from the political situation in Crimea, that have impacted two major METRO Cash & Carry centres based in the region.

The largest mobile operator by subscribers in Russia and throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mobile Telesystems (MTS) has recently been making progress towards upgrading and expanding its already extensive network. It has achieved this in large part via cooperation and agreements with major strategic business partners, in which their legal team has proved instrumental. The company has, for example, entered into a business partnership with Swedish mobile major Ericsson in order to roll out a new cutting-edge 5G network in time for the Russian 2018 World Cup. Additionally, existing strategic agreements with Vodafone have been expanded in Ukraine. Through these initiatives, a range of new services will be offered and the company’s operations were renamed from MTS Ukraine to Vodafone Ukraine, in an indication of the depth of cooperation that the firms are engaged in. The legal team at MTS has been involved in the negotiation and oversight of these agreements, along with the dispute resolution and other support services that form their regular portfolio. Ruslan Ibragimov, vice-president, corporate and legal matters, leads the department. Following an impressive career at a number of major banks, Ibragimov moved into private practice before progressing to his current role at Mobile Telesystems. Ibragimov and the legal team’s experience, tested during their recent successes, should prove invaluable as the company looks to build on the improvements it has made over the year.

Well known in Russia for both its ambitious innovations and impressive work on key financial transactions, the 40-strong legal department at the Moscow Exchange is among the most formidable in the financial sector. Under the guidance of the smart and charismatic legal director Alexander Smirnov, the department has moved towards the principle of ‘customer service’ thanks to the introduction of a ‘satisfaction index’ which allows internal clients to score team members. In addition, the introduction of a process of centralisation of the legal function has improved the department’s integration with the business, leading to the provision of a well-coordinated and ‘business focused’ legal advice. Previously selected as the best team within the Moscow Exchange Group by an internal survey, the department has received wide praise from across the industry. In particular, the team has been credited for its involvement on the sale of a large stake (amounting to approximately $500m) in Moscow Exchange by The Russian Central Bank to both Russian and foreign investors.

Mosfilm is a Moscow based film studio that is often described as the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and Europe, known for the production of widely acclaimed Soviet-era films and modern productions. Intellectual property work, which involves granting licenses to TV stations and other counterparties, remains a major focus for Mosfilm’s lawyers and is completed within the department for television rights that operates under the umbrella of the larger ‘legal management’ unit. This unit also includes a department for purchasing contracts and a department that deals with all other legal issues, including labour law, real estate and contracts not related to purchases. Mosfilm operates as a single production base that offers a full range of services needed for the production of films that could be historical, military and Sci-Fi. As Mosfilm’s clients decides what combination of services they would need for the production of specific films, the legal team has to produce tailored contracts. The introduction of standardised forms for different types of services by the legal team has made this work quick and effective. In addition, the legal team has been an important contributor to Mosfilm’s ongoing fight against all forms of piracy. The team has for several years worked with international internet companies such as Google and YouTube, and more recently with major social networks, to find effective solutions to combat internet piracy. The team has already gathered useful experience of using the new provisional interim measure for cases of internet piracy, whereby the owner may appeal to the Moscow City Court for pre-trial restriction of access to a film that is illegally posted on the internet.

MosStroiTransGas, known as MSTG, is a large Russian holding company that has 30 years of experience in the oil and gas construction complex of Russia and CIS countries. MSTG’s 11- strong legal team has a close interaction with the management of individual companies within the holding, along with all structural units in different parts of Russia. It is thus able to provide timely legal support to the business, while taking into account the interests of all individual enterprises within its structure. Supporting different companies within a holding that has a wide geographical span of activities across several Russian regions (Moscow, Voronezh, Tambov and Tyumen) presents the team with formidable challenges. Lawyers within the function have to frequently take business trips to participate in hearings, take part in negotiations and resolve disputes in different parts of the country. The team has showcased excellent flexibility to provide quality legal assistance to local companies, without neglecting companies based in the capital. This is helped by a sense of priority within the department to increase interchangeability between individual lawyers and an innovative system of remote interaction that is currently being introduced in the department.

Public joint-stock company Nizhnekamskneftekhim is a major petrochemical corporation with a 2015 turnover of RUB 166.7bn. Located in the Russian federal republic of Tatarstan, east of Moscow, Nizhnekamskneftekhim is notable for being Russia’s leading producer of raw rubber and plastic. The company’s lawyers operate across the full range of the legal spectrum, but have recently been spending more time on civil law due to the high volume of contract work related to transactions that the firm has been participating in. As a significant proportion of these deals are transnational, the legal team is highly conversant in international law, including English, French and Swiss. The in-depth knowledge of transactional work that the team has amassed allows it to support the company effectively, and results in the completion of these lucrative agreements. In addition to legal work centred on deals, the Nizhnekamskneftekhim legal team undertakes a significant amount of work processing international customs legislation and dispute settlements. The team attempts to conclude disputes ‘amicably’ as frequently as possible, and are able to draw on their keen negotiation skills in order to achieve this. The team also stays abreast of events in the wider Russian legal market, and is proactive in proposing draft laws which regulate the company’s business area. The fact that the legal team remains highly competent across such a range of legal areas has been praised by internal clients, as has the professionalism and expertise of the leader of the department, Aydar Sultanov.

The world’s largest producer of nickel and the rare metal palladium, Norilsk Nickel is named after the Siberian city in which it conducts the main proportion its mining and prospecting efforts. Thought to contain some of the largest metal deposits on earth, the company’s operations here provide the lion’s share of employment in Norilsk, and mean it is a hugely important business regionally. Unlike many other Russian companies focused on raw materials, Norilsk Nickel has performed well during the recent commodities crisis, and looks set to benefit from rising nickel and palladium prices. Part of the company’s success can be attributed to their legal department, whose competency and professionalism has been notable in a number of recent initiatives. In December 2015, a deal was made to sell a stake in one of Norilsk Nickel’s copper operations in Siberia to a group of Chinese investors. This was the first occasion in which Chinese investors have made a major contribution to the Russian mining industry, making it a landmark deal in Sino-Russian business relations. More recently, in April this year the company agreed to sell 0.79% of its shares to an outside consortium, raising $158m. Alexander Zavtrik heads up the legal department and has overseen these considerable successes. A sign of Norilsk Nickel’s importance to the region and in recognition of the potential environmental effects of their activities in the Arctic Circle, Zavtrik recently represented the company at a roundtable discussion. Aimed at discussing the legal framework by which regulation of economic activity can be conducted in the Arctic Circle, the meeting saw the legal team of Norilsk represented at the highest level of international cooperation on this important issue.

A subsidiary of the American multinational conglomerate United Technologies Corporation, Otis Elevator Company is the world’s largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems. The in-house legal team that supports the Russian segment of the company is comprised of nine professionals who boast strong legal expertise and a solid understanding of the industrials sector. Over the past two years, the legal department has grown its value-adding ability and has developed into a unit that is currently viewed as a business partner focussing on the needs of internal clients. This achievement has been confirmed by the results of an internal client survey that is regularly conducted by the company. The customer satisfaction index has grown from 5.8 in 2007 to values very close to the maximum score of 7. This was achieved due to recent organisational innovations within the department, such as the implementation of a client allocation matrix and improvements in key processes including, but not limited to, contracts and sales support, corporate, M&A, defence litigation, bad debt collection, legal alerting and training.

Established in 1998 by the Russian software house Reksoft, OZON Holdings was the first Russian company to establish themselves as an online retailer. Currently incorporating five businesses – OZON.ru, OZON.travel, O-Courier, Sapato.ru and OZON Solutions – each of which add significant value to Russian e-commerce, OZON Holdings is an undisputable leader in the country e-commerce sector. Among the most well organised and effective legal departments in retail, OZON’s legal team has a strong track record of excellence and over the past several years has showcased the flexibility necessary to provide legal support to the various businesses needs of the company that range from retail to real estate and online travel. Described as ‘strong and organised’, the legal team at OZON is comprised of lawyers who function as generalists, but have their own individual specialisation. This balance of dedication and substitution has been one of the team’s main distinguishing features and one of the reasons behind its success. Over the years, the legal department at OZON has impressed with its efforts to deal with corporate governance and work on M&A transactions. More recently the team was involved in two major fundraising amounting to RUB 250bn in total.

Philip Morris International’s (PMI) Russian business dates back to the mid-70s, when the company signed an agreement with the Soviet government that brought Marlboro and Apollo Soyuz cigarette brands to local consumers. At present, all PMI cigarettes sold in Russia are locally produced at the facilities within the country, with its Izhora factory in St. Petersburg being the second-largest PMI production facility in the world. The legal function at Philip Morris International provides ongoing support and brand protection across the network of affiliates that employ over 4,000 people and have approximately 100 sales offices across Russia. With individual lawyers based in various regions of the country the function deals with everything from everyday business support to antimonopoly legislation and is known for its engagement in implementing the strategic objectives of PMI's affiliates on a number of essential projects. These include corporate governance initiatives, M&A deals, strategic alliances and joint ventures.

The combination of falling oil prices and economic sanctions has placed heavy burden on almost all Russian companies in recent months. For PhosAgro, however, it has proved to be a spur to growth. The world’s third largest phosphate producer has benefited greatly from the combination of a weak rouble helping to boost its exports and a surge in domestic agriculture following the restrictions placed on imported foodstuffs. While such good fortune lies outside the control of individuals, nominators praised Alexei Sirotenko, head of legal, and the wider in-house team for providing the $5bn company with sufficient flexibility to capitalize on these opportunities. In the words of one senior partner, ‘the legal team is relatively small but highly skilled and punches above its weight. They have contributed enormously to the strength of the business and should be recognised as leaders in their field’.

Alexander Rodionov heads the legal department of PNK Group, one of the few major privately-held Russian developers. PNK Group specialise in investing in the construction of industrial parks throughout Russia, with key sites located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Ekaterinburg. PNK Group is recognised as one of the biggest industrial and warehousing developers in the country, boasting a portfolio of 14 ongoing and completed high technology projects in Moscow and other regions (the total area of its projects is about 2,000,000 square meters), which the legal team successfully oversees from a legal standpoint. Over the years, the legal team has showcased a remarkable ability to simultaneously handle legal issues from opposing branches of the law at the same time, whilst also impressing with their aptitude to work on key material transactions for the company. Alexander Rodionov is a distinguished leader in the Russian in-house legal profession, well known for his mentoring skills.

With mining operations across Russia and Kazakhstan, Polymetal International is one of the leading precious metals companies in the world. A constituent of the UK’s FTSE250 share index, Polymetal is the largest silver producing company in Russia and among the top five producers of gold. The legal team is led by deputy CEO of legal services Igor Kapshuk, a much respected member of the executive management team who has occupied various legal positions with the company since 2003. The legal team has played a significant role in helping the London Sand Moscow Stock Exchange listed company to capitalise on key strategic opportunities in the global precious metals market. This year the company has already made two important acquisitions, purchasing a gold mine in Kazakhstan from Glencore for $100m and moving to acquire the Kapan mine in Armenia from Canadian international gold mining group Dundee Precious Metals. One senior partner who has previously worked with Polymetal on its acquisitions noted that the legal team was ‘among the most sophisticated in the sector [and] a huge privilege to have represented’.

Moscow-based, privately owned bank Promsvyazbank stands as one of the largest non-state-owned banks in Russia and ranks among the country’s ten largest banks by assets. Promsvyazbank, which currently provides financial services to over 100,000 corporate customers and over two million private customers, recently posted first quarter profits for 2016, making it a rare exception to the bad news dominating Russia’s financial sector. Promsvyazbank's legal team and its recently appointed leader Larisa Valueva been an important contributor to the bank's recent outperformance as evidenced from their numerous awards and a strong track-record of project delivery. In spite of the challenging conditions under which it is operating, the bank remains a competitive force in the Russian market and has sought to expand its presence recently. Last year Promsvyazbank received regulatory approval for its acquisition of a controlling stake in Moscow-focused lender Bank Vozrozhdenie and completed, through its shareholders, a credit-neutral share swap with Samara-based Pervobank in a deal that paves the way for the Ananiev brothers – controlling shareholders of Promsvyazbank – to acquire managerial control of Pervobank.

RN Bank is the financial institution that supports the Renault-Nissan automobile manufacturers’ alliance and specialises in the provision of auto loans for private customers and financings for dealers. Established in 1924 and with a presence in Russia since 2006, the bank has a reputation of a reliable partner for its clients that strictly follows antitrust legislation and consumer rights protection. With a culture of results orientation and respect for employees and equal opportunities for development, the legal department at RN Bank, led by Larisa Pak, is a unique team of professionals who not only demonstrate a highly impressive grasp of the law, but also a strong commercial aptitude. ‘In the majority of cases, a solution developed by them for a second opinion gets full appraisal from our lawyers,’ a source shares. ‘It is unbelievably engaging and interesting to work with Larisa Pak and her colleagues from the RN Bank’.

One of Russia’s largest universal banks, Rosbank, operates as a subsidiary of Société Générale the major multinational financial group that has presence in 65 countries. Following the merger of Rosbank with another subsidiary of Société Générale, Banque Société Générale Vostok (BSGV) in 2011, the Moscow based legal team was reorganised, achieving its current organisational structure with its unique processes, internal standards of interaction with other parts of the bank and admissibility of legal risks. The department shares the bank’s vision to focus on building long-term client relationships first, and its structure reflects this principle. Understanding that to form such long-term relationships, individual lawyers have to demonstrate knowledge of the specifics of clients, which includes their sector knowledge, senior management has assigned employees who specialise in certain sectors of the economy to specific client departments. The bank's lawyers are also involved in the study of peculiarities of legal regulation of economic activities such as issues of civil circulation and operation of aircraft, railroad cars and other specific objects. This operational ‘immersion’ in industry specifics promotes specialisation, between individual employees within the legal service. If for a certain reason the department does not have the necessary knowledge and experience for the task then the team involves external counsel, whose work is supervised by the team. The team is also known for its work on major transactions in Russia’s financial industry. More recently, the team completed the sale of Rosbank’s non-banking credit organisation INKAHRAN to Moscow Credit Bank (MCB) in 2015.

With over 25 million private clients and 250,000 corporate clients Rosgosstrakh plays a central role in the Russian retail insurance market. The legal team, led by head of legal Ara Gasparyan, is recognised as among the finest in the global insurance sector and was widely commended for its close alignment with the business’ values and ability to act as a commercial facilitator. Like most Russian financial entities, Rosgosstrakh has witnessed deterioration in its credit profile recently and has seen capital adequacy approach the regulatory minimum. Nikolay Antonov, director general of legal work and interaction with regulatory authorities, was praised as a ‘key part of the company’s success in recent years, helping it to engage with hugely complex regulatory issues at a very challenging time with respect to market conditions and growing regulatory oversight facing the industry’.

Rosneft, along with other state-owned Russian oil producers, faces an uncertain future. Falling commodity prices and the Russian government’s desire to cut costs have resulted in talk of at least partial privatisation, with India and China both possible sources of investment. Nevertheless, Rosneft remains a giant in the world of oil production. The world’s largest publicly-traded oil company by barrels of oil produced, it employs over 100,000 people in locations from the Black Sea to the Pacific and has turnover of over $90bn. The company has also retained its proactivity in spite of these external factors, retaining a proactive attitude towards M&A projects while cutting costs by selling off assets elsewhere. Evidence of this is the recent acquisition of a 16.67% effective share in PCK Raffinerie, a German oil producer, along with the sale of stakes in two Rosneft oil fields in Siberia to Indian state-owned companies. The legal team at Rosneft, therefore, has shown its versatility in being able to support the business to take both reactive and proactive measures. Aside from M&A activity, the team has also been involved in a dispute with a Gazprom-owned business over access to a pipeline in the Russian Far East. A round of litigation was won by the Rosneft team here as the Far East District Commercial court ruled that Rosneft were to be allowed partial access to the pipeline as per their original requests. The dedicated M&A legal team is accompanied by legal support and oil- and gas-specific legal teams, following a reorganisation of the legal team three years ago. The 2015 GC Powerlist for Russia featured Evgeny Savin, Rosneft’s head of legal (gas), in recognition of his role in the reorganisation of the company’s legal function, as well as his dedication to the company’s efforts as a whole. Given the uncertainty that surrounds Rosneft’s future, the maintenance of a top quality legal team is sure to be a top priority for the company as it looks to move forward.

A Russia-wide power company, Rosseti was formed in the wake of the reorganisation of the Russian State power producer RAO UES. Still owned in large part by the Russian State, Rosseti is now listed on the Moscow exchange and is the backbone of the Russian national grid. With turnover of $21bn and over 220,000 employees, Rosseti is a highly important component of the Russian business domain. As such, its corporate team is drawn from a pool of highly talented individuals, and, the legal department is no exception. Recently, the legal team has been largely involved in supporting business negotiations, including assessing the possibility of a vast joint venture with elements of the Chinese and South Korean national grid operators. Talks have centred on a variety of possibilities up to and including the firms potentially organising an Asian super-grid system, but this particular deal reportedly faces a myriad of problems which could prevent the project’s coming to fruition. A more modest transnational agreement was signed in June 2016, between Rosseti and China’s State Grid Corporation (SGC), for the latter to provide upgrades to grid facilities in Russia. The company also undertook a restructure approved by shareholders in June 2015 which involved changing the company’s trade name, various organisational improvements and the updating of legal entries. Given the active nature of the company’s negotiations, the legal team at Rosseti can gear up for future deals mindful of the fact that the company’s attractiveness to foreign investors is likely to result in a greater volume of work in the future.

A state-owned, non-profit organisation focused on fostering the development of cutting-edge solutions for both the civil and defence sectors of Russia, Rostec is an umbrella organisation that coordinates the operations of around 700 entities over 14 holding groups. A perfect example of the Russian economy’s blend of public and state ownership, Rostec is an organisation with few parallels globally. This presents unique challenges to the in-house legal team, which has been involved in a range of initiatives over the past year. These have involved the sale of a large stake of prominent subsidiary Russian Helicopters’ holding company to Russian and Abu Dhabi-based investment funds, in a combined stake and shares deal believed to be in the range of around $600m. Additionally, the team has been involved in organising a deal to produce a gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore, in a major deal to be undertaken by Rostec subsidiary RT Global Resources. In mid-2015, the team was involved in the successful culmination of a case against Erste Group Bank, whereby a long running case ended with courts ordering that Rostec’s legal fees be reimbursed as a precursor to further settling of debts. Alla Lalletina heads the legal department, and brings with her a wealth of experience, education and qualifications that help to shape the legal department of Rostec. Her in-house legal career has included periods at AGROS and SiburTyumenGaz, and she has authored a number of books and scientific journals.

Traded on the MICEX, RTS, OTCBB, London Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Russia’s national telecommunications operator and largest long-distance telephony provider is among the country’s most recognisable entities. Fittingly, Rostelecom’s legal team ranks among the most respected in the region. Since 2013 Mikhail Irzhevsky has served as vice president of legal affairs and commands a team including deputy director of legal Valentina Lagaeva and head of corporate legal Alex Kasyanov. The former state monopoly has been busy modernising its infrastructure and expanding its offering to compete in the global telecoms market. In 2015 it acquired significant stakes in the Big Data platform IQMen and Safe Data storage centre as part of its strategy to enter Russia’s fast growing digital market. In the same year it acquired the Russian assets of FreshTel Group in a deal that observers have noted for being legally complex. This year Rostelecom has acquired the assets of Morton Telecom through its subsidiary Bashinformsvyaz and is expanding its regional coverage with the acquisition of Samara-based broadband and telephony provider AIST. In the words of one source, ‘the company acts from a position of strength but is very keen not to rely on its legacy. As such, the legal team is always at the forefront of its activities, helping it to plan its next move’.

The legal department that supports the major Russian water utilities and management company Rosvodokanal Group consists of 88 legal staff working in the group’s corporate centre in Moscow and across offices of operational companies of the group. Led by Dmitry Timofeev, an experienced lawyer with a strong track record in transactional work and vast expertise in overseeing legal functions, the team has demonstrated impeccable efficiency of legal work in the past couple of years, in part due to the introduction of new and innovative changes to the department. The recent implementation of a centralised and vertically-integrated functional structure is an example of this. The structure is based on some of the best in-house legal practices in Russia and saw an immense reduction in cost without any visible loss in speed or efficiency. In addition, the implementation of an internal project to automate work on contracts, corporate work and court framework, as well as the roll-out of an internal contract reporting system contributed to a noticeable boost in terms of the speed of execution of legal work.

Rusagro Group of Companies is one of Russia’s largest agribusinesses and among the fastest growing companies in Russia and the CIS. Founded by businessman and philanthropist Vadim Moshkovich, the Group operates in the production of sugar, oils and fats, meat and agricultural commodities. While Moshkovich’s unparalleled business acumen has driven the company to its position of strength, nominators credited the legal team, led by deputy CEO of legal and corporate affairs Sergey Koltunov, for its part in Rusagro’s success. Across the many commendations the legal team received, sources praised ‘[the team’s] ability to approach even the most challenging of legal and business issues with a clear plan’ and its ‘deep understanding of the sector-specific drivers of profitability and risk’.

Rusatom is a state owned global leader in nuclear energy that is involved in the production of construction of different capacity Russian-designed nuclear power plants. The international subsidiary of Rusatom, Rusatom Overseas, aims to build up the overseas order portfolio on behalf of the companies of the Rusatom Group by establishing a system to enable direct interaction between customer countries and Rusatom companies. Comprised of a core team working in the central headquarters of the company and a group of lawyers employed by subsidiaries, the legal department at Rusatom Overseas provides support to the company globally, across all projects and initiatives. The department has a decentralised structure, whereby the lawyers working at subsidiaries report into directors in these subsidiaries and only send reports to the team based in the company headquarters. Since 2013 the legal department has seen a noticeable increase in efficiency, following an introduction of strict control of internal expenditure and reduction in spending on external counsel. The legal department has a broad authority and takes the most active role of an internal advisor to the business, with a significant portion of the lawyers in the company being included in the committees and commissions of the company on an ongoing basis. Rusatom Overseas’ lawyers are actively involved in the work on the projects of the company and act as leaders of the groups within project negotiations. Due to the fact that Rusatom Overseas acts as the foreign agent promoting nuclear technology abroad and participates in the implementation of technology cooperation projects, the department has had the opportunity to shine with their preparation and maintenance of complex transactions. These include engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for nuclear power plants, contracts for the supply of fresh and used nuclear fuel, contracts for service operation and maintenance, machine room and other transactions entered into in the provision and maintenance of nuclear power plants’ uninterrupted operation.

The legal department of Rusnano has recently undergone a comprehensive restructure, aimed at maximising their positive effect on the company’s operations. The department, which previously had separate functions for legal and corporate support, has now been reorganised into a combined team which is able to deal with the full range of issues. This has had subsequent positive effects on both the economy of the team and how well optimised it is to deal with imminent challenges. Having also been involved in the transformation of the company from a state-owned joint-stock company to one that is better able to make venture capital investments, the legal team at Rusnano has shown itself capable of completing complex readjustments aimed at improving the company’s effectiveness into the future. Given the company’s pre-eminence in the Russian business landscape as well as its large size, they are able to recruit their legal staff from the cream of the Russian legal world, further adding to the team’s proficiency. Conceived by the Russian government as a vehicle to produce, by 2015, a functioning nanotechnology industry in the country, Rusnano has been involved in investing in various projects and concerns that will further this end. Due to its high level of importance to the Russian economy, a large degree of control of the company is retained at governmental level. Given the high stakes of Rusnano’s operations, their Director of Legal Affairs, Oleg Mizgirev, will be keen to ensure that the standards of his team consistently remain of the highest quality.

One of the three largest transportation companies in the world, the importance of Russian Railway’s (RZD) operation to the Russian Federation as a whole cannot be overstated. With reported annual revenues approaching and estimated 1.4% of Russian gross domestic product in 2014, Russian Railways is a company that showcases the state-centric business model preferred by the Russian government. The legal team at RZD therefore operates in a high-pressure working environment where their day to day business is of high importance and receives much scrutiny. Standards are consequently high, as the team is required to deal with a broad range of emerging issues. The past year has been one of high activity for the legal team at RZD. The legal team at RZD is noteworthy via it propensity towards ambitious and innovative dispute work, as the firm is unafraid of opening proceedings against major entities. The legal team has also been involved in the implementation of a raft of new regulatory policies. These relate to a new quality management system aimed at the company’s infrastructure, freight, passenger and logistics services and focus on improving service quality across the group. The legal team at RZD that is tackling these issues is afforded a high degree of importance to company operations. Russian railway’s head of legal, Vadim Bynkov, is positioned among the executive management of the organisation and can provide a legal perspective to the strategic planning undertaken by the company. Bynkov is a veteran of the legal market and has spent time across a variety of in-house roles, including a stint at ALROSA, indicating he is comfortable operating at the top of the legal business world

Russian Standard Bank (RSB) is Russia’s leading consumer lender and one of largest banks in country, covering more than 90% of the population. RSB operates in nearly 2,000 cities across Russia and controls more than 50% of the domestic credit card market, introducing the type of complexity that demands a skilled legal team. Well-versed in the retail banking business, the team has received praised for organising important projects from scratch and has showcased solution oriented methods aimed at reducing the risks of each project. Russia’s lending market has suffered greatly since the onset of recession in 2009, with around 8% of its lenders now overdue on loans. Like many large Russian financial institutions, RSB has faced difficulties in recent years, with a deteriorating core capital and challenging lending market leading to downgrades in its credit rating. However, those we spoke to were confident that the bank’s legal team were among the best in the industry and that, in the words of one nominator, ‘it would be difficult to find better legal guidance in economically challenging times’.

Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (Sakhalin Energy) was an innovator from its early origins. Not only did the company develop Russia’s fist liquefied natural gas plant but it was party to the first production sharing agreement (PSA) signed in Russia. This agreement, signed in 1994 with the Government of the Russian Federation, has led to the development of the Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye oil fields on the island of Sakhalin, situated in the North Pacific Ocean. Since that time it has developed into one of the most ambitious oil and gas exploration companies globally. Led by legal director Benjamin Lamb, the legal team not only has to balance the interests of a diverse shareholder group (the company is principally owned by Gazprom along with minority interests held by Shell, Mitsui and Mitsubishi) but has been busy overseeing the expansion of the Sakhalin-II oil and gas project. Due to the delicate balance of the local ecosystem, the legal team has won praise for its ability to handle environmental compliance issues related to its activities in the region. The team contains a number of highly experienced corporate counsel including legal adviser Evgeny Shubin, corporate secretary Alexander Levchenko, deputy managing counsel Olesya Korotaeva, managing counsel for contracts and dispute resolution Roman Tofert, and deputy legal director Sergei Kirienko. Recently the company has been engaged in a high-profile legal dispute with Rosneft against a ruling of the Far East District Commercial Court over its rival’s proposed access to the Sakhalin-II pipeline.

As Sberbank is the largest banking entity not only in Russia, but also in the entire of Eastern Europe, a strong legal team is necessary to support the successful operation of the company. While the central apparatus of Sberbank in Moscow has a core team of approximately 100 lawyers, there are well over 2,000 lawyers working in various functions within the structure of the company. Supporting the activities of Sberbank across several timezones, the team has impressed with its ability to effectively handle extremely high volumes of work in a timely fashion. The key of the team's success undoubtedly lies in its well organised form. Comprised of highly intelligent lawyers working both in Moscow and regional offices, the team operates as a solid and unified structure that is able to quickly adapt to changing legislation regardless of its size. Sberbank's legal employees are praised for their willingness to completely dedicate themselves to achieving the company objectives, their customer-orientation and their ability to make decisions safe in the knowledge that they have the support of their business peers.

Controlled by billionaire Alexey Mordashov, Cherepovets-based Severstal is the largest steel company in Russia and one of the leading integrated steel and steel-related mining companies in the world. Severstal’s legal team is led by long-serving senior vice president, legal affairs and general counsel Vladimir Lukin – one of the most respected corporate counsel in Russia – and includes such widely regarded figures as deputy GC and head of international affairs Alisa Mityaeva and senior counsel for international projects Veronika Kondruseva. The legal team was widely praised for its work to facilitate the company’s exit from the US in 2014, a strategic move that resulted partly from the excess capacity facing the industry following the financial crisis. However, in spite of fall in oil prices and a slowing demand for steel products in the oil and gas sector, Severstal has managed to remain a key player in large-scale gas transmission projects throughout Russia. For providing essential strategic advice and helping the company to remain flexible during a challenging period, Severstal’s legal team is recognised as among the best in Russia.

With nearly 30 production sites across the Russian Federation, Moscow-based Sibur is the country’s leading gas processing and chemical company. Sibur supplies its products to a wide range of sectors ranging from industrials to consumer goods, diverse operations which introduce an unusual level of complexity for the legal team to manage. The highly regarded legal department is led by Alexey Nikiforov, appointed as director and head of legal in 2015, and includes well-respected senior figures such as senior legal counsel Maxim Kosyrev and Shamil Salavatov. Sibur has been active in the M&A market recently, with the legal team helping oversee a steady diversification of its portfolio. In 2016 it acquired the Tobolsk Heating and Power Plant, located in Western Siberia, from Finnish energy company Fortum. The legal team has also helped protect the company through some tricky and much publicised joint ventures. Senior Russian government ministers have repeatedly stated their desire to increase economic ties with Asia, and particularly China. It is a stance reflected by China’s policy of developing a Silk Road Economic Belt connecting the Eurasian landmass. Sibur has been among the most prominent corporate champions of this new bilateralism. Following its 2014 joint venture with the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (better known as Sinopec) to produce synthetic rubbers, the company sold a 10% stake in its operations to the Chinese oil giant for around $1.3bn. The deal, signed during President Putin’s state visit to Beijing, offers Sinopec the option to increase its stake by a further 10%. Although the arrangement received high-profile backing on both sides of the table, Russian legal observers have praised Sibur’s in-house team for their creativity and strategic thinking during negotiations and for designing robust contractual protections.

The Russian operation of Siemens has gone from strength to strength over the past year, on the back of successful conclusions to a number of high profile deals. After negotiations which began in 2011, the company’s rail division announced in June 2015 that they had been awarded a €1.7bn contract by Russian Railways (RZD) to provide service and maintenance to 1,200 ‘Latochka’ trains on their network. Continuing the trend, Siemens Power and Gas was awarded a lucrative contract to provide Siemens-produced generators to a thermal power plant complex in Southern Russia, further adding to the company’s expansion over the past year. Part of one of the foremost technology conglomerates in the world, Siemens Russia utilises the services of a highly experienced legal team that has enabled the company to achieve success in these and other agreements and legal matters. A team of just over 40 personnel, headed by general counsel for Russia and Central Asia, Svetlana Gerbel, oversees legal issues across an array of business concerns covering Siemens’ varied interests. Healthcare, energy and technology are just some of the key areas that the team handles, so the ability to be versatile is a prime asset within the department. Combining the breadth of company operations with the specific challenges of the Russian market has created a team of rare quality; the Siemens Russia legal department has received accolades from market insiders, including being named 'best legal department in Russia' on a number of occasions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the legal team at Siemens also prizes innovation, evidenced by their introduction of a digital legal request service aimed at process improvement. This, and other progressive moves within the department have engendered an atmosphere that allows the in-house legal team to operate successfully at the highest level of Russian business.

As a large and prominent private investment firm, Sistema provides capital to a range of Russian businesses. Notable among these include Mobile TeleSystems, Sitronics, Sistema Mass Media and Intourist, an indication of the breadth of investments in which the business carries a stake. The past year has seen their legal team, and the business as a whole, engage in a diverse range of deals, both via sales and acquisitions. As of July 2016, they look set to acquire a further 17% stake in an Indian subsidiary of theirs, Sistema Shyam Tele-Services. In February 2016, in a similar vein, Sistema signed an agreement to purchase shares in PJSC MTS Bank, as part of an overall RUB 3.7bn deal. Conversely, the firm’s subsidiary, CJSC DM Finance, has also been involved in selling off a 23.1% stake of JSC Detsky Mir, owners of the Russian operation of the Early Learning Centre. The legal team at Sistema, led by legal director Vladimir Zhuravlev, is therefore well versed with M&A transactions, with the result that they have been a major factor in the company’s recent success; Sistema has reported a return to profit as of June 2016. The stellar work of Sistema’s legal team, stemming both from their internal knowledge and their handling of external counsel, has had a profound effect on these changing fortunes for the company. Without this, the company would have found it far more difficult to achieve success in their acquisitions and divestitures as efficiently as they were able to.

Overseen by Evgeniya Vetoshnikova, Sony’s legal function in Russia is driven by an ambition to solve complex problems for the company while positioning it for success in the region. The small but driven legal team impresses with its ability to support the activities of a very large business and its ability to resolve all issues with very little help from outside counsel. Over the past few years several important innovations have resulted in noticeable surge in efficiency within the function. These include a common legal database, which includes all information related to legal work and specific procedures for IP protection. In addition, under Vetoshnikova’s guidance, the department has won several victories in the Russian courts, including a contractual dispute with a shareholder, a successful litigation related to reimbursement of legal expenses and several successful intellectual property cases.

The renowned legal team at SUN InBev, the Russian subsidiary of the world's largest brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has shown remarkable adaptability in recent years, successfully navigating the firm through a period of unprecedented change in the Russian economy resulting from sanctions and the ongoing economic crisis. In addition, the department comprised of six lawyers has impressed with its provision of legal assistance on a great number of key divestment projects, M&A deals, as well as its involvement on a route-to-market and distribution model turnover. In particular, in 2015 the team made a valuable contribution to the process of gaining approval for the acquisition of SAB Miller. The recent standardisation and automatisation of key processes within the legal function has improved efficiency immensely and has eased the process of integration of the Russia based team into one AB InBev European legal team.

After the early-1990s merging of a number of previously state-owned large oil and gas organisations, Surgutneftegas is now a major player in the energy market both in Russia and globally. Possessing revenues of RUB 978bn and with 61.6 million tonnes of oil produced in 2015, the company is the leading oil supplier to Belarus and maintains a global operations network. Surgutneftegas has been through challenging times recently: it was one of the companies targeted by Western sanctions over the Ukrainian crisis, and the recent low commodity prices have affected the core of its business. Despite this, the company is looking to the future with optimism. Supported by their legal department, the past year has seen the company continue to make deals that have contributed to its revenue growth, including a particularly large agreement between themselves, Shell, Total and commodity trader Mercuria to provide crude oil supplies via their Druzhba pipeline from 2016 onwards. Additionally, multi-million-ton deals to supply fuel to mining company Glencore and commodity trading company Gunvor were signed, as part of new export tender initiatives. These and other transactions have contributed towards the company being able to provide healthy dividends for investors, in contrast to many of their competitors; the dividend yield of the company reached 18.5% for the 15 months leading up to February 2016. In an uncertain future, the risk management function of the Surgutneftegas legal team assumes greater importance. The return of Iran to the oil-production market, for instance, could see oil prices drop even further and highlight the need for excellent strategic planning. The Surgutneftegas in-house legal team, with its combination of business acumen and risk mitigation, is ideally placed to offer this.

One of the largest retailers of handsets and a major player in the Russian mobile telecommunications market, Svyaznoy has turned to its legal team to help it deal with the growing challenge of Russian consumer protection law and the opportunities it provides for unscrupulous claimants. The majority of Svyaznoy’s 70-strong in-house team is engaged in the litigation and corporate divisions of the legal department and is recognised as one of the leaders in the fight to balance fair protections for consumers with the risks and costs arising from frivolous law suits. The team is also renowned for the provision of intellectual property management (patents and trademarks), conformity with the legislation on the protection of personal data and has been a key advisor on key corporate matters, including incorporation and governance.

Headquartered in Almetyevsk, Tatarstan, Tatneft is the sixth largest oil company in Russia. The legal function at Tatneft includes a legal management unit based in Tatarstan that oversees legal support for the operational side of Tatneft and Moscow-based lawyers that work on strategically important transactions of the company while providing support to the Moscow cluster. The relatively small, but highly mobile function in the Russian capital is comprised of legal professionals recognised for their level of preparation and legal expertise. The lawyers are credited for their participation in several ‘non-standard’ projects for the company in the past several years, on which they have been active participants that are capable of designing and planning new tactics, as well as handling a major international arbitration case.

TUI Russia & CIS is the arm of the major international travel company TUI Group that operates in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. A plethora of the company’s divisions and partner companies in Russia operate under the brand of TUI. To resolve the variety of claims and disputes raised by consumers in such a large network of businesses requires high levels of dynamism and flexibility on behalf of the small legal team. The team serves as an invaluable strategic asset to the company by proactively protecting its reputation on a great number of disputes and overseeing all contractual work. As TUI actively deals with other counterparties, such as hotels, airlines and carriers, the speed with which the legal team has been able to close new contracts has been instrumental in the company’s efforts to grow and expand its portfolio

UC Rusal’s legal team, headed by general counsel Petr Maximov, has been shaped to efficiently respond to the needs of the UC Rusal group of companies. UC Rusal, one of the world’s biggest aluminium producers, has successfully withstood the volatility of global commodities markets and political, legal, regulatory and economic challenges in various regions. UC Rusal’s legal team is staffed with business-oriented and talented legal professionals who are excellently qualified to cover a great diversity of legal expertise in different jurisdictions. Some of these include compliance, intellectual property, litigation and international arbitration, anti-trust and M&A, finance and corporate, sales of goods and daily support for production sites. Legal team members actively participate both in daily operations at all levels and strategic decisions of the Company. In recent years the legal team has significantly reduced its external spend through greater reliance on internal resources and improved efficiencies in its use of outside counsel. The highly collegial culture of the team makes the legal department an excellent platform for the sharing of experience and knowledge between colleagues. Indeed, despite daily challenges, persistent time pressures and the complexity of many of the issues required to be addressed, the UC Rusal legal department remains a stimulating and comfortable place to work

UniCredit Bank’s award winning Russian legal department consists of over 40 senior legal employees evenly split between its head office and regional offices. While the legal department at the head office of the bank has a strict functional structure with three divisions (contract law, corporate law and legal support), each of the regional offices are in most cases represented by one or two lawyers and have wide specialisation in covering all aspects of the branches’ activities. With the introduction of new and innovative managerial strategies by the department’s head of legal and the participation of legal employees within internal and acknowledgement programs, the unit has gained recognition internally, achieving first position among all support functions within UniCredit Bank’s internal ‘Customer Satisfaction Survey’. In addition, important litigation victories and key transactional work conducted by the department’s lawyers, as well as their active involvement on various professional societies, committees and participation in different professional conferences, meetings and seminars have led to wide external recognition. The legal team has won a number of awards in the past several years from leading Russian legal publication, Legal Insight.

Dmitry Mazepin’s Uralchem is a leading producer of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers with a reputation for unpredictability. In 2013 it acquired 20% of potash producer Uralkali, owned by Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group, taking on substantial bank loans to do complete the purchase just as the market was starting to dip. While it looked like a risky move at the time, subsequent events have shown that it has been a wise purchase. This is characteristic of Uralchem, which specializes in the gas and chemical processing side of the industry and is known as one of Russia’s best run companies. The reputation for strong corporate governance extends to the legal team, overseen by legal director and board member Dimitry Tatyanin and deputy legal director Elena Papsheva. The legal team has, in the words of one nominator, ‘adopted structures and processes that are at least the equal of those found in the most sophisticated global corporates. For a relatively traditional market sector they stand out as one of the most noteworthy teams in Russia and the CIS’. Talk of a full merger with Uralkali has been widespread this year but both companies have stated they have no interest in pursuing such a deal.

The legal team at one of Russia’s largest chemical comprises, Uralkali, is comprised of 47 lawyers and 148 non-legal personnel and is headed by Marina Shvetsova, a professional with over two decades of in-house expertise. To better service the business needs of Uralkali, in 2015-2016 the legal team has altered its internal structure and currently comprises of five departments. Well known in the Russian in-house community for their outstanding quality of legal support and clinical execution of key transactions, in recent years the team has been a key component in company strategy. In particular, Uralkali’s legal department has distinguished itself with its involvement in key internal projects for the company such as the restructuring of foreign trading companies within the Uralkali group, as well as the introduction and development of compliance systems and optimisation of the group structure to comply with legislation relating to ‘deoffshorization’ and best international tax practices. In addition, the team has been a key player in several external projects for Uralkali, ranging from the technical investigation of the accident in the SKRU-2 mine (one of five functioning mines for the company) to major strategic investment projects, financing projects and the company buyback program. More recently, the team has gained recognition for the introduction of an innovative electronic platform for antitrust and anticorruption compliance online training. The platform covers all jurisdictions where Uralkali conducts its business (from Brazil to Singapore) and complies with applicable foreign laws. This online platform has helped to automatise regular compliance training throughout the companies of the Uralkali Group.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is a multinational pharmaceutical and medical device company that is headquartered in Canada and develops, manufactures and markets a wide assortment of generic pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter products. The company has a strong presence in Russia that has increased after the acquisition of the Russian company Natur Produkt for $163m in 2013. The department responsible for legal support of Russia, as well as the CIS region (including Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine) has gained a reputation for excellence in the pharmaceutical industry. Navigating the legal affairs of the company during a difficult period for the sector, the unit has showcased innovation in its work methods and flexibility when dealing with a wide variety of legal challenges. In particular, the legal function has impressed with its adoption of a complex system of contractor verification, as well as with the use of an innovative system for electronic negotiation of contracts, adopted to operate under the company’s business processes.

Amsterdam headquartered telecommunications company VimpelCom has a significant presence in Russia, deriving approximately 39% of its revenues from the country. The company owns Beeline, one of the country’s most popular telecommunication brands, and is currently the third-largest wireless and second-largest telecommunications operator. The Moscow-based legal unit of VimpelCom operates independently from the Amsterdam based legal team and is highly rated in the country’s telecommunications sector for standards of quality of legal work. Described as a ’well organised division’, rather than merely a ‘collection of individual lawyers’, VimpelCom’s legal team in Russia is comprised of over 100 employees located in Moscow and regional offices. Led by Andrey Bykov, the team is composed of several functions, each proactively adding value to the company and known for high standards of excellence. These functions include a team that provides legal support to the activities of VimpelCom related to purchases and telecommunications, a realatively small transactions and contracts legal team , a team that oversees litigation work and administrative issues and a function that provides corporate support of the Russia business unit with all regional subsidiaries. Over the past couple of years the department has undertaken an outreach program that has resulted in closer cooperation of the head office and regional lawyers, with regular in-person communications between the regional leaders and the Moscow head office.

The Russian telecom operator Virgin Connect has a worldwide reputation for the provision of internet and telecommunication services to both individuals and business clients across the country. It has a compact legal team comprised of five lawyers working across four operational companies and the corporate headquarters. While the lawyers have individual specialisations, the department’s small size requires structure that is not fully divided by function. Therefore, while individual lawyers often have contract review responsibilities and specifically assigned functions, they are also expected to show competence across a wider range of areas. The team’s corporate culture mirrors that of the wider Virgin Group, which is owned by Richard Branson and favours innovation and creativity, with individual lawyers within the team striving to make difficult tasks look easy and always put the interests of the business first.

Since 1922, the Russian state development bank, Vnesheconombank (VEB), has played a key role in both supporting and develop Russian industry and managing the country’s pensions and other fiscal obligations. While VEB is not itself licensed to conduct banking activities and does not engage in commercial lending, it is the majority owner of Prominvestbank, Ukraine’s largest commercial lender. The legal department is overseen by Kuznetsov Sergey Vladimirovich, who was praised by nominators as, ‘a strong leader in the Russian legal world’ and ‘one of the most intellectually gifted lawyers in Russia’. Although VEB has served as a major underwriter for recent mega-projects recently, including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, declining oil prices and political tensions have led to a period of difficulty for the state lender. In response, the bank has begun to explore new sources of capital, and is reportedly close to completing first-of-their-kind deals to secure Islamic-finance investment for Russian infrastructure projects.

Volga-Dnepr Group is one of the leading global airlines for the movement of heavy or oversize cargo. Operating from its base in Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport, its fleet serves a number of humanitarian, governmental, and industrial projects throughout the world. The legal team at the group is involved with overseeing the direction of a legal provision and is engaged in implementing a number of the group's strategic objectives. It is recognised for helping the airline to operate safely in the most challenging of locations and allowing it to continue its global commercial reach. Last year it committed to 20 additional Boeing 747-8 freighters for its fleet, entering into an agreement with the US aerospace company that will see Volga-Dnepr provide aircraft for the transportation of equipment to Boeing.

Registered in St. Petersburg, VTB Group is one of the foremost financial services entities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), offering a range of banking operations across Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States. Ranked 217th in the Financial Times’ European 500 in 2015, the group deals with a broad portfolio of financial services, including personal and commercial banking. The company has been active over the past year, with deals, lawsuits and contract negotiations all handled by the seasoned legal team. On the litigation side, VTB reached an amicable deal with steel company Mechel, after opening a lawsuit demanding payment of outstanding debts. VTB’s legal team also managed to negotiate a supplementary debt restructuring agreement with Mechel, in a move that brought a somewhat successful culmination to proceedings. From an M&A perspective, VTB successfully completed the integration of the Bank of Moscow in May 2016, after amalgamating the core of their business including 70% of their assets, worth overall around RUB 900bn (£10.9bn). The transaction also transferred 10 million clients over to VTB bank. The range of work that they are able to complete on behalf of the bank is indicative of the quality within the team. Evidencing this, VTB’s capital markets arm, VTB Capital, was awarded the title of 'Best Legal Department' by the industry press in 2013, in recognition of their achievements.

The activities of Walt Disney in Russia are not limited to film production, but include the entire spectrum of brands and business activities that the company undertakes on a global basis, with the exclusion of Disneyland amusement parks. Walt Disney’s Russian legal department provides ongoing support to all lines of business in Russia and has a structure that mirrors the legal department of the company globally. Each lawyer focuses on one or more business areas and operates as a member of a team rather than an individual consultant. At the same time, there are a number of merged work units that relate directly to all business lines and to the company as a whole. These include: advertising and brand promotion, compliance, personal data, intellectual property protection, corporate matters. These merge units involve all lawyers in varying degrees. While the legal department is known to excel across all areas of legal work, it has been praised for its strength in the field of intellectual property, protecting the company’s trademarks and copyrights in the Russian region. Often when Disney launches complex new products in the Russian market, the legal team has shown the flexibility to deal with a broad range of issues, including the registration of trademarks, analysis of data collection processes, exploration of issues related to advertising and protection of children against harmful information, approval of financial models, whilst taking into account the release of similar products in other regions. Functioning as part of a global team, Walt Disney’s Russian legal team actively communicates with lawyers in other regions and has shown an ability to work on complex international projects.

Boasting over 100,000 employees across thousands of stores, X5 Retail Group is Russia’s second largest retail operation. Brands managed by X5 include supermarket chain Perekrestok and convenience store Pyaterochka, spread throughout nine of the 12 economic regions of Russia. Over the past year, the legal team at X5 has been instrumental in a number of acquisitions and deals aimed at increasing the company’s market share in a tight retail market. Chief among these include X5’s purchase of 100 stores from the Soseddushka retail chain, and a cooperation agreement for mobile phone company Euroset to provide boutique outlets at a number of Pyaterochka stores. These initiatives are a continuation of a series of ventures taken by the company over recent years, as part of a particularly dynamic policy of M&A activity. A top-quality legal team is essential to support such a vigorous market strategy, and the X5 legal team has been recognised both internally and externally for their achievements; for example, in December 2014 X5’s legal department received an award for being the best retail legal team at the International Best Legal Department Awards. X5’s legal team is divided into dedicated, process-specific divisions, including corporate, M&A and legal service centre departments. While these are available to support the group’s companies wherever they are required, the teams report directly to the X5 head office, rather than being attached to the subsidiaries. Maksim Arefiev is a recent addition to the legal team and heads up the legal service centre, as well as being second in command of the overall group legal function to director of legal Vladlena Yavorskaya.

The legal support to one of Europe’s most innovative internet companies is overseen by a team of over 45 lawyers led by Ekaterina Fadeeva. As the company has been launching new original services and navigated a complex legal environment, the department has been imperative with its thorough assessment of legal risks, demonstrating a deep understanding of a much broader business and regulatory perspective. To that end, Yandex’s legal team is central to forming the opinion of the professional community and providing an expert view to the state authorities in the course of deliberating draft laws and regulations related to information technology in Russia. For example, Yandex and the Russian Ministry of Health are currently in the process of working on a draft law which would regulate the provision of telemedicine services in Russia. The introduction of this new law may make it possible for internet companies, including Yandex, to offer telemedicine services. The legal department at Yandex has grown rapidly in the recent past, along with the expansion of the various business lines in the company. With the number of legal professionals within the department equalling the size of a medium-sized law firm, the team has been able to reconcile the expertise-based approach to providing legal services with a project-oriented focus. 'An improvement of the organisational structure of the legal department has enabled the lawyers to streamline their work and improve both their response time and individual professionals’ involvement in projects', a lawyer from the team says.

Yota Devices is a Russia-headquartered, international company that specialises in the production and development of high-tech consumer electronics such as smartphones, phablets and routers. As the business model of Yota Devices is almost completely built on intellectual property (IP), the IP legal team forms an essential element of the company’s ongoing success and development. Comprised of roughly 10 employees the highly mobile legal team manages all intellectual property activities of the company in the USA, Canada, Europe, China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Russia and CIS. Always keeping up-to-date with new innovations and developments in software and hardware, the team has shown the capability to oversee the overall IP strategy of the business and to adjust it in line the company’s unique strategic needs. Several recent innovations within the team have contributed immensely to improved efficiency. These include an improved internal legal workflow, automated day-to-day work and a newly organised remote work system for employees and subcontractors.

Yum! Restaurants is a global restaurant and fast food company that owns some of the most prominent global brands in the market. It boasts, among others, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken under its corporate umbrella, both of which have a notable presence in Russia. While still considered an 'emerging' market for the company, there are 362 KFC and 23 Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia, as part of an operation that is expanding constantly. Indeed, the company plans to open up to 100 new stores per year in 2016 and 2017. As such, the work of the legal department has been primarily concerned with the expansion of the business by establishing itself in new areas. Towards this end, the legal team has assisted the business in assessing the legal suitability of areas chosen for expanding the business, as well as surveying the areas for accessibility to local utilities and infrastructure. The Yum! Restaurants legal team has been described as ‘unique’ and ‘purpose-driven’ in their approach towards legal matters, and as the company expands throughout the Russian sector these qualities will become even more important. The Russian market currently accounts for 5% of Yum! Restaurant’s total revenue, but over time this proportion looks set to increase. Given the Russian consumer market’s current movement towards cheaper meal options in the wake of the recent financial crisis, Yum!’s expansionist strategy could provide dividends in the future.