Event Report

The Legal 500 partnered with PwC, Dentons, Evris Law and Redcliffe Partners to host the inaugural GC Summit: Ukraine in Kiev on 31 October 2019.

While it is true that in-house counsel around the world are bound together by common challenges and experiences, precise, relevant and bespoke advice requires particular awareness of a specific regional context when supporting their businesses. Each respective industry sector and jurisdiction presents a unique sets of challenges – and it is those counsel who deal best with existing and emerging relevant threats that are truly among the in-house elite.

Evoking this principle as well as fulfilling The Legal 500’s goal of bringing in-house communities together around the world, we convened a summit involving some of the region’s top legal minds in Ukraine. Here, these challenges and opportunities were dissected and examined in front of an audience of approximately 75 people, in the form of four in-depth panel discussions and relaxed networking in Kiev’s Fairmont Grand Hotel.

The first of the event’s panel discussions was hosted by PwC, and it saw the challenges related to data protection and cyber security discussed in detail. Moderated by Olga Romanenko of PwC, panellists grappled with the predominant themes on the topic from the point of view of both private practice and in-house lawyers, each of whom provided insights related to their organisation’s experience and response to these challenges.

Evris Law hosted the second panel, which was moderated by the firm’s managing partner Ihor Kravtsov. This panel saw participants speak on the topic of debt restructuring and what these procedures mean for in-house lawyers and for the practice of law in Ukraine and beyond. Panellists exchanged their practical insights into the topic amidst a changing environment surrounding these issues, allowing the in-house counsel in the audience to receiving informed and insightful commentary from experts in a comprehensive way.

The third panel was hosted by Redcliffe Partners, and the discussion – moderated by Redcliffe’s head of M&A practice Zoryana Sozanska-Matviychuk – centred on the subject of M&A. Insights were brought from the perspectives from experienced in-house thought leaders, and a healthy amount of discussion surrounding changing conditions and appetite for M&A in Ukraine was heard as well as real-life examples and experiences within these transactions.

Rounding off the day’s events was the fourth and final panel, hosted by Dentons and moderated by the firm’s counsel Maksym Sysoiev, which covered another of Ukraine’s most pertinent in-house topics – renewable energy. With panellists including in-house lawyers from international organisations including the EBRD, approaches and real-life examples of renewable energy projects were discussed with particular focus on Ukraine’s transformation in this area.

Each of the aforementioned panel discussions were supplemented by an engaged and involved audience, who constantly sent through questions to our panellists making for healthy amounts of comment and debate on what was a lively and interactive afternoon.

The Legal 500 would like to thank all those who attended as well as our partners for this event: PwC, Dentons, Evris Law and Redcliffe Partners. A special thanks goes to the expert moderators and panellists, whose contributions and insights made the event a valuable experience for all attendees.

Please scroll down to see photos of the event…

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