Interview with: Nuran Kerimov, Managing Partner

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Deloitte & Touche LLC

Nuran Kerimov, Managing partner of Law firm Deloitte&Touche LLC discusses how the firm is adapting to clients’ changing needs.

What do you see as the main points that differentiate deloitte azerbaijan’s legal practice from your competitors?

  • We care as much about our clients’ long term success as we do for the short term outcome of a project.
  • We speak the language of the boardroom, business language, not just legalese.
  • What matters to us is to win great clients and to make an impact on their businesses.
  • Our services are interdisciplinary, covering all business issues.
  • We have wide-ranging and in-depth experience and understanding of sectors, industries and markets.
  • We possess collective expertise available on a firm-wide basis.

Which practices in your member firm do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

Our focus is to develop litigation and commercial law services. We also see financial law and corporate law services as a growth area for our firm, given increasing market demand for these services.

What is the main change you have made in your firm that will benefit clients?
We now offer litigation services in all fields of business law, and can assist our clients with tax and employment matters as well.

How is technology changing the way you interact with your clients and the services you can provide them?

We see a rising interest of clients in understanding and harnessing the power of state-of-the-art document analysis and document automation tools. While there is no “magic bullet”, significant efficiency gains can be achieved by carefully matching the strengths and weaknesses of the available tools with the concrete task that the client is facing.

Can you give us a practical example of how you helped a client add value to their business?

We helped a multinational oil company to restructure their business in Azerbaijan in order to comply with local content requirements, as well as optimise their tax, legal and customs obligations. The work included advising on cross-border re-structuring of the company head offices, merging with a local company; assisting with re-establishment in Azerbaijan and transferring employees, assets and liabilities. The business is currently functioning in a way that brings value to all shareholders, is fully compliant with local legislation, and is profitable for both local and foreign shareholders.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three year’s time?

In three years’ time, we aspire to continue to be equally successful, become an ever greater law firm serving new clients, using a combination of innovative technology and high-end legal expertise to deliver services designed to achieve our clients’ business and legal objectives.