EPAM at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum 2018

The VIII St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPBILF) will be held on May 15-19, 2018. Partners and associates from EPAM will be among the moderators and speakers for sessions on the Forum’s business programme. The Firm will also host an evening reception as part of SPBILF’s Legal Street, as well as a number of events timed to coincide with the Forum.

The Forum has proven to be an effective platform for dialogue between the state, business and the legal community. The SPBILF 2018 business programme retains the best traditions of previous years, featuring exceptional speakers and high-quality discussions, and will also offer participants new formats in which to exchange opinions on the issues that matter to legal professionals.

EPAM will once again be taking part in the Forum’s business and cultural programmes: partners and counsels will act as discussion moderators and speakers, and the Firm will host an evening reception as part of SPBILF’s Legal Street.

The Chairman of EPAM, Dimitry Afanasiev, will appear in a talk show entitled ‘Secrets of Success: an Honest Conversation on Law Firm Management’, which will involve a discussion of the most important current issues in legal management. The event will bring together senior partners from leading law firms. More information about the event.

Partner Andrey Porfiriev will speak at a session organised by the Eurasian Economic Commission entitled ‘The Performance of the Eurasian Economic Union Internal Market: Law and Digital Transformation’.

Counsel at the Firm and Executive Director at Non-Profit Partnership For Advancement of Corporate Law Helen Avakyan will moderate a session organised by the Skolkovo Foundation, ‘Data for Everything: in Search of Balance of Interests’. Helen Avakyan will also speak at another session organised by the Skolkovo Foundation, ‘Artificial Intelligence for Lawmakers: Present and Future’. Experts in technology and law will discuss ways in which artificial intelligence can be used to analyse and draw up draft legislation. More information about the event.

Partner and Head of the White Collar Crime Practice Victoria Burkovskaya will speak at a discussion entitled ‘Criminal Law in Relation to Economic Offences: Further Measures’. This session is being organised by the Business Against Corruption Center of Public Procedures in conjunction with the Association of Lawyers of Russia. More information about the event.

Partner and Head of Private Client Services Denis Arkhipov will speak at a session on ‘Evolution of Succession Law in Russia: from Two Succession Lines to Inheritance Agreements, Joint Wills and Estates’. The panel will be moderated by Pavel Krasheninnikov, Chairman of the Committee for State Construction and Legislation of the State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly. More information about the event.

Partner Dmitry Stepanov will participate in the SPBILF session on ‘Legal Liability of Directors of Socially-Useful Entities: an Urgent Dialogue’, and will also moderate an interdisciplinary workshop run by the Russian Arbitration Centre and the Higher School of Economics Faculty of Law entitled ‘Let’s Read the Constitution: The Constitution is Cool’. The theme of the fifth workshop is ‘The Public Aspect of the Constitution and Freedom of Choice for Arbitrators: How Far Does the State Court Jurisdiction Go?’ Dmitry Stepanov will also speak at a discussion session ‘Dialogue: Reform of Legal Service Market’.

Head of the Competition Law Practice Natalia Korosteleva will be one of the speakers at a session held under the auspices of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) of Russia, ‘The Digital Economy and Cartels’, where participants will discuss the use of algorithms in establishing and coordinating cartels, and ways in which the digital resources currently possessed by regulators can be used to detect and suppress collusion by cartels. More information about the event.

Three representatives of the Firm, Partners Anna Numerova and Natalia Korosteleva and Counsel Evgeny Bolshakov, are taking part in the FAS-organised session on ‘Global Economic Concentration’.

‘The Correlation Between Intellectual Property Protection and Antitrust Law’, another session organised by the FAS Russia, will feature Competition Law Practice Counsel Denis Gavrilov as a speaker. More information about the event.

Partner and Head of the International Arbitration and Litigation Practice Evgeny Raschevsky will join Team Russia in the Arbitration Battle organised by the Russian Arbitration Centre at the Russian Institute of Modern Arbitration. More information about the event. 

Partner and Co-Head of the Litigation Practice Dmitry Dyakin will moderate the Pravo.ru business breakfast, which will focus on the most important recent court cases and current trends in judicial practice (more information about the event).

Partner and Co-Head of the Litigation Practice Valery Eremenko will moderate a business breakfast organised by the newspaper Vedomosti entitled ‘Where is the Bankruptcy Market Going in Russia?’ The event will include speakers from law firms dealing with bankruptcy matters on a daily basis.

Counsel of the Litigation Practice Vera Rikhterman will join one of the teams in the Mock-Case Under Rules of Arbitration of international Commercial Disputes of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation. More information about the event. Vera Rikhterman will also speak at a discussion ‘Patent Wars: Strategies and Tactics in the Modern Legal Field ’ organised by the newspaper Delovoy Peterburg.

In addition, the Competition Experts Association will host a roundtable during the Forum entitled ‘Transforming Antitrust Legislation and Law Enforcement in the Age of the Digital Economy’, and a practical game, ‘The Criminal Case of the Cartel’. Partners Anna Numerova and Tatyana Nozhkina, Counsels Evgeny Bolshakov and Denis Gavrilov and Senior Associate Svetlana Chirkova will be among those taking part in the discussion. More information about the event (in Russian only).

Managing Partner of the Firm’s St. Petersburg office Ivan Smirnov will speak at ‘Long-Term Investments. Predictable Results within the Russian Jurisdiction’, a session organised by the Russian Ministry of Finance. The discussion will cover special investment contracts and amendments being made to specific pieces of Russian legislation. More information about the event.

Partner and Head of the M&A and Corporate Practice Arkady Krasnikhin will speak at a roundtable organised by Rosgeologia entitled ‘Form or Content: How Quality of Corporate Governance Affects the Economy’. More information on the roundtable.

The St. Petersburg International Legal Forum was established by the Ministry of Justice in 2011 and is supported by the President of the Russian Federation. The Forum’s key mission is to promote the idea of modernising the law in step with a changing world. The Forum aims to improve interaction between legal systems and develop unified approaches to tackling the problems of developing the law in a globalised environment; modernising Russian law in line with the best international legislation and law enforcement practices; bringing Russian legislation into compliance with global standards to protect the rights and interests of all parties in legal relations (including entrepreneurs, foreign investors, copyright holders, and so on); and advancing the development of modern jurisprudence and legal training in Russia and throughout the world.