Saint-Petersburg, 19 February 2009. On the day of remembrance for Anatoly Sobchak the selected winners of the Anatoly Sobchak Grant received their awards at the Law School of the Saint Petersburg State University. Invited by the Anatoly Sobchak Endowment led by Senator L.B.Narusova, Dimitry Afanasiev made a speech to the award winners and other students, in which he shared his personal memories about A.A.Sobchak; he spoke to the young generation of future lawyers about Sobchak’s aspirations and pointed out that the commitment to protect justice is the key feature of a successful lawyer. Mr.Afanasiev announced that Law Offices EPAM were joining the program for encouraging the best law students of Russian schools of higher education by doubling there government grants at the expense of EPAM.

“Anatoly Sobchak’s life is a story about how a dream about protection of justice became a reality through real actions. It is an example set for the young generation of lawyers, who will be entrusted a tool to protect justice. Our support of new generations of talented lawyers is part of implementation of Sobchak’s dream about a strong democratic Russia, a rule of law society and a rule of law state,” Dimitry Afanasiev, the the Chairman of EPA&P’s, said.

The Anatoly Sobchak Grant for law students of public universities and other schools of higher education was established by the Russian Government in 2002 to remember “the notorious contribution of Anatoly Sobchak to consolidation of the Russian statehood and promotion of law as a science.” The grant is allocated among 10 best law students of the premium Russian schools of higher education who show the best academic performance and are actively involved in scientific legal research. This year 5 students of the Saint Petersburg State University were awarded with the Grant.