Today in Moscow Vedomosti newspaper’s 2nd annual conference ”Legal business in Russia” took place. Mr. Ilya Nikiforov managing partner of the Saint-Petersburg office of leading Russian law firm EPAM participated.

Participants at the forum included representatives of state authorities of the Russian Federation and senior staff from leading international and Russian law firms and legal departments of major Russian companies.

The subject of Mr. Nikiforov’s presentation to the conference was “Interaction with clients and respondent-firms: the key to success”. Important aspects of legal business, such as the goals, motivations and motives of activity of law firms and their individual employees were discussed, along with the criteria of competitive capacity of law firms, as well as the basic principles of their interrelations with the clients, particularly, the matter of “conflict of interests” in legal practice, and matters of confidentiality.

Ilya Nikiforov then presented to the conference participants information about the creation of a network-association of independent lawyers in the CIS countries – the Eurasian law alliance “Confident”.

“The oopportunities for national law firms are limited due to objective causes. A firm might not have relevant work experience, know-how in a particular field, a sufficient number of staff or licenses for case administration outside a specific region,” - noted Mr. Nikiforov in his presentation. “The solution of these limitations could be achieved by the creation of a law firms’ association – formed by independent firms from various regions, but sharing the same principles of operation and each specializing in one or more fields”.

The aim of such an association would be to offer the opportunity for participating firms to compete head-to-head with major international firms, whilst maintaining their independence, and being able to provide high-quality legal services across the entire former Soviet Union for their clients.

“As opposed to professional amalgamations, merely expressing the interests of the legal community in the social and political context as a whole, the Eurasian law alliance “Confident” will be arranged in a similar manner to international networks, uniting small and medium firms by collaboration and clients exchange on specific projects. It will become a practical instrument, rendering real legal assistance to clients”, - added Mr. Nikiforov.

Legal firms from Russia, CIS and abroad are eligible to become the participants in the Eurasian law alliance “Confident”.