1 September 2009
Legal Business looks at how domestic and international law firms are redrawing the market

 

Russian and CIS markets couldn’t escape the painful consequences of the global downturn. Legal Business looks at how domestic and international law firms are redrawing the market and what a series of law reforms will mean for investors.

[…]

Telenor is a client of Russian fi rm EPAM. Chair Dimitry Afanasiev believes this shareholder dispute has entered a phase where illegitimate acts sanctioned by Russian courts can affect Telenor’s shareholders and damage Russia’s reputation internationally. Referring to the Russian state’s public commitment to the anti-corruption agenda (see box, ‘Enemy number one’, page 134), Afanasiev says: ‘The outcome of this case will be a litmus test for the world to watch.’

 

EPAM’ Afanasiev has the last word with this thought: ‘Many in Russia think this crisis is more psychological than economic in nature and that it will pass sooner rather than later. It remains to be seen whether this is a cavalier attitude of the Russian people, more accustomed to hardship and suffering than in the West, or whether this is reasonable optimism.’ As for the law firms best-placed to endure the crisis, ‘the best are the busiest,’ Afanasiev says.



[…]



 Julian Matteucci. Altered states