April 2011, Moscow – EPAM became the winner of the first personnel management programs competition held by the Legal Insight magazine in the Professional Growth category. The award ceremony was conducted during the VII Russia’s Legal Forum organized by the Vedomosti newspaper.

Drawing on their five years of successful work within the legal mass media market, and holding competitions for legal departments and law firms, the editorial team of the Legal Insight magazine held the competition for the first time. This event aims to draw attention to as the crucial area of personnel management.

The personnel management programs competition highlighted the most successful projects in this area. Assessing the projects, the panel focused on the need to build a team of law firm employees as a group of characters, rather than treat it as an impersonal 'workforce'.

In a Professional Growth nomination, the panel assessed measures aimed at employee development, including training and educational workshops, as well as the impact of these efforts on business as a whole. Besides, the criteria for selecting a winner included a company's efforts on key skills development and professional development programs for its staff.

Awarding EPAM an honorary diploma as a winner in the Professional Growth category, the competition panel of judges commented: 'Selecting a winner in this category we could not help noticing the importance of an essential principle of EPA&P activities – professional experience and practical capabilities of senior partners being paired up with the skills and energy of the younger generation of employees able to dynamically develop professionally and financially due to the conducive firm’s structure'.

This competition will be held annually and is aimed at instigating and developingnew employee engagement schemes, whilst in turn maintaining the stability of law firms. This in turn will raise the overall level of the legal services provision in Russia.