Moscow office: thank youx
As the Firm prepares to say goodbye to our Moscow team, we look back at their achievements over the years.
Our Moscow office will soon close after 30 successful years. In this feature, we look back on some of the team’s achievements by way of a thank you for everything they’ve done to contribute to the Firm’s success.
We performed consistently in the market through the golden era between 2002-2008, and the lows of the financial crisis and economic sanctions in 2014.
We opened our Moscow office in 1991 under the leadership of Alex Papachristou and quickly establishing ourselves as one of the leading law firms in Russia.
The early years were marked by a huge volume of privatization work as Russia adapted to becoming a free-market economy and, while the 90s saw the challenges of a political crisis in 1993 and financial crisis of 1998, we continued to build our presence.
As the decade ended, we quickly established the Firm as one of the top law firms in Russia under the leadership of Doug Peel and Hugh Verrier.
Since then, we performed consistently in the market through the golden era between 2002-2008, and the lows of the financial crisis and economic sanctions in 2014.
In 2016, we worked on the largest privatization since 2013 when we advised on the US$812 million privatization of the Russian Federation’s stake in PJSC ALROSA, the world’s leading diamond mining company. In the same year, we advised on the Russian real estate deal of the year for the fifth consecutive year and joined forces with the London, Ankara and Nur-Sultan offices to run a legal workshop and client reception in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In 2018, the office advised on a major real estate deal for internet company Yandex, winning it Best Property Deal in Central and Eastern Europe at the Project Finance Awards.
In 2020, we advised Russia’s largest airline group, Aeroflot, on an equity fundraising worth US$1 billion.
A year of accolades
As the office celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, our team included nearly 100 people, including 52 lawyers and 46 Business Services professionals.
Speaking in 2021, Office Executive Partner Igor Ostapets explained: “Over the years, we’ve been consistently recognized for the standard of our work, both as teams and individuals.
“We’ve won numerous awards and, in 2021, our Corporate/M&A practice was ranked Tier 1 by Legal 500 having been ranked Tier 1 in Chambers since 2014.
”Our Banking & Finance team won Europe Mining Deal of the Year from IJ magazine, while our Disputes team tops the Legal 500 ranking and a few others.”
As the office celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, our team included nearly 100 people, including 52 lawyers and 46 Business Services professionals.
The Capital Markets, International Arbitration and Energy and Natural Resources practices were ranked #1 in Russia by the Legal 500 in 2021, while the Project Finance practice was ranked first in Russia in the IFLR 1000. The IFLR also named White & Case the Corporate Firm of the Year in Russia in its European awards.
“These achievements were recognition of the quality of the office and all the hard work put in to establish close relationships with our clients,” says Igor.
“Only a truly closely connected team of professionals with the same set of goals and values would be capable of navigating through a seemingly never-ending series of perfect storms like we have over the past 30 years. And we did it while remaining market leaders.
“These achievements and many others across the years are not just limited to legal practice. Instead, we believe in the culture of ‘giving’ and a history of getting involved with pro bono work.
“For instance, we became pioneers in teaching practical law courses at the leading Russian universities, setting up a legal ethics course for law faculties. We also brought the Jessop Moot Court competition to Russia and are regularly involved in various charity and pro bono activities.”
We have a long history in Moscow and many of us across the Firm have close ties with our colleagues there. We thank everyone for their contribution.
Our sincere thanks and best wishes to all our friends and colleagues in Moscow for what they have done over the years by being true market leaders in legal, educational, charitable and other areas for sharing and promoting our values.
Our Moscow colleagues and friends will always be part of the White & Case family and leave our network with our best wishes – we are not saying goodbye, we are saying Spasibo.
Spasibo ❤