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The selection methodology is being improved every year. About 2,000 questionnaires were selected, and more than 15,000 respondents were interviewed. According to the leading analyst of the Pravo-300 ranking, several mistakes prevent companies from becoming winners. For example, sometimes a project does not fit the stated nomination, or lawyers provide too little information on the case. Often, participants make other mistakes related to data on the projects cost or the clients name.

Advocates Bureau Yug has been participating in the Pravo-300 ranking since its foundation. This year, ABY can proudly announce

that it ranked in the first group of the regional rating in two categories - Arbitration (high market) https://300.pravo.ru/award/2023-lidery-po-otraslam-i-praktikam-arbitraznoe-sudoproizvodstvo-regionalnyj-rejting-krupnye-spory-high-market and Dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction https://300.pravo.ru/award/2023-lidery-po-otraslam-i-praktikam-razresenie-sporov-v-sudah-obsej-urisdikcii-regionalnyj-rejting.

The award ceremony was disguised as a thematic show. Famous artists and musicians congratulated the managing partners of the leading Russian law firms from the stage. The guests, dressed in the black tie dress code, were welcomed with a Red Carpet and a buffet with sparkling wine. Representatives of over 200 Russian law firms came to the Pravo-300 ceremony.

Tadzio Schilling, AEB Chief Executive Officer, granted a commemorative diploma toAdvocates Bureau Yug. The company has been a member of the AEB Regional Committee for 20 years. The diploma mentions the invaluable long-term ABYs support of the AEB and praises Yuri Pustovits personal expertise and experience. The AEB CEO shared his hopes for a long and fruitful cooperation in the future.

Class, another oldest AEB member, provided the celebration venue, and Oleg Zharko, the AEB Southern Regional Committee Chairman, presented diplomas. When the official ceremony was over, the guests could enjoy a festive buffet and friendly communication awaited.

The publishing house plans to make this ranking an annual affair. Unlike other current rankings in the country, RG Rankings goal is to determine lawyers individual achievements.

According to the ranking methods of RG Ranking, from May to October Rossiyskaya Gazeta has been collecting applications from lawyers where they describe in free form their achievements in one of the selected legal areas. Then, the editorial board studied about 1,000 applications from law firms and lawyers and checked them through all available sources.

Getting into the ranking already means that a particular lawyers quality and reputation were recognized. Everyone selected was divided into groups for more accurate consideration. In each of the 18 nominations (16 law areas and 2 special nominations), the RG Ranking specified top specialists (first group), excellent and highly recommended specialists (second group), very good specialists (third group), good specialists, who are worth your attention (fourth group), worthy nominees could get into previous groups due to the scale of the projects (fifth group). Within the groups, the nominees names are arranged alphabetically.

Advocates Bureau Yug is proud to announce that its Managing partner Yuri Pustovit was ranked

in the second group (Arbitration):

https://rg.ru/articles/reyting-juristov-2023/arbitrazh.html and ABYs Partner Sergey Radchenko was ranked in the second group (Dispute Resolution of general jurisdiction): https://rg.ru/articles/reyting-juristov-2023/spor.html.

Then the FKU "Rostransmodernization" refused to pay for the works completed and referred to budget financing of the project to be over. The client gave ABY the task to terminate the power transmission agreement and recover all expenses incurred by the client hereunder.

We developed a legal position for the client and represented his interests in court. We justified three grounds for the agreement termination (Articles 328, 450, and 451 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), proved expenses incurred by the client with the conclusion of an expert and by questioning the same expert at a court hearing, justified that the budget financing was available for the project and that it is possible to recover expenses despite the FKU "Rostransmodernization" being a budget institution.

The proceedings lasted 2.5 years. The court involved such third parties as the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, and the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor s Office. The dispute was complicated due to an initiated criminal case against some unidentified persons around the client, thousands of primary documents, the technological complexity of the constructed facilities, politics, and requirements on constantly coordinating their actions with the federal ministries. Finally, on October 6, 2023, the Commercial Moscow Court issued the Ruling on case A40-92322/2021 and approved a settlement agreement under which the client gained proper satisfaction of his claims and recovery of expenses for the state fee and expert examination. The funds under the settlement agreement have already been transferred to the client s current account.

This case is an absolute precedent in Russian judicial practice regarding the claim s value in disputes on termination of power transmission agreements. The case dealt with difficult issues, such as choosing the grounds for the agreement termination, recognizing the impossibility of fulfilling the obligation due to the budget financing being stopped, applying VAT upon agreement termination and under a changed tax rate, recovering expenses for the power supply company despite of the facilities and networks being in its ownership.

ABY s Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit and ABY s Partner Sergey Radchenko worked on the project together.

The client was involved in the court proceedings as a third party from the side of the management board. According to the client s shareholder, the losses amounted to approximately 2.5 billion. However, for 3 years, the shareholder has been failing to prove any evidence of negative consequences to the client caused by the actions management board and contractor s management, including through the conclusion and execution of the disputed transactions. By his actions, the shareholder put the client in a risky position. In the absence of the sole executive body the shareholder s demand may lead to significant risks for the client with losing the management board, reputation and the important counterparty, issues settlement related to additional tax base, and may also lead to the client s involvement in an endless litigation, causing financial and economic condition of the client to be questioned, and the suspension of activity.

The Commercial Courts of three judicial instances agreed with our arguments and declined the shareholder s lawsuit. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation declined the shareholder s request to transfer the cassation claim to the Judicial Chamber on Economic Disputes.

ABY s associate Ekaterina Fedenko represented the client s interests.

The client was involved in the court proceedings as a third party. According to the client s shareholder, the losses were estimated to be 2.5 million rubles. However, the shareholder filed to provide any proof of the negative financial consequences suffered by the client or the absence of the usual business risk due to the client performing obligations established by judicial acts in various cases in the form of penalty payment of a loan obligation and court costs, decided by the court in favor of the shareholder, as well as the payment of an administrative fine. By his actions, the shareholder put the client in a risky position. The shareholder s claim created significant risks for the client that prohibited judicial protection of his rights and interests and verification of whether the shareholder s claims complied with the law by filing into the court.

The Commercial Court of the first instance fully satisfied the shareholder s claim. The client filed into the appeal court and pointed out that there was no evidence of all the circumstances in the case stipulated by law to recover damages from the former executive director.

The appeal court fully satisfied the client s appeal claim, canceled the decision of the appeal court of the first instance, and made a new decision denying the shareholder s claims. The Cassation Court upheld the decision of the appeal court and recognized it as lawful and justified. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused the shareholder s appeal claim to be transferred for consideration in the Judicial Board for Economic Disputes.

ABY s associate Ekaterina Fedenko represented the client s interests.

The client filed to the court demanding to recognize the decision as invalid on the basis of four grounds: the lack of proper notification about the time and place of the report on an administrative offense; the report on an administrative offense was made without inspecting whether the initiation of the enforcement proceedings and bailiff s requirements on fulfillment of the court decision were legal or not; the client didn t abuse of deadline.

The Commercial Court of the Bashkortostan Republic agreed with our arguments. On 27 July 2023, it satisfied the client s claims, declared the previous decision illegal, and canceled it.

ABY s associate Ekaterina Fedenko represented the client s interests.

Among the participants were managing partners and partners of law firms, heads of legal departments of state and global foreign enterprises, representatives of state authorities, notaries, and judges. They have come together to discuss changes in legislation, share business experiences, talk about the specifics of the global political and economic situation, and adopt new knowledge from colleagues in managing a law firm.

The extensive and rich program of the Forum lasted for three days. Usually, on the first day, participants get acquainted and tune into the working mood with intellectual games. This year, the organizers presented the play "Little Red Riding Hood" and invited everyone to become actors in the interactive legal theater. Each participant had the opportunity to become a screenwriter and decide on the plot twists.

The guests were invited to discuss the performance over a glass of sparkling wine while enjoying the sunset. The first day ended with a surprise dinner prepared traditionally by organizers. This year s surprise was a stand-up performance by Bella Malu, a comedian from the show "Women s Stand-up" on TNT channel.

The business program on the second day started with a welcome coffee and transformed into the first session "International sanctions and business relocation" moderated by Yuri Pustovit, the managing partner of Advocates Bureau Yug. The speakers discussed new restrictions on corporate rights of foreign shareholders of Russian economically significant organizations, specifics of transactions involving foreign companies from unfriendly states in 2023, disputes with a foreign counterparty, cons and pros of re-domiciliation of a foreign company in 2023 and its tax aspects in the Special administrative region (SAR), and PGBA as an alternative to SAR relocation.

The second session on top issues of judicial practice began with a speech by its moderator Roman Zaitsev, a partner of Nextons. He talked about reviews and explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation regarding interim measures. Sergey Radchenko, the partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, is an experienced litigation lawyer. He reported on the collection of antitrust losses in 2022-2023. The following topics were also under discussion: trends in judicial practice regarding court costs reimbursement, analysis of courts opinions on advance payment recovery, settlement specifics of construction disputes on the example of real-life cases, copying of brands and mass lawsuits, top issues of law enforcement in a criminal case.

The third session "Regulations and real practice in bankruptcy area" was moderated by Nikita Filippov, Head of the MGKA "Law Bureau "De Jure". He started his speech on bankruptcy trends in 2023. The speakers discussed new developments in judicial practice regarding challenging the debtor s transactions on bankruptcy grounds, the current practice in the subordination of creditors claims, cost allocation specifics in bankruptcy proceedings, and loss recovery from major creditors in case of damages of the bankruptcy assets.

The fourth session "Top managers responsibility: losses, subsidiary, criminal cases" was moderated by Sergey Kislov, founder of KISLOW.LAW. The colleagues discussed the possibilities of minimizing the legal risks of collecting losses from top managers using the legal approaches of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, new trends in judicial practice 2023 on subsidiary liabilities, risks of bankruptcy during legal challenging of contracts, and of bringing them to subsidiary liability, arising criminal risks for business while doing public procurement with the state as the counterparty.

At last, the fifth "aquarium" session was moderated by Evgenia Chervets, managing partner of the Bar Association "Regionservice" in Moscow, where participants shared their experiences of operating in the present situation, legal know-how, and life hacks. The first speaker was Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug. He told about new challenges lawyers will have to face when entering new markets and establishing business contacts with foreign partners. Yuri Pustovit noted that exporting Russian lawyers without simultaneously exporting Russian law and legal proceedings is not an easy task. Other speakers shared with the audience how to build effective relationships in this time of changes between business and the legal community, considered novelties of the legal community, discussed what skills are needed today for effective management of law firms and what skills partners, clients, shareholders, employees are looking for in lawyers in 2023, and figured out how to navigate the legal services market in 2023.

Further discussions took place in an informal atmosphere with welcoming cocktails and the fresh air. The participants finished the official part of the Forum with a glass of sparkling wine while sailing on modern boats through the night sea.

Traditionally, the third day of the Forum was about the sailing regatta. Everyone knows that it helps lawyers to evolve as professionals while enjoying life and maintaining friendly business networks. Excitement, speed, and salty wind in the face are the components of an unforgettable vacation in the company of colleagues. There are winners, but there are no losers because the main price of the legal regatta is communication, emotions, and positivity which allow the participants to return to work with new knowledge, energy, and inspiration.

The legislation in the business area undergoes constant changes. Some laws enable businesses further development and create a favorable environment, while others burden them and show their ineffectiveness in practical use. Many recent novelties are caused by the new political situation that has changed due to the beginning of the military operation. How to maintain a balance while adapting the legal rules to the challenges of time? What problems still delay creating a comfortable business environment? Read in this Yug Times interview.

Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug.

- Mr. Pustovit, the Russian Government recently announced a record decrease in business inspections. At the same time, the local prosecutor s office has canceled thousands of planned and unscheduled unjustified inspections. What does the business community think about it?

- Indeed, by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, the moratorium on scheduled inspections has been extended for 2023. The only exception is monitored objects classified as Hazardous production facilities of extremely high and high risk (2 hazard class) and hydraulic structures (2 class). As for unscheduled inspections, there are other mechanisms there. I am glad to hear that the local prosecutor s office has canceled thousands of unjustified and unscheduled inspections. Nevertheless, the Prosecutor General s Office filed lawsuits against numerous owners of land plots and real estate properties of the Black Sea Coast in the Krasnodar Territory, requesting termination of lease agreements and demolition of completed buildings. Many properties belonged to their owners for decades, meaning that at least the statute of limitations has already passed. However, the above-mentioned does not prevent such claims from being satisfied. Courts often consider such claims with multiple defendants in one or two sessions. I believe this does not allow them to study each case and make an objective and legitimate decision. Respect for private property and the stability of civil transactions are the basics of any investment activity. Many Russian media outlets and Telegram channels urge businesses to invest in the domestic market and not in the salary of Ursula von der Leyen. Unfortunately, such stories cool down the patriotic spirit to invest in Russia.

Under enormous paperwork.

Why do the supervisory authorities and departments have such a hard time changing their way of working with the business community, despite the moratorium? Which of them is more likely to execute inspections of entrepreneurs?

- To my mind, the so-called "quota system" plays here an important role. It means that detected and solved crimes or offenses directly affect the performance evaluation of a particular supervisory authority. In my experience, the business is likely to be inspected by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Rospotrebnadzor, the Federal Tax Service, the Police, Rosselkhoznadzor, Rostechnadzor, Rostrud.

- How can a business protect itself from inspections?

- The best protection from inspections is to manage your business impeccably and transparently, consulting with the company s lawyers or outsourcing legal services at every step. So, a recent form of tax control known as tax monitoring allows a tax authority access to a taxpayer s accounting data. Such interaction helps taxpayers to coordinate their taxation and consult with the tax authority on completed and planned transactions using reasoned tax opinions.

It is impossible to challenge the audit in court. You only can file an appeal against instructions to rectify the discovered violations due to an audit or the decision to impose administrative penalties.

- How did the local legal community react to the scandal surrounding the Rostov court? What is the problem there, in your opinion? Is it possible to ensure that only people with moral stability who won t be swayed by money work as judges?

- The case of the Rostov s judges and the police caused a great resonance in the legal community. I can t recall another case in modern Russia when the head judge of the regional court was brought to justice. Since all information I know about it, Ive got from the media, I cannot comment on this case. Moreover, the investigation is still undergoing.

Living with restrictions

- Can you say that the business has already overcome the restrictions caused by the sanctions and adjusted its operation under new conditions? Or do the new packages of sanctions cut off all the alternative paths?

- Business owners are always ahead of the legal regulations, especially regarding the bans imposed. I ll give them that. And sanctions are no exception. As we can see, all the familiar goods are present in the Russian market. It means the domestic business has learned how to import them through territories of friendly countries, marking them as parallel imports. I think the primary goals of the last 11th package of sanctions, as the previous ones, are to cut off bypass routes and opportunities to avoid the imposed sanctions. But I believe that Russian businesses will successfully overcome this challenge.

- Can you give us this year examples of sanctions being lifted from any company or businessperson? How many chances does a company have if it files a lawsuit? What influences the outcome?

- Challenging sanctions in court is a rather complicated and lengthy process. One needs to involve a group of lawyers and lobbyists of different legal competence and execute business procedures. As sanction orders are mostly taken in unfriendly countries, the legal proceedings likely become part of a political play than a legal notion. So, I have no illusions that one can lift sanctions via court. However, not so long ago Yandex was able to successfully appeal against the court decision on delisting on the American stock market NASDAQ. It encourages cautious optimism.

Good business climate

- One of the main topics of the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum involved the decriminalization of economic crimes. It is not a new discussion for Russia, but the problem keeps arising after all these years. Where does decriminalization begin in the business sector, in your opinion? When one changes the laws? Or does the problem come from another place?

- Decriminalization of several economic crimes has been overdue for a very long time. The business community uses any speaking opportunity to talk about it every year and share its opinion with the Government. For now, we can see the beginning of new trends, but it is a long process. Firstly, the Government must be willing to implement all these changes. It is necessary to start with changes to the legislation and, after that, to create a new judicial practice. Nowadays, it is an act of heroism to be doing business in Russia. Thus, when the Government meets the business community s expectations regarding the decriminalization of economic crimes, we consider it a positive response.

Different initiatives

- Krasnodar region is the southern resort region. There are many restaurants and cafes here. From a legal point of view, is it a good idea to make them intermediaries in money transfers between citizens and the State Fund to Support Participants in the Special Military Operation? Does the principle of voluntariness remain intact, as people should contribute to any charity foundations on free will? So far, this law is still under discussion in the State Duma.

- There is an undergoing discussion about transferring 1% of the profit of cafes and restaurants to the State Fund to Support Participants in the Special Military Operation.

I think there are no legal or economic grounds for this fee. Firstly, we cannot consider it as a tax. It is possible only if there is a taxable database - an asset for which ownership requires payment, such as income or property. But there is no such database. Secondly, we cannot consider this 1% as a fee itself. According to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, a fee is a one-time payment to the state for performing any public action. Example: a state duty for filing a lawsuit in court. This 1% levy under discussion has no features of the fee. Thirdly, the authors of this proposition claim that prices will increase by only 1% after introducing a 1% levy. Naive fools. 1% levy management, cash register modifications, and changes in accounting and reporting will entail additional expenses for cafes and restaurants. Customers will have to bear all costs. As a result, we likely get a situation when cafes and restaurants massively switch to payments in cash and by card transfer. If they want to introduce such a thing in cafes and restaurants, I believe voluntary donation by non-cash tips is more effective. Every patriotic customer can make such a donation in the amount feasible for him.

- What do you think about an initiative that allows selling companies of "unfriendly countries" with the sole approval of local government?

- I have an extremely negative attitude to any initiatives requiring permission from public authorities to manage any assets. A free market with free circulation of goods, works and services is the highest value of the economy. It s fatal to limit it. However, in the current situation, when a lot of money and assets of the Government and private Russian businesses are frozen in unfriendly countries, we have to act inversely. Moreover, it was necessary to prevent the mass exodus of foreign companies from Russia and the loss of jobs.

Transactions involving residents of unfriendly countries are now possible only under the State Commission on Monitoring Foreign Investment. I think getting permission from local authorities is just an element in the chain to obtain it from the State Commission. It s reasonable as local authorities can fully assess the consequences for the economy and residents of a region in case a particular foreign company leaves the Russian market.

Response to the risks of modern times

- Recently, Krasnodar was attacked by drones. One of them fell on an office building. Can a business claim property damages in such cases? Or does it bear all expenses?

- In case of damages caused by the fall of a drone, the responsible person is the one who launched it. Or the one who was obliged to prevent the fall. We do not know the first one, but the second one is the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which army is obliged to protect people. But no court will satisfy such a claim against the Ministry of Defense. Therefore, a business shall bear all damage caused by drones and try to minimize it with insurance.

- Is it important to settle the issues of business inheritance, given that anyone can be called to arms? Generally, why are there problems with business inheritance? Can the documented will of the owner (legal entity) be sufficient to resolve the issue?

- As a rule, any businessperson makes plans for many years ahead. When you reach the end of your life, it s always unexpected. No one can prepare for it. Modern business in Russia has a relatively short history. Initial capital and assets are just beginning to form, together with the procedure of their civilized transfer to heirs. The issue of business inheritance is old news. The special military operation only deepened it. It is worth remembering the high-profile scandals of recent years, where ex-wives, cohabitants, illegitimate children, and business partners enter into major corporate wars after the death of some company s founders. A business is a very complex structure. It is not easy to describe and settle by making a will. The simple thing is to sign over equity stakes, shares, and assets to particular heirs. But how to be sure that they won t ruin the business, fire the management board, or sell it to the competitors for nothing right after entering into the inheritance? Not long ago, a novelty appeared in Russian law - an inheritance fund. It resembles a trust in English law, which was also created to settle inheritance issues, but later began to be used to solve other corporate tasks. Time will tell what awaits the assets in the Russian inheritance funds.

- The business owner is mobilized and participates in the special military operation.

But the manager appointed by proxy makes illegal or illiterate decisions that create problems for the business. Will the owner be able to cancel his previous decisions through the court after military discharge? What are the best ways to protect your business during military service?

- It is impossible to cancel illiterate or illegal decisions of the manager by proxy via court since the actions of the person appointed by proxy are recognized as the actions of the appointer. But if the actions of the person appointed by proxy caused losses, the appointer can recover losses from them. If a director or a member of the director /management board is called up for military service, he d better leave his position in the company. When shareholders of a joint-stock company or limited liability company are called up to arms, they shall issue a proxy to a person they trust or transfer their shares in the authorized capital to trust management.

The first day was about informal communication between the participants and getting acquainted with each other. On the second day, the official program of the forum was relatively divided into sessions related to the legal peculiarities in the current political and economic situations in the country and the world (e.g., Business Structuring Under the Sanctions, Current Problems of Legal Regulation, Trends in Compliance Development During the Turbulence Era). There also were narrow-profile sessions, such as Judicial Practice, Advantages of Family-Owned Business, and Digital Law in 2023).

On June 30, outside of official sessions, the KAZAN LEGAL WEEK had round tables organized by the Russian State University of Justice. The tables participants were able to discuss issues related to tax and construction legislation, as well as corporate disputes.

ABYs Partner Sergey Radchenko spoke at the Judicial practice session. He shared information on what disputes in the electric power industry courts tend to resolve and what judicial practice it creates. There are some peculiarities when resolving such cases. Electric power regulations are a fusion of civil law and technical standards. It is a unique code of laws. The results of many disputes directly affect the local population, and any court decision can cause social tension, meaning such disputes may be politically charged. Given the imperfection or even the absence of specialized electric power regulations, and its technical and economic complexity, the judicial practice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has the most importance.

On the final day, everyone found something to do to their liking at the Sviyaga Hills Golf Club: a tournament for golf lovers or a master class for beginners. An eventful cultural program for guests included:

• Intellectual game "What? Where? When?"

• Wine Casino

• Jewelry house s exhibition "Russian gemstones"

• Buffet and live music.

All the contributions for the golf tournament were sent to the Charity Fund "For the Good Together (Vo Blago Vmeste)."

Advocates Bureau Yug successfully defended the interests of the largest network company in Southern Russia in a dispute of about 1.3 billion rubles against the Tariff Service of the Astrakhan region.

Our client is the largest grid company in Southern Russia. In 2021 the client filed a tariff application to the Tariff Service of the Astrakhan region requesting to include some expenses into the necessary gross proceeds (NGP) for calculating the new tariff on electricity transmission services, including expenses for the executive office, planned depreciation/replacement of metering devices, and paying interest on bank loans. The Tariff Service refused the application. It considered these expenses being economically unjustified and set a significantly lower tariff rate than the one requested by the client.

The client filed an administrative claim against the Tariff Service in the Astrakhan Regional Court, requesting to recognize the above court decision as invalid. The client justified that all these expenses are reasonable, that he took bank loans to eliminate cash gaps, that he spent the funds on the branch office in the Astrakhan region, and that there are legal grounds for the Tariff Service to accept these expenses provided for by regulatory acts in the electric power industry.

On 20 September 2022, the Astrakhan Regional Court released a decision on case No. 3a-127/2022 and partially satisfied the clients claim. The Court included in the expenses the costs for the executive office, depreciation, and compensation for the NGP adjustment based on actual data for 2020. The client filed an appeal against the court decision. Upon consideration, the Third Appeal Court of General Jurisdiction included planned expenses of 18,378,290 rubles for the replacement of metering devices, as well as the planned expenses for the year 2022 of 758,053,230 rubles for paying interest on bank loans and the actual expenses for the year 2020 of 531,598,930 rubles for paying interest on bank loans.

The Tariff Service of the Astrakhan Region and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation filed cassation complaints against the said court decision.

Lawyers of Advocates Bureau Yug prepared a statement to defend against these complaints and participated in the court session of the Cassation Court.

On 27 July 2023, the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction upheld the previous court decision.

ABYs Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit and Partner Sergey Radchenko represented the clients interests in the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction.

The Council of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers granted Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, the highest award of the Russian law community - the Order "For loyalty to the lawyer s duty". Only advocates with at least 20 years of continuous professional experience can get it. Who have mastered protecting rights, freedoms and legitimate clients interests. Who contributed greatly to the development of the Russian advocacy. Who implemented scientific activities aiming to improve and develop the law industry and strengthen international cooperation between lawyers.

They purchased jeans and shirts in a store and discovered some defects, such as the instability of clothes paint used to paint the interior of the consumer s car. In addition to claims on recovery of costs, penalties, and fines, plaintiffs also claimed to recover losses due to damaged car interiors, the significant sums of money. Total monetary claims for each of the three cases estimate over one million rubles with relatively modest expenses of the plaintiffs on purchasing shirts and jeans from the client.

During the consideration, the court of first instance heavily violated the proceeding procedure. The court failed to notify our client properly about the court sessions and the decisions. The client learnt about cases when the plaintiffs presented writs of execution to the bank demanding to write off the funds recovered by the court. The court made all three decisions within ten days of registering the claims. Moreover, the court did not assign forensic examinations and made decisions based on overly dubious expert opinions provided by the plaintiffs at their own expense before going to court. Also, the plaintiffs, each subsequently claiming to be unrelated to the others, acted as libel tourists in the Krasnodar region. They got a temporary registration by location, aiming to create an artificial jurisdiction for the case.

During consideration, we persuaded the Krasnodar Regional Court and the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction to consider the cases under the rules of the first-instance courts with assigning forensic examinations. As a result, none of the three plaintiffs could provide clothes and cars for experts to examine. The opponents chose to abuse procedural rights and tried to delay the process in every possible way and to change the expert companies to the ones of their choice. We managed to get the decisions of the district court cancelled, new decisions made refusing to satisfy all three claims fully, and their execution turned. The court also made the plaintiffs return the previously recovered money to our client. Thus, professional lawyers of Advocates Bureau Yug were able to destroy the new scheme of consumer extremism before it took root in the courts of the Krasnodar region.

ABY s partner Sergey Radchenko and lawyer Zakhar Khrebtov represented the client in trials.

A bankruptcy case was initiated against our client. Moreover, under the claim, he was required to recover losses incurred due to the purchase of drilling equipment at an inflated price while he was a director. Upon termination of the bankruptcy case, the claim was assigned to an individual creditor, who filed into a court of general jurisdiction on loss recovery.

We achieved the case to be transferred under the arbitration court s jurisdiction. During its consideration there, we managed to justify the lack of proof of losses, make the court apply the statute of limitations and cancel interim protection measures under the claim. The court refused to satisfy the plaintiff s claims in full.

ABYs lawyer Zakhar Khrebtov represented the client in court.

In 2020 – 2021 the client built a three-storey house on the land plot and registered the ownership right under

the "dacha amnesty" procedure. In 2022 the Sochi administration conducted an inspection and, upon establishing that the construction was not agreed upon, filed into the court demanding to demolish the house as it was an unauthorized construction. Since our client, as a member of the Russian sailing team, participated in international competitions at that time, he could not receive notifications from the court about the start of the proceedings.

The court considered the case in one hearing and delivered a judgment in absentia to satisfy the Sochi Administrations claim.

ABY filed an application to cancel the absentee decision with reference to the fact that our client was a legal owner of the house according to Part 12, Art. 70 of the Federal Law "On State Registration of Real Estate". We also pointed out that Sochi Administration provided no proof of an unauthorized construction as stated in Article 222 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. However, the first instance court considered our arguments not worthy.

We filed an appeal claim to the Krasnodar Regional Court against this decision. On 4 May 2023, the Court annulled the absentee decision and dismissed the Sochi Administrations claim.

ABYs partner Sergey Radchenko represented the client in the Krasnodar Regional Court.

Some areas of law are so extensive that they start requiring a separate assessment over time. Today, on 11 May 2023, the 2022 litigation ranking was released. It consists of the Federal and Regional rankings as Pravo.ru has to consider the difference in the work scope, clients, staff number and other working aspects of metropolitan and regional law firms. All participants are divided into groups based on the average amount of the claim.

Advocates Bureau Yug, which took part in the ranking from its earliest days, re-entered the TOP of regional leaders and took place in Band 1.

To see the ranking results, please, follow the link: Regional Litigation Leaders

The former employee disagreed with the dismissal and appealed to the court demanding to recognize a fixed-term employment contract to be an indefinite one and reinstate the employee at work.

During the trial, ABY proved that the employment contract was concluded legally for a definite period, and there is no evidence that a fixed-term contract was concluded by force. We pointed out to the court that the employee is the company s shareholder, actively participates in its management, and gets a profit. While concluding a fixed-term employment contract, the employee was aware of its nature and termination upon expiring by virtue of his position and qualifications. At the same time, previous employment of the company s director does not give grounds to consider an employment contract as an indefinite one.

Despite the negative opinion of a labor authority, the court decided that the employer performed the dismissal procedure correctly.

As a result, the decision of the Crimean District Court dated 4/4/2023 dismissed the claim.

ABY s lawyer Alexey Demekhin was a representative of the client s interests.

This year, 1812 top legal consultants, including representatives from new Russian law firms created after international companies left the market, were included in this ranking.

ABY s Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit and Partner Sergey Radchenko were ranked in Band 1 among the best arbitration lawyers (large-scale disputes - high market) and legal experts of dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction.

To see the ranking follow the link: PRAVO-300 ranking of legal companies (pravo.ru)

The event s organizers were legal web-portal Pravo.ru and Advocates Bureau Yug, and Yug Times Weekly was its information partner.

"The Winter Legal Week event has evolved from the Legal Forum of Southern Russia, which usually takes place in Sochi," said Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, "Our legal community needs to gather more often to discuss pressing issues. During winter, we meet in the mountains to show Sochi s advantages to our colleagues from different regions of Russia. This year over 130 legal professionals participated in the Forum. They came from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk and other cities. There even were participants from the United Kingdom and Israel, so the Forum has acquired an international status."

For three days, the legal experts have been discussing pressing issues, but the main topic was legal problems that business faces in 2023 and how to overcome them. The overview is as follows: the most crucial thing nowadays is to be creative and apply non-standard solutions. There are quite a number of them. One of the most famous is relocation. In the current economic and political situation, this is the essential option for Russian entrepreneurs if they want to preserve and develop businesses. Now they need additional opportunities to conduct banking operations and form logistics chains ensuring international cooperation.

It is necessary to approach the relocation issue comprehensively, said Anna Krovyakova, Managing Partner of the international consulting company FINCOM Group, "You cannot make decisions solely based on your tax preferences. It was one of the main mistakes during the first relocation. Moreover, many companies had no working financial models and workloads, no connections to their business partners, and no logistics. As practice has shown, there was no need to "rush away" anywhere in the first months. One needed to stay calm and evaluate all possibilities. When choosing a place of relocation, it is necessary to pay attention to the cost and terms of incorporating a company, bank accounts, tax burden, logistics chains, characteristics of goods concerning end users, and whether you have to travel to other countries. The best options for relocating companies nowadays are Serbia and Kyrgyzstan. These are Russia-friendly countries with no language barrier, the possibility to open a bank account in any currency and obtain a residence permit when opening a company."

Favourable environment

Thus, the lowest tax rates in Europe are the main advantage if you want to incorporate a company in Serbia. At the same time, non-residents are taxed only on income received in this country, which complies with international accounting standards. Those who consider Kyrgyzstan as a place to produce or trade after relocation should remember that there are five free economic zones here. There are several essential advantages of Kyrgyzstan, such as no tax on imported raw materials, a few inspections by supervisory authorities, and a closed and protected area. The companies incorporated in Kyrgyzstan are excused from double taxation, 10% income tax, 12%VAT, and 1-5% sales tax, depending on their activity. Moreover, the country has a favourable location between the CIS and APEC, which provides access to new markets.

Thus, the lowest tax rates in Europe are the main advantage if you want to incorporate a company in Serbia. At the same time, non-residents are taxed only on income received in this country, which complies with international accounting standards. Those who consider Kyrgyzstan as a place to produce or trade after relocation should remember that there are five free economic zones here. There are several essential advantages of Kyrgyzstan, such as no tax on imported raw materials, a few inspections by supervisory authorities, and a closed and protected area. The companies incorporated in Kyrgyzstan are excused from double taxation, 10% income tax, 12%VAT, and 1-5% sales tax, depending on their activity. Moreover, the country has a favourable location between the CIS and APEC, which provides access to new markets.

"Currently, the business and its clients are at a crossroads thinking about what they should do," said Elena Chasovskikh, Development Director of Portfolio Investments Management Company (Region Group), "Should they stay in unfriendly countries, move to friendly ones, or search in Russia for solutions to integrate into their business? Among other non-standard corporate tools, I want to point out the closed-end mutual funds and explain today s nature of such a market. These are over 5,000 funds, and over 2,000 of them are active. The market is 6.4 trillion rubles, while 5 trillion rubles are the combinations of closed-end and net asset value mutual funds. 2.7 trillion rubles include Russian stocks, bonds, investment units, promissory notes and LLCs shares in the mutual funds. These tools allow you to structure markets and invest in totally different assets. Funds may include corporate structures, debt instruments, fixed assets, production sites, real estate and any assets other than cash."

These tools help you solve many tasks. Firstly, taxation. The closed-end mutual funds do not pay an income tax on transactions and transactions with the fund s property. Their crucial quality is confidentiality: data on shareholders are not disclosed in the Unified State Registers of Legal Entities and Immovable Property, and entities within the funds become officials in the management company. At the same time, shareholders reserve their right to control by participating in the general meeting on main agendas or in the investment committee on transaction approvals. The Central Bank and a specialized depository also have regulatory control there. The closed-end mutual funds allow you to isolate assets and transform them into a security (a unit). Units are in free circulation and do not depend on shareholders or the management company. It is also possible to allocate property in kind. Only closed-end mutual funds may become the tools to protect your business in case of future sanctions, separation of Russian and foreign companies or their preservation in Russia by a foreign owner or soon-to-be relocated owner.

Avoiding sanctions

Intellectual property law is one of the main problems for Russian businesses nowadays. Due to the sanctions imposed, many Western companies stopped working with Russian customers. The restrictions cover the user software and non-user hardware. At the same time, companies from any jurisdiction can fall under secondary US sanctions because almost all the said products usually contain 25% of American components or were manufactured using US technologies. As a result, software updates, new license purchases and customer support services are now unavailable to Russian companies. They have to develop their solutions for software support or look for Russian analogues. At the same time, state authorities and governmental customers are forbidden to use foreign software at critical information infrastructure facilities.

"The most difficult thing we have encountered is that the copyright holders, with whom we have been working for many years, stop communicating and getting in touch," said Anna Voitsekhovich, Director of the Legal Risk Management Department, MTS Corporate and Legal Affairs Unit, "Even though you would like to solve all the issues, but you don t understand how to do it. How to overcome this situation? Perhaps, for Russia, it would be better to start developing its software, equipment and technologies."

Import substitution

Developing your own software products is not a quick thing. Even though Russia already has domestic analogues equal to Western ones, there are still many problems. Among them are perpetual license agreements, limited by Russian law for five years only, the impossibility of transferring products to third parties (including companies existing in the same group), equipment licenses and the unavailability of updates. The parallel importing made it possible to purchase some products for now. However, copyright holders from unfriendly countries will not get their lawful compensation. Russia s Government implemented requirements for opening "O bank accounts" to settle with counterparties from unfriendly countries. You can make payments after getting approval from a special state commission. Still, there are more questions than answers.

There are also many issues regarding dispute resolutions between Russian and Western companies in commercial courts. Thus the Russian legislation has two amendments, 248.1 and 248.2, in effect.

"These articles of the Arbitration Procedural Code allow cancelling the arbitration clause that provides an opportunity to consider disputes abroad, in courts of foreign jurisdictions, due to the company being under sanctions or unable to hire advisors and transfer dispute consideration into Russia s courts and take restrictive measures," explained Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, "If a dispute has been initiated outside of the Russian Federation, in an unfriendly country, you can issue a judicial act that ban or continue it in the jurisdiction of an unfriendly country."

According to Sergey Radchenko, Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, after 2020, out of 54 cases under Article 248.1, 25 must be considered only in Russian courts. Out of 13 under Article 248.2, forbidding the consideration in a foreign jurisdiction, 8 cases were satisfied.

"A striking example of the article being applied and the court decision being implemented was the lawsuit of Tsargrad Media against Google after the latter blocked their Youtube channel. As a result, a court decided that Google must pay Tsargrad compensation of about 1 billion rubles. It was possible to implement the decision because Google had assets in Russia at that time," Sergey Radchenko noted.

The main problem with applying new rules is whether foreign defendants will obey or ignore them. As a result, the business is wondering whether it is even worth starting disputes as it requires a lot of time and resources.

"Is it worth starting proceedings abroad in the current conditions? First of all, you need to answer some questions. Are there any obstacles to initiating proceedings abroad? Does a defendant have assets in Russia that can become a recovery compensation? Is it possible to execute the court s decision in the jurisdictions of the assets location? Are there other grounds for refusing to recognize the court s decision in the relevant jurisdiction?" stated Anton Maltsev, Partner of Melling, Voitishkin & Partners.

Mutual loyalty

It is worth noting that now 44 countries of the world have agreed to recognize the judicial decisions of Russian courts. The list includes Bulgaria, Cyprus, Argentina, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Spain, and Ukraine. Recognizing the decisions of Russian courts is possible even without a corresponding agreement. For example, in 2022, the Limoges court in France recognized the judgment of the Krasnogorsk District Court. In March 2022, the Supreme Court of New York made a similar decision.

"One of the most obvious solutions is to execute decisions rendered by a Russian court in the jurisdiction of a friendly country. For example, now such regulation operates in Turkey without an agreement and based on "anticipatory reciprocity". The Turkish judicial system has no negative experience of non-recognizing the decisions of Turkish courts in Russia," Anton Maltsev noted, "Thus, we may assume decisions of Turkish courts to be executed in our country. We know of lawsuits that were filed in the courts of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, and the decisions were executed in Turkey."

All participants of the Winter Legal Week Forum came to one conclusion. Despite all the difficulties, it is still worth defending your rights in international courts. Mainly we are talking not solely about financial costs but the reputation and the rights to work in foreign markets. Moreover, international judges have stated that, when resolving disputes, they will try to consider them objectively without minding sanctions and restrictions. There are such confirmations as the experience of the state corporation Rosatom.

"We have not experienced prejudice against our company," said Olga Monchenko, Chief Lawyer of the Department for Legal and Corporate Work in Rusatom Energy International JSC, "There is a practice when international judges rule in our favour if they see a proven legal position. The main problem is that foreign consultants refuse to fulfill contracts, and there are some barriers when hiring them. For example, our specialized consultants terminated all communication and legal support during the execution of the EPC contract. As a possible solution, we offer to change the approach and use creativity during team-building, i.e. to involve Russian consultants in the team and strengthen it with international specialists, to hire freelance barristers, and to include in-house teams to the maximum. Monitoring companies and individuals public activity helps greatly to select specialists. Strangely enough, American law firms turned out to be the most loyal towards Russia."

Mutual process

Summing up the discussion of the Russian legal system facing several challenges, Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, noted that amending Russian legislation will not solve all issues.

"The problem involves the domestic market and its interaction with foreign markets and Western countries. The latter ones have either stopped this cooperation or put it on pause. Over the past year, we have found some solutions that are not 100% effective. But we will continue working. We hope the situation will be resolved, and we will have normal business relationships with Western countries," Yuri Pustovit stated.

The three-day Winter Legal Week Forum in the mountains of Sochi finished with skiing competitions for all participants. This unusual combination of business and cultural programs and a casual environment for communication makes this Forum organized by Pravo.ru and Advocates Bureau Yug very popular within the legal community of Russia.

The highest costs were the costs of paying interest on bank loans. The Tariff Service refused the application. It considered the expenses to be economically unjustified and set the tariff at a significantly lower rate than the client requested.

We have filed an administrative claim against the Tariff Service in the Astrakhan Regional Court to recognize the resolution on the required gross revenue and tariff invalid. In the lawsuit, we proved that the client took bank loans to eliminate cash gaps and spent them on the needs of the client s branch in the Astrakhan region. We also proved that there are legal grounds to accept these expenses provided for by regulatory acts of the electric power industry.

The decision of the Astrakhan Regional Court dated 26/4/2022 and the appellate ruling of the Judicial Board for Administrative Cases of the Third Appellate Court of General Jurisdiction dated 31/8/2022 denied the client s request to include interest on loans in the tariff. We filed a cassation complaint.

On 29 December 2022 Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction decided to make changes to the above said judicial acts. Thus, the conclusions that planned expenses for the year 2021 were economically unreasonable and cannot be confirmed by the documents, as stated in the article "Loan Interest (Loan Servicing Costs)" in the amount of 824,037,000 RUB, were excluded from their motivational part. The adjustments of uncontrolled expenses based on actual values for the year 2019, as stated in the article "Loan Interest (Loan Servicing Costs)" in the amount of 663,339,240 RUB, also were made.

ABY s Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit and Partner Sergey Radchenko represented the client s interests in the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction.

Sergey Radchenko has been working at ABY since 2010 and smoothly moving on the career ladder from Senior Associate to Partner. He is a recognized expert in corporate dispute resolution and electric power litigations. Sergey has a Ph.D. in Law and recommendations from leading ranking agencies Pravo-300, Kommersant Publishing House, and Best Lawyers. They pointed out his deep analytical skills, ability to find non-standard solutions and knowledge of local specifics. During his career in Advocates Bureau Yug, Sergey has represented Russian and international clients in major precedented disputes in the electric power industry and corporate conflicts, including the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. He is fluent in English.

"Litigation and arbitration are central legal practices in our company. The number, values, and complexity of cases and claims constantly increase. It is a challenge, and as ABYs Partner, my essential goal is to achieve high results while representing the interests of our clients. I am sure with my new position, Advocates Bureau Yug will provide more efficient services for our clients and continue to develop its business," said Sergey Radchenko, Partner and Head of the litigation and arbitration of Advocates Bureau Yug.

"Sergey is a well-known lawyer in the Russian legal market. I believe there is no need to re-list all his advantages. I will say only one thing. I am very pleased with how our working relations have developed. And I see the results that he achieves in favor of our clients. So Sergey becoming ABYs Partner is a natural development. It will urge Sergey to evolve his skills and abilities to a greater extent in the interests of our clients," said Yuri Pustovit, ABYs Managing Partner.

Advocates Bureau Yug was founded on September 29 1995, to provide comprehensive legal services with high professionalism to domestic and international companies on Russian law.

ABY s client under the case was the leading business Media of the southern region. The Media published a critical article about the corporation s activities and their impact on the local economy.

ABY provided the following legal position: the disputable article did not contain the author opinion, since it included data from the Round Table of officials and leading agricultural enterprises. Therefore, the Media is exempt from responsibility for disseminating information from official speeches by virtue of the law.

We illustrated to the court that the article s data was not a subject of judicial protection as, substantially and semantically, it was the renditions of the Round Table s official speeches. The said speeches reflected participants subjective opinions on specific events and prospects for local development. The speeches corresponded to reality, and there was no mentioning on the professional qualities of the plaintiffs and their business reputation.

Moreover, ABY pointed out that the limitation period on requirements for the Media s publications has expired.

The case has been under consideration for 2.5 years. The results of the forensic linguistic examination confirmed that the article contained negative information.

However, on 17 November 2022, the Kushchevsky District Court decided to dismiss the defamation claim against ABY s client.

Associate Alexey Demekhin represented the interests of the client.

According to the privatisation plan, the new owner got the production complex that used to be a part of the former state enterprise. However, some objects involved in the technological process and located on the enterprises territory remained in state ownership by mistake.

For more than 20 years, the client has unsuccessfully tried to redeem the property as a matter of priority. But in 2022, the territorial authority Federal Agency for State Property Management (Rosimushchestvo) refused the client again.

The court of the first instance made a decision in favour of Rosimushchestvo since the judge saw no grounds to apply the norm on the exclusive rules for privatisation without bidding, which became invalid in 2015.

We managed to convince the court of appeal that the client failed to implement the privatisation plan due to the misfeasance of the state authority. We proved that there were no regulatory and factual obstacles for the client to privatise the property. The facilities subject to privatisation remained, initially and continuously, in ownership and usage of the client. No third party can privatise them. The facilities did not change their purposes or lose their connections to the property complex owned by the client. Thus, the client retained their primary right to acquire the disputed property.

Therefore, the 15th Commercial Appeal Court decided to satisfy the clients claim.

Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit and associate Alexey Demekhin represented the clients interests.

On this day, the gathered participants looked especially grand in tuxedos and cocktail dresses because the event became something more than an award ceremony. It is a cultural and secular event for those who have reached a certain level in their career. Actors, singers, writers, and celebrities give awards to the winners of each nomination.

Despite all the challenges, 471 law companies placed in the 2022 ranking. This year Pravo.ru established two new nominations: "Anti-crisis Business Support" and "Anti-crisis Customer Support".

This year Pravo.ru divided nominations into legal practices and industries and added two new sections - "Agro-Industrial Complex and Agriculture" and "Retail, FMCG, Catering" were added. This time the "bankruptcy" was divided into two sections: "Restructuring" and "Consulting and Litigation" (high-market and mid-market). "Arbitration proceedings" were divided into two blocks: "Commercial disputes" (high-market and mid-market) and "Corporate disputes".

According to practices in the regional ranking, Advocates Burea Yug got awards in two nominations:

arbitration disputes - 1 Band (high-market) ;

dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction - 1 Band.

ABY also took 3rdplace among leading law firms in the regional revenue ranking.

To get more information and see a photo report of the ceremony, go to Pravo-300 s website

The Head of the Krasnodar region Administration (Governor) awarded the Letter of Gratitude to Yuri Pustovit, Managing partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, for being conscientious at work, an active participant and contributer in improving investment climate and development of Krasnodar Region for many years.

We filed an administrative lawsuit against the Regional Tariff Service in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykia. We requested the Court to recognize the authoritys decision to establish the required gross revenue and tariff as invalid. We provided reasons in the lawsuit that the client had taken bank loans to eliminate cash gaps and spent them on the companys branch in the Republic of Kalmykia. We proved that certain regulatory acts in the electric power industry provide legal grounds to accept the costs.

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Kalmykia (Decision dd. 20.12.2021) and the Judicial Board for Administrative Cases of the Third Appeal Court of General Jurisdiction (Appellate Ruling dd. 05.04.2022) refused to include loan interest in the clients tariff. Our lawyers had to file a cassation complaint.

The Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction ruled to change the previous judicial decisions. It eliminated the conclusion from their motivational parts stating that the planned costs for 2021 of 131,328,870 rubles were economically unreasonable and not proved by documents under the article "On Loan Interests (Loan Expenses)". It also dismissed adjustments to uncontrolled expenses of 563,936,270 rubles based on the actual values for the year 2019 under the Article "On Loan Interest (Loan Expenses)".

Managing Partner Yuri Pustovit, Senior associate Sergey Radchenko and Associate Zakhar Khrebtov represented the clients interests in the Fourth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction.

The welcoming party took place at sunset in Sochi Grand Marina near seaport. All guests could either enjoy live music and magnificent views or participate in intellectual game “What?Where?When?” with legendary Alexander Drouz as a host.

The official program of the forum was rich and relevant to current events in the business world: sanctions restrictions, judicial practice, bankruptcy and subsidiary liability, legal risks of businesses and criminal liability of their owners.

The official part started with a business breakfast moderated by Yuri Pustovit, Managing partner of Advocates Bureau Yug, who suggested to discuss business problems during sanctions. Everyone at the breakfast shared their ways to protect assets during the sanctions period, learned about the legal risks of parallel imports, summarized current customs and criminal risks for businesses, as well opportunity of citizenship through investment: government programs in other countries that are still open to Russian residents.

The 1st session “Main judicial events 2022” covered a wide range of legal practices. All participants discussed opportunities and trends in asset management of foreign companies; new trends in judicial practice during

sanctions; problems and prospects of class suits against foreign companies that have left Russia; risks, preferences and prospects related to taxes in business; current IP litigations: trademarks, challenging decisions of Rospatent and the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

ABY’s Senior associate Sergey Radchenko spoke about the current judicial practice of the Supreme Court on damage recoveries.

The bankruptcy topic is so wide in new realities that the second session was completely devoted to it. Practicing lawyers shared their opinions on trends in requirement subordination in bankruptcy, gave practical advice on mediation in bankruptcy, talked about current cases on challenging transactions on bankruptcy grounds, advised to monitor activities of liquidators, to protect market conditions for services rendered in criminal prosecution and bankruptcy disputes. They also found out what should be done when foreclosing on the only housing of the debtor during bankruptcy, as stated by the Supreme and the Constitutional Courts of the Russian Federation.

During the 3rd session “Business responsibility: administrative, subsidiary and criminal” speakers considered trends in judicial practice, cases of subsidiary liability outside bankruptcy, liability insurance of directors and officials. They also shared how to save management from a criminal case by creating a prejudice if you lose arbitration dispute, in accordance with Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They disclosed ins and outs of responsibility for off-the-meter electricity consumption and how to protect a client in case of tax crimes.

The final 4th session “The future of legal business and new challenges in working with clients” was held in the aquarium format that allows speakers to discuss both “controversial” topics by involving different parties and their possible solutions. Among the speakers were Yuri Pustovit (Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug), Oleg Grishunin (Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at BEL Development), Elena Krupskaya (Director of Legal Affairs at X5), etc. Speakers and participants united in an effort to find solutions to controversial issues, using recommendations from in-houses experts and consultants, to predict which industries, practices and directions will be in demand in 2022-2023, to build eco-friendly communications in a professional environment in 2022 realities. The final topic involved law firm management, peculiarities of pricing in the legal market in current economic situation and attempts to find something new in the legal team management to inspire employees to new achievements.

One who works well deserves to rest well, especially when the former involves outdoor activities. Thus, the Legal Forum of the Southern Russia chose the traditional sailing regatta to close official program in 2022. Bright sun, salty sea and speed competition create right mood for future work. The forum ended with award ceremony of the regatta’s winners and promises to welcome its guests next year.

The applicant insisted that both parties aimed at withdrawing assets while there were signs of the debtors insolvency.

A mandatory condition to recognize a suspicious transaction as invalid one, in accordance with clause 2, Article 61.2 of the Bankruptcy Law, is the inflicted damage to the property rights of creditors. When establishing this circumstance, one must determine that a purpose to cause harm exists, and that the counterparty was aware of this purpose.

During consideration of the case, we were able to prove that the transactions had been made by the debtor in order to fulfill real contractual legal relations, which had been confirmed by the parties, and that at the time of the transfer the recipient was not aware and could not be aware that the debtor had unfulfilled obligations to third parties.

Thus, on September 12, 2022, the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court decided to dismiss the applicants claims.

The clients interest were represented by ABYs lawyer Alexey Demekhin.

The client was involved in the court proceedings as a third party from the side of the management board. According to the clients shareholder, the losses amounted to approximately 2.5 billion. However, for 3 years, the shareholder has been failing to prove any evidence of negative consequences to the client caused by the actions management board and contractors management, including through the conclusion and execution of the disputed transactions. By his actions, the shareholder put the client in a risky position. In the absence of the sole executive body the shareholders demand may lead to significant risks for the client with losing the management board, reputation and the important counterparty, issues settlement related to additional tax base, and may also lead to the clients involvement in an endless litigation, causing financial and economic condition of the client to be questioned, and the suspension of activity.

The Commercial Court of Bashkortostan agreed with our arguments and declined the shareholder’s lawsuit.

ABYs associate Ekaterina Fedenko represented the clients interests.

The competitions were held according to the Swiss system in 6 rounds with a time control of 10 minutes, plus 5 seconds for each move made. 13 lawyers took part in the Championship. Svetlana Mustafina became the winner and scored 5.5 points in 6 games. The second place was taken by Sergey Radchenko, and the and third place — by Alexey Takhovsky, respectively.

Championship had warm and friendly atmosphere. All participants got merit certificates, prize–winners — medals, and the main winner — the Cup. According to Svetlana Vladimirovna Vasilyeva, President of the Krasnodar Region Bar Association, such events help to distract lawyers from their daily work and keep their “brains in good shape” at the same time. The Bar Association will continue to hold similar events, which are aimed primarily at colleagues rallying on each other within the law community.

To identify regional leaders, an analytical group of Pravo.ru examined more than 8 thousand decisions of Russian commercial courts adopted in 2021. To divide companies into bands, Pravo.ru took into account such indicators as: total value of the claim, number of cases in the proceedings, number of decisions in the final instances in 2021, result in the court trials, average value of the claim. Each indicator was considered alongside with its defining nuances.

We have to admit that political and economic changes in our country and the unprecedented number of sanctions have greatly affected disputes considered by the courts. Over the next few years we may predict an increasing number of disputes with foreign companies due to their withdrawal from Russian. Against this background, new disputes that used to be rare appear, such as, lawsuits on obligation to fulfill a contract, consumers’ class actions, lawsuits related to discussion on presumptive protection of companies’ rights from unfriendly jurisdictions. The number of corporate cases will increase due to foreign companies transferring their assets to Russian owners, the market redistribution and raider seizures.

You can get more information on forecasts in litigation area in the article by following the : link

In order to make the customer fulfill the contract, we filed a lawsuit on recovery of penalty for the delay in the performance of their obligations into the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court. We justified as follows: financing of the project was not terminated, the contract is still valid, which means the customer must execute it, as the customer fails to prove absence of their guilt in breaching the contract. Moreover, we have justified that the penalty was economically reasonable and accurately accrued with 20% VAT. We also justified that it was possible to accrue the penalty for entire price of the contract without the previously paid advance payment. While objecting to the arguments of the customer, we also justified that the case was under jurisdiction of the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court.

Upon considering the case, on June 6th, 2022, the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court satisfied the clients lawsuit and recovered 311 766 484 RUB from the customer for less than three months.

ABYs Managing partner Yuri Pustovit and Senior associate Sergey Radchenko represented the clients in the court of first instance.

Following the spring romantic mood, it was decided to start the event with a trip to the winery through a beautiful park. The buffet provided the guests with several varieties of local wine, letting them appreciate the youngest agricultural branch in Russia.

The official program named "Cross-Border Legal Issues" was influenced by an unexpected and abrupt upheaval of the global economy, which now creates unprecedented challenges for Russian and international companies.

The Forum was divided into three themed sessions on significant changes in business practices.

The first session was organized as a discussion of "Legal Instruments for Business in Foreign Jurisdictions". It was moderated by Anton Konnov, a partner and head of the CIS/Russia practice in Allen & Overy. The participants were able to discuss the following topics:

- Legal Framework for Cooperating in the CIS Countries: Business Opportunities;

- Transition to a New Level of Integration: Harmonization of Law in the CIS Countries;

- Dialogue Between International and National Courts: Influence of International Judicial Bodies on Each Others Practice.

During the second session “Support of Global Projects in the Age of Sanctions and Restrictions” moderated by Anton Avazhansky, Managing Director of “Alvarez & Marsal”, the guests discussed

- Legal Framework for Cooperating in the CIS Countries: Business Opportunities;

- Current Issues of Russian Anti-Sanction Legislation;

- Roadmap to Asset Tracing and Cross-Border Investigations;

- Migration Structure: Business, Taxes and Personal Assets During Turbulent Periods;

- Citizenship by Investment Trends: Government Programs in other Countries.

Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of the Advocates Bureau Yug, spoke at the third session “Litigation and Acute Issues in 2022”. The topic of the speech was “Revision of the contract provisions. Is it possible to terminate the contract, refuse delivery, change the terms due to changes in economic and political realities?”

Yuri Pustovit highlighted the following issues: how do the "special military operation" and sanctions affect contracts execution, whether they can be considered, firstly, as grounds to be exempt from liability on breaching the contract, secondly, as grounds to terminate a contract as it is impossible to perform it, and thirdly, as significant circumstances giving a party the right to demand a contract to be terminated or changed?

Other discussion topics at the third session were as follows:

- Sanction Disputes: Forecast for 2022-2023;

- The Effect of Decisions on Imposing Sanctions on Possible Performance of a Contract in Accordance with English law;

- New Difficulties in Implementing International Legal Orders of Courts and Law Enforcement Agencies, Execution of Court Decisions;

- Subsidiary Liability of Foreign Investors that Russian Companies Go Bankrupt: Risks, Opportunities and Consequences.

An outside cocktail reception, accompanied by a duet of electronic music and live Uzbek band performing on folk instruments, became a wonderful way to finish the official part. Tashkent struck all guests as a beautiful city, with clean and wide streets, shady parks and fountains.

Moreover, all guests were able to meet both legal community of Uzbekistan and its rich cultural and historical heritage, as well as nature and authentic cuisine. For everyone who wanted to get a closer look at the country, event hosts organized a tour through its cities Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, the Kyzyl-Kum desert and Khiva. The guests were able to see the beautiful antique monuments and architecture protected by UNESCO, visit a ski resort, buy national clothes, ceramics and wooden souvenirs with the finest carved ornaments.

Uzbekistan is a country with an ancient history and traditions, rich in historical artifacts, trade and crafts since the days of the Great Silk Road. It is the country with actively developing business and tourism, oil and gas reserves It was globally ranked globally third in export area, sixth — in cotton production, seventh — in uranium reserves, fourth — in terms of reserves, and seventh — in gold production. Without a doubt, it was one of the most interesting venues where Pravo.ru organized the International Legal Week Forum. All guests will remember it for both its acute official program and originality

We filed a lawsuit against the customer in the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court to recover the costs of works paid and penalties for overdue payment. In addition, we referred to the fact that upon completing the works, parties had a partial settlement, including the disputed contract, accepted by the customer without a word. In court the customer claimed that the evidence provided by ABYs lawyers was falsified, However, the examination appointed by the court confirmed that the signatures and seals of the customer to be authentic.

On September 6, 2021, the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court satisfied the clients claim fully, and recovered work costs of 36 562 304.15 RUB (taking into account previous settlement) and a penalty of 35 418 214.65 RUB.

The Fifteenth Commercial Appeal Court upheld the decision of the first instance court on February 19, 2022.

Senior associate Sergey Radchenko represented the clients in the court of first and appeal instances.

According to Part 7, Art. 10.3, Federal Law No. 149-FZ dated 27.07.2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", if a search engine operator fails to justify its refusal, a person has right to file into the court a claim on blocking search results about information specified in the applicants request.

The client did not agree with the refusal of the search engine operators, since the posted data was irrelevant and lost its meaning due to subsequent events, as well as photos were posted illegally, without the clients consent. In particular, it breached Art. 152.1 (the Russian Civil Code “Protection of the citizens image”), which violated the rights and legitimate interests of the client. The unreliable information was verified by the documents collected and provided by us.

On February 22, 2022, the Krasnodar Oktyabrsky District Court decided to satisfy the claim in full. This court decision will allow to block the search results of unreliable and irrelevant data about the ABYs client in search engines on the Internet.

Yuri Pustovit, ABYs Managing partner, represented the clients interests in the court

During the case two forensic examinations were conducted. According to the first expert, the contract was signed by the defendant, however, ABY managed to achieve that the court appointed the second complex examination. The second expert discovered that the signature was executed by another person and the contract was made four years later than it was dated. These conclusions, as well as a number of other inconsistencies and indirect signs indicated by ABY, allowed us to convince the court that the main evidence was falsified. The court refused to satisfy the plaintiffs claims in full.

ABYs lawyer Zakhar Khrebtov represented the client’s interests in the court.

The ranking evaluated three significant projects in which lawyers took part from September 2020 to September 2021, their legal experience, employment period in a company, special achievements and awards (for example, participation in other rankings). Advocates Bureau Yug is represented in Pravo.ru-300 by two lawyers.

Yuri Pustovit, ABY’s Managing partner:

- Arbitration proceedings (major disputes) - 1 band;

- Dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction – 2 band.

Sergey Radchenko, ABY’s Head of Judicial and arbitration practice:

- Arbitration proceedings (major disputes) - 1 band;

- Dispute resolution in courts of general jurisdiction – 2 band.

The Individual Legal Ranking “Pravo.ru-300”

The event was held in Radisson Rosa Khutor Hotel – the place was not chosen by chance. According to the organizers, the Sochi ski resort, located in Krasnaya Polyana, is an ideal place for such events, since it allows you to organize both fruitful work and enjoy quality rest. While welcoming the participants, Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of the Advocates Bureau Yug, noted that such meetings in Sochi, during the ski season, are becoming a tradition. And despite charms of online events, live communication remains the most effective way of interaction.

By the way, "interaction" was the main concept of the both informal and business parts of the forum. The main agenda involved topics on interaction within a companies, among themselves and relations between business and the state.

Financial transparency and attorney-client privilege

Speech by Vladimir Efremov, partner of the company "Arbitration.ru", about "Forced financial transparency of lawyers and business" aroused great interest and became the subject of lively discussions. The speaker highlighted the trends of "anti-laundering" regulations, stipulated by the Central Bank and Rosfinmonitoring in 2022.

Now, in order to stimulate more effective legalization of crime profits, all entrepreneurs and organizations providing legal services are required to identify their clients, monitor transactions and report any cases of suspicions payments to Rosfinmonitoring. These actions are not recognized as a violation of attorney-client privilege.

The data is to be transmitted under certain procedure, and managements of law firms are obliged to develop internal control regulations for their employees, which shall stipulate the said procedure, deadlines for data providing, forms of documents, etc. The following sanctions will be applied to organizations that do not comply with the new requirements: a fine of 400.000 RUB and banking restrictions (blocked accounts, refusal to conduct transactions).

"Traffic light" from the Central Bank

Another innovation is expected in the summer. This federal law comes into force on July 1, which launches the KYC (Know Your Customer) platform from the Central Bank. A program is based on daily data on all questionable transactions conducted in the country (collected data on all current bank accounts), will divide Russian business into three risk levels: green, yellow, red.

Customers of the red zone will be completely cut off from the banking system. They will not be able to open accounts, conduct transactions, transfer funds. Moreover, they will be deprived of the right to use funds from their current bank account.

Similar, albeit smaller, sanctions are expected by customers of the yellow zone.

Upon receiving information from the Central Bank, banks will be required to consider the degree of risks determined by Rosfinmonitoring and respond accordingly. The system is already working in test mode, and Russian lawyers will have to identify there each potential client, preferably, before signing the contract.

If we talk about how these innovations can affect the activities of law firms in real life, then, in addition to the increased flow of documents and new job responsibilities for employees, as well as the risk of 0.5 million rubles fine, the relations with clients, who can no longer count on attorney-client confidentiality, will likely deteriorate significantly. Moreover, Vladimir Efremov stressed in his speech that there is a risk for law firms to be in the "red zone" themselves.

“Rosfinmonitoring and the Central Bank have an internal data exchange, informing banks about companies to which they must pay attention and additionally check their activities,” Efremov said. “If a law firm has many clients from yellow and red zones, and if Rosfinmonitoring sends a recommendation to the bank, saying to pay extra attention the said firm, then general measures will be applied to the law firm in accordance with the law “On countering the legalization (laundering) of crime profits ...”. To put it simply, even one client from the "red zone" will drag down their lawyer or law firm. Thus, the company may face with a refusal to conduct transactions on the current bank account, to use the funds on the account. There is also a possibility that the bank unilaterally terminates service agreement with the company or even bans it from opening new bank accounts.

The personal data “worth”

Mikhail Khokholkov, the leading lawyer of the Law Firm INTELLECT, spoke about changes in the law "On Personal Data", which will adjust the activities of all lawyers and advocates, as well as most modern digital projects, including startups. One of these changes will involve biometric data, including photos.

Previously Roskomnadzor’s explanation stated that a photo can be considered biometrics only when certain conditions (GOST, angle, requirements) are met. Last year in Decembe this explanation officially lost its relevance. So far, lawyers do not fully understand how to act in new conditions. However, it is clear that it will not be possible to use photographic materials as before. This is especially true for small and medium-sized projects that simply will not be able to pass the necessary accreditation, as one of the requirements for its successful completion is the authorized capital of 50 million rubles for an operator who plans to use biometrics processing for authentication in their activities. Regarding identification, the financial security should already amount to 100 million rubles.

Only major players will be able to comply with the new requirements, while representatives of medium and small businesses must either find opportunities for multimillion-dollar support to implement their projects, or otherwise develop business processes, excluding the use of biometrics.

At risk: media, lawyers, notaries

The risks under new conditions are that the number of complaints received by Roskomnadzor from citizens may increase, particularly, due to the Citizens Legal Protection Center in the digital environment created by Roskomnadzor. Over the past year alone, the center has prepared over a thousand applications to the courts. Now it may happen more often.

If previously, upon receiving a complaint, Roskomnadzor carried out a lengthy procedure before drawing up a protocol, now the documents are immediately sent to the court. Accordingly, lawyers should be ready to protect interests of companies. “The innovation can become a means of unfair competition,” noted Mikhail Khokholkov, a leading lawyer at Law Firm INTELLECT, a member of the Roskomnadzor working group on Personal Data, a member of the expert council on advertising legislation of the FAS of the Russian Federation.

“We are already seeing such a problem, especially in the cases of our clients, the media, who, by virtue of their professional activities, somehow operate with personal data,” said Khokholkov. “And we see how the number of appeals keeps increasing, no matter reasons.

The problem is that if the request is made within the framework of the law on personal data, each operator must respond to it. The lack of an answer is an independent part of an administrative offense, very painful one. This is also relevant for liquidators, for lawyers who operate with evidence, personal data of witnesses and other participants in the process. We have already met such cases, too.”

International experience

The speech of a Siemens representative aroused a great interest. Anastasia Fomicheva, Director of the Legal and Ethical Compliance Department of Siemens Healthcare, spoke about the working specifics of a large international company.

“In 2007, I came to work at Siemen and as a Russian lawyer I was surprised that the contract necessarily provides for a provision on limited liability,” Anastasia Fomicheva said. “For me it was something new, incomprehensible, unusual. But over time, I got an interesting answer. If we hypothetically imagine a situation when there is a sudden breach of obligations under all the contracts that Siemens has concluded, and the liability will not be limited, then this will force the company to pay unlimited amounts to all its counterparties. As a result, this can lead to the companys bankruptcy. Of course, such a situation is unlikely, but this is the peculiar view of a foreign companies. If there is a risk (even if it is theoretical and, most likely, from the field of fiction), it should be excluded.”

Non-fulfillment of technical conditions equals termination of the contract

During his speech Sergey Radchenko, Senior associate at the Advocates Bureau Yug, suggested considering a common case: the customer fails to fulfill obligations under the contract with the network company on technological connection. In this situation, how can the network company terminate the contract and reimburse its expenses?

“There is a huge amount of judicial practice,” said Sergey Radchenko. “Over the past 10 years I have studied it all and I can say that this is an absolutely typical situation when a network company fulfills its obligations, spends a lot of money, then comes to its senses, but the tariff has already been exceeded, and the customer is in no hurry to pay. This is where the litigation begins.”

According to his own experience, Sergey Radchenko further explained that the company had managed to build a substation, laid cable lines, built air networks (with enormous costs), but payment was not received. Logically, the performer wanted to terminate relationship with a negligent client and reimburse the expenses. Sergey Radchenko offered practical guidance on how to get out of this situation.

One can terminate the contract for several reasons:

- Part 2, Article 328, the Russian Civil Code (the so-called foreseeable violation) with the recovery of losses calculated according to the model of negative contractual interest;

- Article 450, the Russian Civil (essential breach of the contract with the recovery of all expenses incurred as losses);

- Article 451, the Russian Civil Code on significant change in circumstances (expenses are collected on the basis of a courts decision, according to which the costs are fairly divided by the parties).

Regarding what exactly can be recovered the speaker also offered here several options:

- costs (for the preparation and issuance of technical conditions, their approval by the system operator, as well as for the preparation of necessary documentation and execution of design and construction works);

- VAT (20% regardless of the time of signing the contract);

- penalty (within the term of the contract and technical conditions).

As evidence, one can submit any accounting documentation, works performance contract, and, if necessary, the results of the examination.

Sergey Radchenko also noted that judicial practice established a rule that is not in the law, but nevertheless it is relevant.

“It is impossible to collect expenses more than the tariff for technical connection”, the speaker noted. “But what if the amount of expenses is higher? Practice shows that it is still impossible to recover, no matter how much the costs exceed the tariffs. But recently, a new practice has been very cautiously emerging, according to which the network company can add this difference to the tariff for electricity transmission services.

The experts of the forum highlighted the maximum number of questions from various branches of law. During the working sessions, the legal risks of business, including those related to such a large-scale area as bankruptcy, were discussed. The participants of the sessions discussed proposals for making business decisions, gave recommendations on determining the insolvency of counterparties. They also considered an algorithm for assessing risks and profits when deciding on the involvement of a company in litigation.

At the end of the working sessions, the forum participants noted how effective the business program of the event was, as well as its informal part. Thanks to this combination, the delegates had the opportunity to relax and share their experiences at the same time.

The Winter Legal Forum of the Southern Russia was held in Sochi for the second time, however, for many years the web-portal Pravo.ru and Advocates Bureau Yug have been the organizers of similar autumn event, which takes place in September in the coastal part of the resort. In 2022, the forum in autumn will gather guests and participants for the 14th time.

Sergey Kovalev, Managing Partner of the Bar Association “Kovalev, Tugushi and Partners”:

“All speakers were interesting. The business program is a concentrated squeeze of red lines in favour of business and lawyerrs. The organizers managed to find the right format and the right speakers. As for the informal part, the atmosphere is very pleasing. There are many lawyers at the forum who can communicate with each other in a comfortable environment, find common ground. Usually we encounter, as a rule, only when we have joint problems. And we often find ourselves on different sides of the barricades. And here, the meeting with opponents takes place in a comfortable atmosphere, you can talk about abstract topics without touching everyday problems and get to know a person from the other side. Its always good and pleasant experience

Yuri Pustovit, Managing Partner of Advocates Bureau Yug:»

“As one of the organizer, I can note that the current agenda of the forum is vivid discussions, which means that the topics resonate with experience of participants and speakers.

If we compare the current forum with the last years one, then in 2021 it was more intimate, and the atmosphere was almost family-like. However, I am glad that the number of participants is increasing. If last year we received about 70 guests, now it is almost three times more. The geography of the event has also expanded, and lawyers not only from Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also from various regions of Russia, including Vladivostok and Siberia, came to Sochi. This year we deliberately made the business part capacious and expanded the informal program, giving our guests the opportunity to take part in winter sports competitions and get enjoyment on the mountain slopes. Lawyers usually work a lot and have little rest, so the balance is shifted towards informal communication, which proved to be important and effective.”

Alexey Otradnov, Commercial Director of the web-portal “Pravo.ru”:

“Last year brought together about 70 participants, now there are more than two hundred, such growth is certainly pleasing. The event has become larger, still intense and, I believe, will continue to develop and grow in the future. We see that the delegates really like the format, everyone is actively working. If we talk about the practical benefits of the event, I note that we are uniting the market. This is a unique and useful opportunity to communicate. Plus, we try to highlight the relevant: the agenda in the area of bankruptcy and litigation, everything that happens on the market in general, and give our participants the most saturated information.”

Loss includes costs of sowing and loss of profit, i.e. the profit that the buyer failed to gain due to poor quality of the seed supplied. The client filed counterclaim against the buyer to recover the debt on payment of the disputed seeds and a loan for the use of funds in the amount of 15.000.000 RUB.

The Krasnodar Region Commercial Court satisfied the farmers claim fully and dismissed the clients counterclaim.

ABYs lawyers took on the case after the Court had made a decision. We analyzed the case and prepared an appeal claim. We pointed out that the Krasnodar Region Commercial Court had no proofs of poor quality of the seed supplied, since Rosselkhoznadzor conducted two inspections and confirmed that the seeds comply with GOST standards. Thus, the Court had no reasons to believe the pre-trial examination, as it was not actually carried out, and the quality claim was filed beyond the contracts time limit, and the farmer provided no proof of losss amount and violated rules for its calculation.

The 15th Commercial Appeal court agreed with ABYs arguments, canceled the previous decision. Dismissed the buyers claim and satisfied the clients counterclaim fully.

The clients interests were represented by ABYs Senior Associate Sergey Radchenko.

Please, follow the link to watch video news of Kuban24 TV channel.

The client was involved in the trial as a third party, but subsequently became a defendant. The clients shareholder estimated the losses of 1.4 billion rubles. However, within 2.5 years the shareholder failed to provide any convincing evidence that controversial transactions had caused negative consequences to the client. The shareholders claim created significant risks for the client, as the client would have to return raw materials (received under the transaction) to the counterparty. Taking into account the market prices, it would cost about 1.4 billion RUB, which might would call into question financial and economic state of the client and caused to cease his business.

The Commercial Court of the Bashkortostan Republic agreed with our argument and dismissed the shareholders claim. The motivation of the decision on our appeal claim was adjusted by the 18th Commercial Appeal Court. The Ural District Arbitration Court upheld the said decisions.

ABYs lawyer Ekaterina Fedenko represented interests of the client in trial.

The Commercial Court of the Bashkortostan Republic agreed with our argument and dismissed the shareholders claim. The motivation of the decision on our appeal claim was adjusted by the 18th Commercial Appeal Court. The Ural District Arbitration Court upheld the said decisions.

ABYs lawyer Ekaterina Fedenko represented interests of the client in trial.

represented interests of the client in trial.

The case has been hearing in the Krasnodar Region Commercial court for almost two years. Despite the evidence presented, the court concluded that transactions damage property rights of creditors. The court recognized the deals to be imaginary and used as a cover-up of payment for defamatory publications. Thus, the court fully satisfied the claim.

However, the board of judges of the 15th Commercial Appeal court canceled the ruling of the Krasnodar Region Commercial court and dismissed claims of insolvency representative.

During the appeal consideration it was possible to prove that the disputed deals had a reimbursable and real nature, and were concluded under normal market conditions and in favour of the debtor. The Appeal court recognized that exhaustive evidence of the parties’ legal relations was left unassessed properly. The court recognized no collusion between the parties, no intentions to cause damage to the debtor, no unfair behavior (abuse of law).

As a result, the initial decision was canceled, the insolvency representative claims were refused. The client’s interests were represented by a lawyer Alexey Demekhin.

The Krasnodar Region Commercial Court fully satisfied the claim.

We took the case during appeal proceedings. We managed to prove an appeal court that the Company was managed jointly by the client and his business partner and, therefore, both shareholder can recover no losses of the Company from each other. The appeal court agreed with our arguments and reduced the amount of the clients liability from 5.4 billion RUB to 300.000 RUB.

Our opponents filed a cassation appeal against the appeal courts ruling. We participated in the court hearings in the Commercial Court of the North Caucasus District. The District Court agreed with ABYs legal position and upheld the appeal decision.

Managing partner Yuri Pustovit and Senior associate Sergey Radchenko represented the clients interests in the court of cassation.

Дело слушалось в арбитражном суде Краснодарского края почти два года. Несмотря на представленные доказательства, суд пришел к выводу, что в результате исполнения сделок причинен вред имущественным правам кредиторов. Суд оценил заключенные сделки как мнимые и прикрывающие оплату клеветнических публикаций, ввиду чего полностью удовлетворил иск.

Однако коллегия судей Пятнадцатого арбитражного апелляционного суда определение арбитражного суда Краснодарского края отменила, в удовлетворении требований управляющего отказала.

В ходе рассмотрения апелляционной жалобы удалось доказать, что оспариваемые сделки носили возмездный и реальный характер, заключены в целях реализации нормальных экономических интересов должника и на рыночных условиях. Апелляционный суд признал, что исчерпывающие доказательства фактических правоотношений сторон оставлены без надлежащей правовой оценки. Установлено отсутствие сговора между сторонами сделки, направленности на причинение ущерба должнику, недобросовестного поведения (злоупотребления правом).

В результате судебный акт отменен, в заявлении конкурсного управляющего отказано. Интересы доверителя представлял юрист Алексей Демехин.

Через некоторое время после этого была проведена налоговая проверка, которая выявила убыточность ряда операций, проведённых клиентом вместе со своим бизнес-партнёром. Ещё через некоторое время бизнес-партнёр нашего клиента от имени принадлежащего им обоим общества обратился в арбитражный суд Краснодарского края с заявлением о признании клиента банкротом и взыскании с него 5,4 млрд. руб. убытков, якобы причинённых обществу действиями клиента в ту пору, когда он был директором общества.

Арбитражный суд Краснодарского края заявление общества удовлетворил в полном объеме.

Мы вступили в дело после вынесения решения на стадии апелляции. Нам удалось убедить апелляционный суд, что клиент и его бизнес-партнёр совместно управляли обществом и, как следствие, они не могу взыскивать убытки общества друг с друга. Апелляционный суд согласился с нашей позицией и снизил сумму взысканных убытков с 5,4 млрд. до 300 000 руб.

На апелляционное постановление наши оппоненты подали кассационную жалобу. Мы непосредственно участвовали в судебных заседаниях Арбитражного суда Северо-Кавказского округа. Окружной суд согласился с разработанной нами позицией и апелляционное постановление оставил в силе.

Интересы доверителя в суде кассационной инстанции представлял управляющий партнер Юрий Пустовит и старший юрист Сергей Радченко.

Клиент обратился в Арбитражный суд Ставропольского края с иском к поставщику воды, в котором просил взыскать наложенные на клиента штрафы в качестве убытков. Поставщик предъявил клиенту встречный иск, в котором просил взыскать ущерб деловой репутации, вызванной, якобы, тем, что клиент не привлёк поставщика к участию в делах, рассмотренных Арбитражным судом Ростовской области. Решением Арбитражного суда Ставропольского края клиенту в иске отказано, иск поставщика удовлетворён. После вынесения решения суд по ходатайству поставщика принял меры по обеспечению решения и наложил арест на имущество клиента в размере взысканной суммы.

Мы вступили в дело после вынесения решения. Мы подготовили апелляционные жалобы на решение и на определение об обеспечении его исполнения. В первом же заседании по делу Шестнадцатый арбитражный апелляционный суд отменил обеспечительные меры и перешёл к рассмотрению дела по правилам первой инстанции. Затем постановлением от 24.11.2021 апелляционный суд вынес постановление, которым решение суда первой инстанции отменил, в удовлетворении первоначального и встречного исков отказал.

Интересы доверителя в апелляционном суде представляли старший юрист Сергей Радченко и юрист Екатерина Феденко.

Каждый год рейтинг развивается, исследование становится сложнее, глубже, появляются новые участники и номинации. Одним из нововведений в ранжирование стало разделение некоторых отраслей права на подгруппы: крупные споры и средние споры. Это изменение претерпела отрасль Арбитражное судопроизводство, в которой специализируется Адвокатское бюро «Юг».

По результатам рейтинга бюро номинировано:

Арбитражное судопроизводство (High market) – 1 группа

Разрешение споров в судах общей юрисдикции – 2 группа

Обьем выручки – 8 место

В этом году, несмотря на усиливающуюся конкуренцию и достойных игроков юридического рынка, Адвокатское бюро «Юг» подтвердило свой высокий уровень работы. Безусловно, в заслуженной победе и достойном месте в рейтинге есть вклад каждого сотрудника ABY.

Ознакомиться с результатами можно на сайте рейтинга по ссылке

https://300.pravo.ru/award/search/?AwardSearch%5Bawardee%5D=1&AwardSearch%5Bquery%5D=Юг

Собравшиеся обсудили различные тенденции в юриспруденции: тренды судебной практики о привлечении к уголовной ответственности за причиненные убытки при банкротстве; уголовное преследование юристов и адвокатов; развитие бизнес-медиации в России; выгоду семейных споров для юристов; выступление в суде офлайн vs онайн; работающие инструменты юридического маркетинга и прочее.

Выступление Сергея Радченко вызвало оживленный интерес у участников форума и было посвящено южной специфике: судебным делам, связанным с электроэнергетикой, взиманием штрафов за загрязнение моря, о личных банкротствах, самовольном строительстве, изъятии земель у иностранцев, захвате бизнеса и потребительском экстремизме.

Юридическая компания - Адвокатское бюро Юг

Анализ был проведен на основании присланных анкет компаний, отражающих общую взысканную сумму по результатам спора, количество решений в финальных инстанциях, полученный результат в судах и среднюю сумму спора, и изучении нескольких тысяч судебных решений, принятых арбитражными судами в течение 2020 года.

В результате аналитики разделили лидеров на юрфирмы с крупной банкротной практикой (более 30 дел в год) и бутиковые практики (10-30 дел в год).

Адвокатское бюро «Юг» также приняло участие в исследовании и вошло в третью группу из четырех федерального рейтинга компаний бутиковой практики.

Подробно с результатами рейтинга можно ознакомиться на сайте «Право.Ru» https://pravo.ru/story/235078/

Защита прогнозированием

От обсуждения возможных сценариев угрозы для бизнеса участники форума плавно перешли к способам их минимизации. Ольга Жданова, партнер INTELLECT, дала несколько советов, как защитить себя от оспаривания сделок в случае банкротства контрагента. Самое главное, по словам эксперта, — убедиться в реальности сделки. Помимо этого, важно правильно заполнять первичные документы, избегать взаимозачетов и оплат на третьи лица.

В свою очередь, Сергей Шорин руководитель группы по слияниям и поглощениям Пепеляев Групп остановился на одном универсальном механизме, который позволяет обеспечить интересы обеих сторон в сделке. Эксперт пояснил, что сводить такой инструмент как счет эскроу исключительно к долевому строительству, неправильно. Возможная сфера его применения по словам юриста гораздо шире.

- Когда продавец и покупатель не полностью доверяют друг другу, возникает подвешенное состояние: кто из них должен сделать первый шаг? Условное депонирование как раз позволяет решить эту проблему «первого шага», - добавил Сергей Шорин. - Причем, если изначально эскроу-агентом мог фактически выступать только банк, то сейчас российское законодательство не содержит такого ограничения. Независимой третьей стороной может быть, в частности, юрист, адвокат, юридическая фирма, нотариус. В Германии, к примеру, только в половине случаев эскроу-агентом выступает банк, в остальных 50 % — адвокаты и нотариусы. В России юристы, тоже могли бы оказывать дополнительную услугу своим клиентам и выступать гарантом исполнения сделок.

Имя определяет

После обсуждения всех инструментов и механизмом для помощи предпринимателям и другим клиентам, юристы перешли к дискуссии о том, как привлечь доверителя. В частности, тема заключительной сессии касалась построения личного бренда юриста.

- Строительство личного бренда напоминает строительство коммунизма: много, кто хотел, мало, у кого получилось, - провел аналогию вице-президент по работе с госорганами МТС Руслан Ибрагимов. – Кроме того, личный бренд зиждется на двух столпах – репутации и охвате. Имеют значение место работы, личные и профессиональные качества, идеи, с которыми юрист выходит к публике. Говорить о личном бренде юриста можно тогда, когда о нем знают не только коллеги по цеху.

В самом начале дискуссии участники пришли к выводу, что продукт – первичен. И важно, чтобы упаковка, которую юрист продвигает соответствовала внутреннему содержанию.

Советник Allen & Overy Андрей Панов отметил, что посты в соцсетях и упоминания в СМИ – это лишь проекция.

- И, если она не будет соответствовать реальности, юридический рынок об этом рано или поздно узнает, - заметил эксперт.

Управляющий партнер White Collar Strategy Иван Апатов предположил, что личный бренд юриста – это то, как он справляется с любыми, в том числе, кризисными ситуациям.

На то, что выстраивать личный бренд нужно аккуратно, в своем выступлении указала и Наталья Тотахеваге, директор по юридическим вопросам Abbott Laboratories. - Порой лучше делать маленькие осознанные усилия или даже взять паузу, нежели бесконтрольно пытаться выразить себя в разных ипостасях, – подчеркнула она.

- Все право - это одна большая система распределения рисков между разными субъектами. А мы, как юристы, должны эти риски анализировать и сводить их к нулю там, где это возможно, - подчеркнул, говоря об итогах форума Юрий Пустовит.

Он также отметил, что именно то, как это нужно делать, подробно разобрали участники Юридического форума Юга России 2021. А значит вернутся к работе они с новыми идеями и массой примеров уникальных кейсов.

Завершила форум парусная регата, где участники форума разделились на команды и оттачивали свое мастерство хождения под парусом. Победителей чествовали медалями и шампанским.

В ходе рассмотрения дел судом первой инстанции были допущены грубейшие процессуальные нарушения: наш доверитель не был надлежаще извещен о судебных заседаниях, о состоявшихся решениях и о самом наличии судебных дел наш клиент узнал лишь, когда истцы предъявили в банк исполнительные листы для списания взысканных судом денежных средств. Помимо этого, судом не было назначено проведение судебных экспертиз, в основу же решений были положены крайне сомнительные заключения специалистов, которые истцы проводили за свой счет до обращения в суд. Также истцами был применен судебный туризм в один из районов Краснодарского края.

В ходе рассмотрения дел в Краснодарском краевом суде наши оппоненты, путем злоупотребления процессуальными правами, всячески пытались добиться приостановления производства по делам, затягивали процесс. Несмотря на это, нам удалось добиться рассмотрения апелляционных жалоб по существу. Суд апелляционной инстанции согласился с доводами наших жалоб, решения по всем трем делам были отменены, по делам приняты новые решения, согласно которым, истцам было отказано в удовлетворении исковых требований в полном объеме.

Интересы клиента в суде представляли юрист Захар Хребтов, старший юрист Сергей Радченко.

В конкурсе принимают участие профессионалы, которые добились значимых успехов в разных отраслях: науке и образовании, медицине и искусстве, бизнесе и управлении. Конкурс сопровождается медиа проектом «Триумф: история успеха» - в течение года, пока идет отбор финалистов, на страницах еженедельника «Юг Times» и на сайте издания публикуются статьи о карьере, стремлениях и ценностях номинантов.

Церемония награждения победителей конкурса «Триумф 2020-21» состоялась в Краснодарском академическом театре драмы им. М. Горького.

В номинации «Юриспруденция» награду получил юрист Алексей Демехин.

Управляющий партнер Адвокатского бюро «Юг» Юрий Пустовит рекомендован изданием в качестве лучшего юриста с 2016 года в таких отраслях юриспруденции, как Арбитраж и медиация, энергетика и природные ресурсы, землепользование и зонирование, судебные споры.

Старший юрист Адвокатского бюро «Юг» Сергей Радченко является участником рейтинга с 2020 года и признается лучшим в таких сферах закона, как судебные споры и сделки с недвижимостью.

Подробнее результатами публикации можно ознакомиться непосредственно на странице справочника: https://www.bestlawyers.com/russia/krasnodar/litigation

Награждения состоялось на праздновании Дня российской адвокатуры 12 июня. Торжественное мероприятие проходило в большом зале Кубанского казачьего хора. На празднование были приглашены адвокаты Краснодарского края.

Наше бюро в данном деле представляло интересы завода и поставщика. Мы разработали для наших доверителей правовую позицию и представляли их интересы в суде первой инстанции. Мы обратили внимание суда на то, что в данном деле нет оснований для признания сделок недействительными, поскольку они не являются крупными, по этим сделкам не происходило отчуждение собственного имущества завода; для признания их недействительными как сделок с заинтересованностью нет обязательного признака ущерба, все сделки экономически выгодны заводу, так как экономят ему деньги по покупку сырья, кроме того, завод получает по ним агентское вознаграждение, перечисленные заводом поставщику 1,4 млрд. руб. – это деньги, полученные заводом от реализации принадлежащей поставщику металлопродукции, как следствие, это деньги не завода, а поставщика.

Арбитражный суд Республики Башкортостан согласился с нашей позицией и решением от 1.06.2021 в иске отказал в полном объёме.

Интересы обоих доверителей представляли старший юрист Сергей Радченко и юрист Екатерина Феденко.

Краснодар, 26 мая – Юг Times, Елена Иванова.

Адвокатуре удалось стать одной из самых независимых и самодостаточных сфер деятельности, которая регулируется без помощи сторонних сил.

31 мая в России - День адвокатуры. В этот день в 2002 году был принят федеральный закон, регламентирующий деятельность адвокатов. Профессия развивается и совершенствуется, и с каждым годом все сложнее представить без ее участия работу бизнеса, инвесторов, их отношения между собой и властью. О том, что принесут некоторые новые законы, касающиеся экономики, каковы сегодня возможности для развития у только начинающих осваиваться в профессии и меняется ли отношение общества к ней - в интервью «Юг Times».

ЮРИЙ ПУСТОВИТ, управляющий партнер Адвокатского бюро «Юг».

- Юрий Павлович, сейчас готовится реформа процедуры банкротства. Как вы оцениваете изменения? Для кого процедура станет совершеннее - для компаний, судов? Какие изменения, необходимые по вашему мнению, не были приняты?

- Любопытно, что вы свой первый вопрос задали о банкротстве. Боюсь, коротко на него ответить будет очень сложно, а если говорить подробно, потребуется несколько таких интервью, чтобы описать суть реформы. Предложенные изменения затрагивают практически все статьи законодательства о банкротстве. Изменения касаются процесса банкротства с отказом от неэффективных процедур и назначения арбитражных управляющих, что повышает конкуренцию между ними.

Реформа затрагивает и множество иных аспектов. На мой взгляд, основная проблема банкротных производств в России заключается в том, что ни одно из них не приводит к финансовому оздоровлению должника и его возвращению к нормальной хозяйственной деятельности, а неизбежно ведет к открытию конкурсного производства, реализации имущества и последующей ликвидации должника. В предложенном законопроекте есть много полезных предложений, но дождемся, в каком виде он будет принят, и, конечно же, главным мерилом его эффективности станет судебная практика.

ПОРЯДОК НА ПОБЕРЕЖЬЕ

- Для региона немаловажно готовящееся изменение в правовом статусе апартаментов, на кубанском Черноморском побережье много такой недвижимости. Как вы оцениваете нововведения, что они принесут владельцам апартаментов, застройщикам?

- Государство на протяжении многих лет ведет борьбу с точечной многоэтажной застройкой, а также стремится создать комфортную среду для проживания и обезопасить интересы граждан, вкладывающих средства в такое строительство. Так вот, строительство апартаментов - это такой изящный способ эти устремления помножить на ноль. Изначально идея Минстроя была в том, чтобы узаконить уже построенные апартаменты и запретить возведение новых, но внесенный законопроект создает правовые основания для подобного строительства в будущем, введя понятие «многофункциональное здание», где наряду с нежилыми помещениями смогут располагаться и жилые. На мой взгляд, единственным обоснованным видом использования апартаментов должно быть приобретение номера в гостиничном комплексе с возможностью как его сдачи в аренду в числе остальных номеров отеля, так и временного проживания его собственника. Такая практика не будет носить массового характера ввиду высокой стоимости, включающей в себя оплату пользования всей инфраструктурой отеля, не говоря уже о последующей высокой стоимости содержания подобной недвижимости. То есть это не станет способом экономии на строительстве полноценного жилья. Что касается нашего региона, то нам особенно важно строительство качественных отелей в прибрежной зоне с большой территорией и инфраструктурой вместо массовой застройки побережья многоэтажным жильем.

- Если говорить о Черноморском побережье края, существует расхожее мнение, что именно на этой территории законы работают хуже всего, а бизнес подчиняется скорее местным традициям. Наблюдаете ли вы это?

- Нет, я с таким утверждением не согласен. То, что я вижу на протяжении многих лет, - муниципальные, краевые и федеральные власти пытаются привести в порядок и единый облик застройку Черноморского побережья. Огромное количество объектов недвижимости, построенных с нарушением градостроительных норм, было снесено, получить разрешение на новое строительство очень непростая задача, и связана она во многом с планированием территорий и пониманием того, что действительно необходимо построить в данном месте, созданием единого архитектурного облика, социальной инфраструктуры. В Краснодарском крае сосредоточены интересы всех регионов страны, наблюдается высокая экономическая активность, следствием которой является высокое количество судебных споров. Если я не ошибаюсь, то по количеству рассмотренных судебных дел мы находимся на втором месте в России, нагрузка на судей колоссальная. С таким количеством дел, безусловно, случаются и ошибки, но я бы не сказал, что у нас все настолько плохо, как вы говорите. Напротив, порой в иных регионах мы сталкиваемся с такими нарушениями, что я могу открыто сказать, что в нашем крае уже подобное беззаконие невозможно.

ЖИЗНЬ ЮРИДИЧЕСКАЯ

- Вы оказываете помощь бизнесу. В то же время адвокатские бюро и сами - участники рынка. В этой связи на каком уровне сегодня в крае находится деятельность адвокатских контор, достаточно ли организационно-правовых условий для их качественной работы и развития?

- Ответ на этот вопрос тоже может составить отдельное интервью, но постараюсь изложить кратко. К примеру, наша компания основана в ноябре 1995 года, а с принятием закона об адвокатуре в 2002 году была выбрана форма адвокатского бюро, в которой мы работаем и по настоящий день. Этой форме присущи как достоинства, так и недостатки. В целом к основным минусам существующих форм адвокатских образований я бы отнес недостаточную правовую регламентацию для командной работы, как единая фирма. Тем не менее, это не является препятствием для тех коллег, которые хотят развивать себя как команда единомышленников. В крае работает большое количество высокопрофессиональных адвокатов, которые, как правило, ведут индивидуальную практику. Большинство адвокатов не стремятся к публичности и известны лишь в узком кругу коллег, но ситуация меняется и с каждым годом многие из них открываются рынку, участвуют в рейтингах и заявляют о себе, что не может не оцениваться положительно клиентами. Что касается нашего бюро, то для нас в новом сотруднике важны профессионализм, специализация, опыт, доверие, взаимное уважение и стремление к справедливому балансу между профессией и личной жизнью. У нас довольно длинный и насыщенный рабочий день, много командировок по стране и за ее пределы, поэтому мне всегда сложно беспокоить коллег в выходной день с новыми поручениями и проектами, хотя это случается довольно часто. Более того, порой, приезжая в офис в выходной или праздничный день, чтобы закончить работу, я регулярно вижу своих коллег на рабочих местах, что говорит об их высокой трудоспособности и любви к профессии. Мы всегда открыты для новых сотрудников, и основным критерием для них будет наличие тех ценностей, о которых я сказал выше, однако у нас практически нет текучки и открытие вакансии для нас - нечто экстраординарное.

- Вообще сегодня в адвокатуре достаточно условий для роста новых высококвалифицированных кадров?

- Адвокат - это свободная профессия с огромным количеством вызовов. Преодолев барьер в виде сдачи квалификационного экзамена и присвоения статуса адвоката, открываешь все двери для роста и реализации в профессии, где все зависит прежде всего от тебя. Адвокатская палата Краснодарского края на регулярной основе бесплатно проводит курсы повышения квалификации, приглашает именитых лекторов, в том числе из Москвы. Тот, кто хочет расти и развиваться в профессии, найдет множество способов это сделать, равно как и тот, кому это неинтересно, - множество причин этого не делать.

- Краевой суд говорит о все возрастающей нагрузке на судей, а в адвокатской деятельности имеет место такой показатель? Ощущается ли недостаток профессионалов?

- У клиентов с каждым годом действительно растет количество запросов на юридическую работу. Однако за последние годы очень сильно профессионально подросли штатные юристы клиентов и стали делать более сложную работу своими руками, отбирая ее у адвокатов. Также непрекращающиеся экономические потрясения стимулируют клиентов к экономии. Поэтому, к сожалению, возросшая нагрузка на суды не в полной мере передается адвокатам, но профессиональные адвокаты, безусловно, всегда востребованы и у них высокая загрузка.

ЗНАК КАЧЕСТВА

- Количество выигранных дел - это исчерпывающий критерий для оценки успешности адвоката?

- Нет, конечно. Ведь выигранное дело ничего не говорит о его сложности, роли адвоката в этой победе. Кроме того, необходимо понять, что такое выигранное дело. Если с клиента взыскивают миллиард, а в результате твоей работы взыскали сто миллионов, то это выигрыш или поражение? Я сторонник качественных характеристик оценки успешности адвоката: профессионализм, знание права и судебной практики, понимание бизнеса клиента, государственный взгляд на проблему, знание местной специфики, выстраивание безупречной тактики ведения дела, формирование команды и др.

- Адвокатура тоже подчинятся профильному закону. Комфортен ли существующий сегодня закон об адвокатской деятельности и адвокатуре, чувствуют ли адвокаты себя свободными в осуществлении рабочих задач?

- Существующий закон вполне комфортен для осуществления адвокатской деятельности. За время его действия в него неоднократно вносились изменения и дополнения, чтобы сделать эту работу еще более комфортной. Для меня адвокат - это самая свободная профессия, где ты можешь реализовать себя в полной мере и выбирать себе тех клиентов и те практики, в которых хочешь реализоваться. Но, разумеется, эта свобода не безгранична, она заканчивается там, где ты нарушаешь закон об адвокатуре или кодекс профессиональной этики адвоката, а здесь уже включаются механизмы саморегулирования в лице квалификационных комиссий и советов адвокатских палат. Адвокатура самодостаточна и очищается от недостойных кадров без привлечения к этому сторонних органов, что очень важно для сохранения нашей независимости.

- Если говорить о доступности юридической помощи и защиты в целом, не складывается ли ситуация, когда такая услуга становится чем-то элитарным, как хорошая медицина или образование?

- Для обеспечения доступности юридической помощи законом предусмотрен круг лиц, которым юристы помогают бесплатно. Ежегодно на эти цели из бюджета выделяется огромное количество денег, на мой взгляд, этого достаточно и нет необходимости выдумывать что-то новое. Для всех остальных есть адвокаты с самым широким диапазоном ставок, думаю, каждый найдет для себя вариант по вкусу и кошельку. Лично мое мнение: работа высокопрофессионального адвоката не может стоить дешево, и клиент, обращающийся к такому адвокату, должен быть к этому готов. Вообще, в нашей стране культура платить юристам и адвокатам еще очень молодая, в отличие от Запада, где по определению все понимают, что услуги адвоката не могут стоить дешево.

КРАЕУГОЛЬНОЕ ПРАВО ЭКОНОМИКИ

- Бизнес-омбудсмен Борис Титов говорил о том, что власти на всех уровнях злоупотребляют законами в судах с бизнесом об имуществе (особенно понятиями «срок исковой давности» и «самострой»). Насколько острой вы видите эту проблему? Есть ли в вашей практике подобные случаи?

- Да, к сожалению, эта проблема существует, особенно когда с иском выходит прокуратура или органы муниципальной власти. Нередко им эти сроки восстанавливают или выносят решения об удовлетворении их требований, невзирая на заявление ответчиков о пропуске сроков исковой давности. На мой взгляд, необходимо ужесточить защиту частной собственности и не допускать лишения собственности без компенсации ее рыночной стоимости собственнику и привлечения виновных в создавшейся спорной ситуации чиновников к ответственности. В противном случае запись в реестре о наличии у вас частной собственности в любой момент может быть поставлена под сомнение, что делает владение непредсказуемым, а инвестиции в недвижимость - высокорискованными.

- Сейчас в крае набирает популярность идея медиации. Например, в сфере агробизнеса уже есть определенное соглашение о способствовании такому механизму урегулирования споров. По вашему мнению, насколько бизнес, его владельцы сегодня готовы к такому способу налаживания отношений? Как вы в целом относитесь к институту медиации?

- Мое отношение к этому не лишено скепсиса. За более 10 лет действия закона о медиации неизвестно ни одного значимого спора, разрешенного посредством применения альтернативной процедуры урегулирования спора, также за это время она не приняла массового характера. Из моего опыта, клиенты приходят в суд, исчерпав все возможные способы иного урегулирования спора, когда они не могут и уже не хотят договориться друг с другом. Дешевизна и скорость судопроизводства в России стимулирует стороны судиться, но не искать альтернативные пути урегулирования спора. Рост государственной пошлины за обращение в суд и взыскание с проигравшей стороны всех судебных расходов, включая расходы на оплату работы адвокатов в полном объеме, будет способствовать развитию альтернативных способов урегулирования споров.

РЕГИОН ВЫБИРАЮТ

- Вы сопровождаете крупные инвестпроекты. Насколько вы можете судить, заметно ли снизилась инвестиционная активность в крае в условиях пандемии?

- Падение экономических показателей, наложение санкций и коронавирусные ограничения неизбежно влияют на инвестиционную деятельность, несмотря на все усилия краевых властей по ее поддержанию. Тем не менее, наш регион является одним из наиболее благополучных и на 6-м месте в России по объему привлеченных инвестиций. В крае представлено большое количество иностранного бизнеса, построившего заводы с полным циклом локализации производства, с привлечением местных поставщиков. Ряд инвесторов, несмотря на санкции и экономические потрясения, не сократили и не изменили свои планы по расширению и модернизации существующего бизнеса. Одной из ключевых проблем инвестиций в капитальное строительство действительно является отсутствие электрических и газовых мощностей в нужном количестве в необходимом месте. Наш край в этом плане является энергодефицитным, что, однако, также свидетельствует об экономической привлекательности региона, поскольку такой дефицит вызван именно высоким спросом, связанным с капитальным строительством производства. Есть регионы в нашей стране, где такие мощности есть в избытке, но бизнес туда не идет, поскольку иные показатели нашего края многократно лучше.

- Юридическое сообщество, в том числе ваше бюро, уже заявило о том, что в 2021 году компании встанут перед большим количеством рисков, в том числе таким как шквал новых законов и пересмотр налоговых соглашений. Это уже наблюдается?

- Бизнесу в нашей стране не привыкать к постоянно меняющимся правилам игры, и это проблема, о которой говорят в юридическом сообществе на протяжении многих лет. Что касается пересмотра налоговых соглашений, то это последовательная работа по национализации элит, стремление к обложению доходов в нашей стране на те капиталы, которые ранее выводились по ставке в 5% в офшоры. Уже пересмотрены соглашения с наиболее популярными юрисдикциями - Кипром, Нидерландами, Швейцарией, Мальтой.

От наших клиентов я все чаще слышу при структурировании сделок пожелания о том, чтобы такая структура была прозрачной и непременно в российской юрисдикции. Одной из причин подобного является требование к допуску финансирования отечественными госбанками. Это хорошо для бюджета страны.

С полным текстом интервью так же можно ознакомиться по ссылке https://yugtimes.com/news/68901/

Для участия в исследовании фирмы должны были предоставить данные по количеству дел, сумме по всем делам в миллионах рублей, среднюю сумму иска. Классификация компаний федерального рынка разделилась в зависимости от количества дел за 2020. Были выделены два ранга: 1- от 30 дел и выше, 2 – от 10 до 30 дел. В региональном рейтинге такой градации не проводилось.

Адвокатское бюро “Юг” вошло в региональный рейтинг судебных юристов и заняло место в первой группе. Подробно можно ознакомиться с результатами на сайте юридического портала “Право.ru” https://300.pravo.ru/news/231718/?rating_desc_chrono_2_1

Мы обратили внимание суда на то, что все оспариваемые прокурором постановления законны по существу, участок был первоначально сформирован в соответствии с требованиями земельного и градостроительного законодательства, все последующие сделки с участком, а затем и с выделенными из него участками законны, граждане-покупатели являются добросовестными приобретателями, прекращение их прав на участки невозможно, оснований для снятия их с учёта нет.

Решением Азовского городского суда от 6.10.2020 г. иск удовлетворён в полном объёме. На это решение мы подали апелляционную жалобу. Определением Ростовского областного суда от 21.04.2021 г. решение отменено, в иске отказано.

Интересы доверителя в судах первой и апелляционной инстанций представлял старший юрист Сергей Радченко.

Очередной такой турнир должен был состояться в Сочи, однако, ввиду пандемии. были введены ограничения на въезд в страну и запрет на проведение массовых мероприятий.

Компания пыталась безуспешно возвратить денежные средства, предварительно уплаченные за услуги по организации турнира и размещению гостей. Российский партнер ссылался на недоказанность форс-мажора применительно к отношениям сторон, а также на предусмотренные договором штрафные санкции.

Необоснованность возражений ответчика удалось доказать в короткий срок в суде. Решением арбитражного суда Краснодарского края от 29.04.2021 иск был удовлетворен.

Интересы доверителя представлял юрист Алексей Демехин.

Индивидуальные рекомендации в направлении Предпринимательское право получили управляющий партнер Юрий Пустовит (1 группа) и старший юрист Сергей Радченко (2 группа).

Клиенты высоко оценивают нацеленность на результат юристов Адвокатского бюро «Юг», отмечая что юристы бюро находят лучшие решения.

По результатам опроса источников, организаторы рейтинга отмечают, что Юрий Пустовит широко известен на рынке своим выдающимся мастерством в коммерческих судебных разбирательствах и спорах с государственными органами. Впечатленный клиент подчеркивает его подход, ориентированный на достижение поставленной цели.

Рейтинг отмечает, что профессиональная практика Сергея Радченко охватывает множество корпоративных и коммерческих споров. Собеседник сообщает, что у него «нестандартный подход и интересные решения», а другой источник отмечает: «Он соединяет теоретическую и практическую стороны».

Рейтинг Chambers Europe проводится каждый год в течение уже около 30 лет. Юристы и юридические фирмы ранжируются по нескольким параметрам, каждый из которых изучается исследовательской группой. Никакой системы баллов у Chambers нет. Решающее значение имеет степень удовлетворенности клиентов, учитываются технические навыки, разнообразие опыта, стабильность команды и коммерческий подход. Исследование, длящееся год, включает в себя интервью с теми, кто активно работает на рынке - в основном с клиентами и другими юристами, а также оценку проделанной в последнее время работы.

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По результатам рейтинга 2021 года Адвокатское бюро «Юг» признано одной из лучших юридических компаний в России и получило рекомендации в 2 практиках и 2 персональных рекомендациях.

В категории «Лучшие юридические практики» Адвокатское бюро «Юг» получило рекомендации:

- Арбитражное судопроизводство: разрешение коммерческих споров: mid-market, региональный рейтинг, Band 1;

- Разрешение споров в судах общей юрисдикции: споры из имущественных отношений, региональный рейтинг.

В «Индивидуальном рейтинге юристов» управляющий партнер Юрий Пустовит получил рекомендации в категориях Разрешение коммерческих споров (региональный рейтинг) и Разрешение споров в судах общей юрисдикции (региональный рейтинг).

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Мы разработали для клиента правовую позицию и представляли его интересы в суде. Мы обратили внимание суда на то, что у истца нет законного интереса в признании договора недействительным, он не доказал как оспариваемый им договор нарушает его права, предметы договора с истцом и с вторым подрядчиком не совпадают, оспариваемая сделка исполнена клиентом и вторым подрядчиком в полном объёме, предъявление иска является попыткой истца произвольно вмешаться в чужие частные дела, что нарушает основные начала гражданского законодательства.

Решением арбитражного суда Краснодарского края от 28.09.2020 г. в иске отказано. Постановлением Пятнадцатого арбитражного апелляционного суда от 14.12.2020 г. решение оставлено в силе. Поданная истцом кассационная жалоба отклонена постановлением арбитражного суда Северо-Кавказского округа от 4.03.2021 г.

Интересы доверителя в судах всех инстанций представлял старший юрист Сергей Радченко.

Юрий Пустовит Арбитражное судопроизводство, 1 группа;

Сергей Радченко Арбитражное судопроизводство, 1 группа.

Проектная методология исследования основана на наиболее значимых проектах, указанных в анкете, за период исследования с сентября 2019 года по сентябрь 2020-го по 29 отраслям права. Юристы, попавшие в «рекомендованные», должны были в деловом сезоне–2020 играть ключевую роль в проектах, получивших наиболее высокую оценку в рамках рейтинга.

В кассационной жалобе в обоснование отмены решения суда мы ссылалась на неправомерный отказ суда в назначении по делу судебной землеустроительной и строительно-технической экспертизы, необоснованность вывода суда об отсутствии прав на земельный участок у нашего доверителя, недоказанность истцом факта нарушения его прав, кроме того, мы указали на то, что снос строения является крайней мерой и суд должен был в любом случае рассмотреть возможность частичного сохранения здания, что также не было сделано.

Четвертый кассационный суд общей юрисдикции согласился с доводами нашей кассационной жалобы, судебные постановления первой и апелляционной инстанции были отменены и дело направлено на новое рассмотрение.

Интересы клиента в суде представлял юрист Хребтов Захар.

Основной темой встречи стал внушительный список угроз, которые могут ожидать бизнес в 2021 году. В рамках деловой программы было проведено две сессии, чтобы рассмотреть основные триггеры, которые могут привести компании к правовым нарушениям и, как следствие, судебным тяжбам.

В ходе конференции эксперты проанализировали вопросы структурирования бизнеса при пандемии и цунами новых законодательных актов после карантина, новые правила контроля за операциями с наличными и налоговыми оптимизациями.

Модератор первой сессии, старший юрист «Адвокатское бюро ЮГ» Сергей Радченко, открывая конференцию, призвал коллег к профессиональному и открытому диалогу.

— Сегодня предпринимателям как никогда важно очень ответственно относиться к своему делу и заключаемым договорам, так как риски, связанные с банковской и налоговой системами, очень часто приводят к судебным тяжбам, которых в принципе можно было бы избежать, — отметил Сергей Радченко.

В ходе дискуссии эксперты пришли к общему мнению, что бизнес может быть привлечен к ответственности из-за небольших недоработок, но, тем не менее, санкции будут применены те же, что и при серьезных правонарушениях, например, таких, как легализация преступных доходов. Кроме того, юристы отметили, что абсолютное большинство уголовных дел против предпринимателей завершаются в их пользу, но длятся достаточно долго и являются неким способом давления на бизнес.

Чтобы помочь бизнес-сообществу просчитать все возможные риски, и была проведена конференция, организатор которой, коммерческий директор Право.ru Алексей Отраднов, отметил важность профессионального нетворкинга.

— Учитывая количество новостей в законодательной сфере, мы подобрали контент таким образом, чтобы на одной площадке смогли встретиться юристы корпоративного сектора и консультанты. Потому что именно им важно всегда заранее распознать все риски и найти пути решения, — рассказал организатор Алексей Отраднов.

Подробнее о том, что обсуждалось на юридической конференции, читайте в ближайшем номере «Юг Times».

Юридическая защита бизнеса - «Адвокатское бюро ЮГ»

ПРОГРАММА МЕРОПРИЯТИЯ

11 ФЕВРАЛЯ, ДЕНЬ ПЕРВЫЙ, НЕФОРМАЛЬНАЯ ПРОГРАММА

Сочи, Краснополянский район, село Медовеевка

15:00 Экскурсия с дегустацией в горную пивоварню Endemic Mountain Brewery

Endemic Mountain Brewery – российская ремесленная пивоварня, расположенная в горах на высоте 700 метров над уровнем моря в непосредственной близости от национального парка и заповедника.

На экскурсии расскажут о производстве и в варочном цехе покажут, как и из чего варится горное пиво, продемонстрируют все этапы производства. И, конечно же, проведут подробную дегустацию семи сортов пива прямо из кранов с закусками собственного производства.

12 ФЕВРАЛЯ, ДЕНЬ ВТОРОЙ, ДЕЛОВАЯ ПРОГРАММА

ЮРИДИЧЕСКИЕ РИСКИ БИЗНЕСА В 2020-2021 ГОДУ

Сочи, Красная Поляна

09:30 – 10:00 Регистрация. Приветственное игристое

10:00 – 11:30 Сессия 1. Ключевые юридические риски бизнеса в 2021 году

Приветственное слово: Владимир Груздев, председатель правления, Ассоциация юристов России

Новые правила игры в сфере банковского контроля за операциями компаний

Налоговая оптимизация с учетом последних законодательных изменений: рекомендации экспертов

Комплаенс сделок. Топ-5 юридических рекомендаций для снижения рисков при совершении сделок

Вывод активов: типичные схемы и способы противодействия

Оспаривания корпоративных решений и сделок общества конечным бенефициаром

Участники сессии:

Юрий Пустовит, управляющий партнер, Адвокатское бюро «Юг»

Евгения Червец, адвокат, руководитель офиса в Москве, Коллегия адвокатов «Регионсервис»

Владимир Ефремов, партнер, руководитель практики разрешения споров, Юридическая фирма «Арбитраж.ру»

Юлия Филиппова, исполнительный директор по юридическим вопросам, Avon

Сергей Качков, руководитель юридического управления, НТВ-Плюс

Александр Федоров, начальник отдела по работе с несостоятельными должниками, РУСАЛ

11:30 – 12:00 Кофе-брейк

12:00 – 14:00 Сессия 2. Ответственность собственников бизнеса: банкротство, субсидиарная и уголовная ответственность

Инициирование банкротства должника в условиях нечетких данных

Оспаривание семейных сделок должника: практика 2020-2021

Субсидиарная ответственность бенефициаров и акционеров компании: ключевые тенденции, прогнозы и практика

Анализ риска ответственности наследников за убытки, которые наследодатель причинил кредиторам (по мотивам Практики ВС РФ по делу N А04-7886/2016)

Уголовно-правовые риски при исполнении контрактов, заключённых в рамках 44, 223, 275-ФЗ. Теория VS практика, кейсанализ

Участники сессии:

Сергей Ковалев, управляющий партнер, Коллегия адвокатов «Ковалев, Тугуши и партнеры»

Роман Воронин, управляющий партнер, Адвокатское бюро «РИ-Консалтинг»

Максим Стрижак, управляющий партнер, Юридическая группа «Стрижак и партнеры»

Майя Чудутова, партнер, руководитель практики сопровождения банковской деятельности и банкротств, адвокат, Юридическая группа «Яковлев и партнеры»

Сергей Кислов, партнер, Коллегия адвокатов «Ковалев, Тугуши и партнеры»

Виктор Домшенко, руководитель отдела судебной защиты, Почта России

Сергей Радченко, старший юрист, Адвокатское бюро «Юг»

14:00 Ланч в отеле Radisson Rosa Khutor

16:30 Презентация Клуба Право.ru-300 в​ гриль-баре «Коготь»

Атмосфера уединенного дома-шале в охотничьем стиле, невероятные пейзажи и виды на горы, открывающиеся прямо с веранды ресторана, компания коллег-единомышленников, а также возможность поделиться своими идеями о развитии клубного юридического сообщества.

13 ФЕВРАЛЯ, ДЕНЬ ТРЕТИЙ, НЕФОРМАЛЬНАЯ ПРОГРАММА

Сочи, Красная Поляна

09:30 Спортивные развлечения в рамках Winter Legal Week

Сафари на снегоходах с великолепными панорамами на хребет «Аибга», гору «Ачишхо», пихтовые и буковые леса. На маршруте запланированы две остановки, где можно сделать захватывающие дух фотографии на фоне могущественных Кавказских гор, а также познакомиться с северными оленями и хаски.

Регистрация внизу страницы Pravo.ru

Клиент обратился в суд с заявлением, в котором просил признать постановление незаконным по четырем основаниям: отсутствие полномочий у лица, привлекшего к ответственности клиента, отсутствие надлежащего извещения о времени и месте составления протокола и постановления, в действиях клиента отсутствует событие вмененного правонарушения, клиентом предприняты все возможны меры для недопущения, вмененного ему правонарушения.

Арбитражный суд Республики Башкортостан с нашими доводами согласился. Решением суда от 26.12.2020 заявление клиента было удовлетворено, суд признал постановление незаконным и отменил его полностью.

Интересы клиента представлял юрист Екатерина Феденко.