On 4 October 2017 in St Petersburg, Maxima Legal together with GSL Law & Consulting arranged a joint business seminar titled ‘De-offshorisation in Russia and abroad: summary of 2016-2017 and prospects for 2018’.

The seminar included an analysis of recent changes to legislation and a review of the prospects in the coming year.  Speakers talked about legislation and the development of court practice, paying particular attention to the exchange of information, trends in the application of double tax treaties and the structuring of international companies in the current legislative environment.

Elena Kilinkarova, PhD, Counsel and Head of the Tax department at Maxima Legal gave a presentation on the topic of ‘De-offshorisation in Russia – Summary 2016-2017’, in which she discussed tax legislation of the past two years, bills that are currently being discussed in the Russian Parliament as well as developments in international contracts involving Russia.  Further to this, Elena drew attention to recent changes in the development of court practice in cross-border disputes with an emphasis on the understanding of the concept of ‘beneficial owner’.

Alexander Alekseyev, Managing Partner at GSL Law & Consulting, discussed in detail the exchange of information in tax matters.  Ilya Shtromvasser, Partner of the Tax department at GSL Law & Consulting, considered the prospects for de-offshorisation for 2017 and 2018.

The seminar concluded with an open discussion and a Q&A session with questions being put to the panel by attendees.

International independent ranking agency, IFLR 1000, which specialises in the analysis of the international market for legal services in the sphere of financial and corporate law has published the results of its research for 2018.

The ratings have again recognised the work of Maxima Legal is the practice of ‘Restructuring and insolvency’ and ‘M&A’, and also commended the firm’s PPP practice, after PPP practices were included in the research for the first time in 2018.

The rating agency conducts an analysis of the work of law firms on the basis of published information from participants as well as reviews from clients. For more than 25 years, the IFLR1000 Financial and Corporate guide has been a guide of leading international law firms and lawyers who specialise in finance and corporate law. The research covers more than 2,500 firms in 120 jurisdictions. More information about the rankings can be found at the following site: www.iflr1000.com

For information on Maxima Legal’s rankings by IFLR 1000, please see the following website. 

For information about the 2018 rankings as a whole, see the following site.

On 28 September 2017, in Moscow as part of the international exhibition of franchises, BUYBRAND EXPO 2017, and the international forum, Franchising in Russia, a 'legal battle' was organised with one of the participants and speakers being Senior Associate from Maxima Legal and specialist in the IP/IT Practice, Maxim Ali.

The format was a mock trial introduced by the organisers BUYBRAND, which allowed for cases to be taken apart in the format of a role-playing game. The topics for the moot trials were: the enforcing of a franchise agreement and its early termination, recovery of debts and money paid to a franchisor. Mock trials covered both 'product franchises', for representatives of retail, and 'service franchises', dealing with the provision of services to consumers. The audience received practical recommendations on what to look for when buying a franchise and signing an agreement in order to reduce the risks of possible litigation.

For a full copy of the forum's programme, please see the following link.

On 28 September 2017 in St Petersburg the fourth Forum of business in the North-West region organised by business journal Upravleniye Biznesa took place.  Maxim Avrashkov, Managing Partner at Maxima Legal, attended the event.

At the forum, the results of the annual research conducted by analytical centre of Upravleniye Biznesa of the 200 most profitable companies in the North-West region were unveiled.  The results showed serious changes taking place in industry which have been influencing the stable development of the economy in the North-West region.

The event included a panel discussion titled 'The new economic reality.  How to provide quality growth of business?', the participants of which discussed the effectiveness of regional investment policies, experiences in development and strategic priorities for businesses in the North-West region.  The event also included an analysis of the results of anti-crisis measures, the current economic situation, financial projects and the creation of a business friendly environment. Participants considered the opportunities that have been opened up by the new economic reality and international experience in supporting the development of a business friendly environment. 

Maxim Avrashkov talked about public-private partnership being a driver for the development of the economy of the North-West region, in light of the economic prerequisites for PPP, the alternatives and reasons for choosing PPPs in comparison with other forms of private co-financing of public infrastructure and the road map of an "infrastructure mortgage".

Maxima listed a number of main problems suffered by PPP: problems with legislation and the court system, the weak interest of private banks in PPP projects, the lack of regional experience in project management and the lack of trust between private business and government.

Managing Partner at Maxima Legal also talked about the prospects for the development of public-private partnerships, underlining that PPP should become a key driver for economic growth in St Petersburg, the North-West region and the country as a whole.

Maxima Legal has been instructed by the Institute Stroiproekt as the legal adviser to prepare a large-scale concession project in the Altai region for the construction of a toll road made up of a bypass and bridge over the river Ob in the city of Barnaul.

The project will be made up of three parts, the first and third parts include the construction and operating of a concession for a modern 41.4 kilometre motorway, a number of bridges including a large bridge over the river Ob, a number of viaducts, animal walkways and other artificial structures with a total length of 6 km, as well as a road maintenance company. The second part involves the construction of a second section of the highway funded from the regional budget. Construction of the motorway will be the largest investment project in the Altai region in modern history.