St. Petersburg lawyers summed up the year with Kommersant Publishing House

On 18 December 2013, the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University hosted St. Petersburg legal and business elite. The meeting between lawyers, who represented the leading Russian and international consulting firms and regional businesses, and key public authorities was held in form of the 5th anniversary forum, 2013 RESULTS IN LEGAL SPHERE: LAWS AND BUSINESS, sponsored by the Kommersant Publishing House.

Aleksey Chichkanov, Executive Vice President at Gazprombank, and Maksim Efimov, General Director of the Kommersant Publishing House in St Petersburg acted as moderators at the meeting.

According to the sponsors, Kommersant's annual legal forum is aimed at "the development of a constructive dialogue between business and authorities, and the creation of positive communication between structures at various levels".

The Forum participants intend to achieve the above aim through peer review and analysis of recent legislative initiatives, changes in the legal sphere and implications of such changes for the economic development in the region.

Thus, at the plenary meeting which opened the Forum, the participants discussed the prospects of merging the Supreme Court and the Arbitration Court, and bottlenecks in connection with the on-going reform of the Civil Code. The participants also addressed the challenges of increasing competition between Russian and international law firms in St. Petersburg market.

In subsequent parallel sessions, the parties discussed crucial issues in legal regulation and making the most of PPP in Russia, especially in the social sector.

Vladimir Kilinkarov, Maxima Legal partner and head of PPP practice, comments on the discussion:

“During the session, we discussed the prospects of the adoption of the Federal Law which will regulate the legal framework for public private partnerships (PPPs) in the Russian Federation, and projects which could be implemented under this law. The list of participants was quite impressive and included Northern Capital Highway, Ust-Luga, Russian Railways, Moscow Exchange, and KIT Finance, among others. In my opinion, the debate was productive. We raised a number of pressing issues, which, however, should be reflected in the final version of the law in draft”.

It is symbolic that the round table was held at the Law Faculty of Saint Petersburg State University. The Law Faculty Working Group, led by Vladimir Kilinkarov, in 2013 completed the key stage of drafting a model act which would regulate public private partnership for the CIS member states.

While PPP experts searched for new points of cooperation between the public and private sector, their peers in the next conference hall discussed challenges of legal support for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and legal trends in bankruptcy.

Maxim Avrashkov, Maxima Legal Managing Partner, says:

“Events such as Kommersant's Legal Forum, which is sponsored by the most respected mass media in our city, will undoubtedly contribute to the strengthening of relations in St. Petersburg professional community. I hope that annual meetings, which have already become a tradition in our Alma Mater that nurtured many eminent lawyers, will continue for many years".