You're reading: Baker & McKenzie law firm wins top prize in surveys

Good year for M&A, corporate, banking and finance

For the third year, the Kyiv Post has compiled a ranking of the top Ukraine-based law firms based on the results of recognized international rankings: Legal 500, Chambers Europe, Practical Law Company’s Which Lawyer? and International Financial Law Review 1000.

This year, the newspaper took the two areas that have been the most important for legal business in Ukraine in 2011. They are corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, and banking and finance.

 

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Corporate law is a fundamental legal practice that has been in demand, despite the continuing economic troubles.

In their rankings, Legal 500 and Chambers Europe researched corporate and mergers and acquisitions together; PLC refers to corporate law, noting that M&A is a part of that practice, and IFLR considers only M&A, taking into account that this accounts for 90 percent of all corporate legal practice.

Banking and finance this year won back its title as the legal profession’s breadwinner. Activity started picking up after the 2009-2010 crisis years, when it was almost dead.

In 2011, up to a dozen Ukrainian companies, mostly from the agriculture, food and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, came to foreign markets with initial public offerings.

Since this summer, lawyers at Asters, one of Ukraine’s leading law firms, have been working on four IPOs for Ukrainian companies and are planning to close these deals by the end of this year.

“Capital and equity markets were closed during the crisis,” said Armen Khachaturyan, a partner at Asters.

“Those companies that survived or even strengthened their position on the market were waiting for an opportunity to attract funding. As soon as light was noticed at the end of tunnel, they decided to take advantage.”

This year’s lively banking and finance practice displaced dispute resolution, which was mentioned in the Kyiv Post ranking last year, but was not included this time.

It remained a busy year, however, for lawyers working in dispute resolution and debt restructuring, just like last year.

It was flat relative to the growing banking and finance practices. The only practice that did not show visible recovery yet is real estate, which cannot be found in the ranking.

Among all companies listed in the ranking, 10 are international and eight are Ukrainian, proving that the competition on the Ukrainian legal market is very tough and local firms compete aggressively with global legal brands.

Even small, boutique law firms such as Avellum Partners are competing.

The company, founded by former partners from Baker & McKenzie during the crisis, appeared in the top 10 of this year’s international rankings.

“Competition has increased significantly on the legal market,” Asters’ Khachaturyan summarizes. “Even five years ago we did not experience such a struggle to get projects as we do now.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected]