You're reading: Top Lawyers: Olexander Martinenko

Olexander Martinenko - CMS Cameron McKenna

Senior partner
10 points

Harvard Law School graduate Olexander Martinenko is praised by colleagues for his exceptional knowledge of merger and acquisition law as well as extensive knowledge of Ukrainian corporate law.

He joined CMS Cameron McKenna in 2007 after spending the prior 15 years at the Kyiv offices of Baker & McKenzie, first as an associate and later as a partner.

Martinenko leads CMS Cameron McKenna’s oil, gas and natural resources practice. It is considered one of the toughest and murkiest, yet most lucrative areas of Ukraine’s economy to work in. The sector is heavily controlled by a small group of Ukraine’s most powerful businessmen and politicians.

As a rule, foreign investors are not given the green light to enter this market. When they do, they need the best legal advice they can get.

All this makes Martinenko’s job a lot tougher. For the last 15 years, he has represented a leading international oil and gas company looking for opportunities.

Knocking on Ukraine’s doors has taken much longer than expected, but Martinenko says the government has finally realized the danger in neglecting the development of Ukraine’s own oil and gas base.

He expects Ukraine to open up its underdeveloped energy sector to the world’s top investors soon, betting that they can help boost domestic energy production and, in turn, reducing the nation’s dependency on expensive Russian fuel imports.

Overall, Martinenko seems to have no illusions about the tough legal environment he is working in. To him, Ukraine is simply not a rule-of-law country yet, as “law-making and law-enforcement procedures in this country are widely selective and subject to various manipulations by power holders and executors.”

As for widespread corruption – one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges – Martinenko simply sees no “honest will to combat it” on behalf of the government.

Taking such obvious setbacks aside, some parts of Ukrainian legislation continue to puzzle Martinenko. He cannot help but notice massive contradictions which persist in Ukraine’s Civil and Commercial Codes.

“They are at complete odds with each other. Yet they were passed by the Verkhovna Rada and became effective on the same date,” Martinenko said.