Moscow – LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (“DLA Piper”) announced today that it has appointed two new partners to join its Moscow office. Pavel Bakoulev and Igor Panshensky join DLA Piper from Coudert in Moscow.
Pavel has substantial experience of the oil and gas market in Russia and the CIS and is widely considered to be one of the region’s leading legal experts in the field of energy and natural resources. Pavel spent nine years at his previous firm advising in particular on upstream oil and gas, Russian production sharing agreements and subsoil legislation, as well as on broad range of corporate and commercial matters including M&A, project finance, privatizations, contracts and insolvency. He has extensive practical experience in litigation and administrative proceedings in respect of the protection of mineral rights. Pavel’s key clients include a number of oil and gas majors and multinational corporations. Pavel will be based in the Moscow office and his arrival will strengthen DLA Piper’s position in Russia’s energy market.
Igor is a corporate and commercial lawyer with substantial experience advising on natural resources projects and anti-trust issues as well as joint ventures, M&A, corporate structuring and contracts. He is also very active in the energy market, and advises on M&A’s and corporate matters in the oil and gas industry. Igor joined Coudert as a senior associate in 1993, working in their New York, Paris and, until most recently, Moscow offices, which is where he will be based at DLA Piper.
Pavel and Igor officially join DLA Piper on 1 November 2005 and will bring two associates from Coudert with them.
These appointments follow the recent expansion of DLA Piper’s Russia and CIS practice in July 2005, a move which established the organisation as one of the largest legal advisors in Russia, with offices in Moscow and St Petersburg and other CIS locations including Kyiv, Ukraine, and Tbilisi, Georgia.
Constantine Lusignan-Rizhinashvili, Regional Managing Partner for Russia and the CIS said: “Pavel and Igor will be an excellent boost to our practice in Russia. These appointments are in line with our intention to position ourselves with a market leading oil and gas practice. The energy sector is a strategic priority for us and key to providing a full and comprehensive service offering in this market.”
