Pepeliaev Group congratulates the winners at the ‘Russia’s Best Legal Departments 2014’ awards
On 20 June, during the last day of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum, the ceremony took place for the winners of the IX annual awards ‘Russia’s Best Legal Departments 2014’. This was organised by Legal Insight magazine, in association with the general partner of the awards, law firm Pepeliaev Group.
The ‘Production, Processing and Sale of Minerals’ category was won by the legal department of Severneftegazprom and its Deputy General Director of Legal and Corporate Governance Valentina Veremyanina. In the Telecommunications category, the winner was Mobile Telesystems and its Member of the Executive Board, Vice-President, Corporate and Legal Matters, Ruslan Ibragimov. The winner in the ‘Pharmaceuticals and Medical Goods’ category was the legal department of Novartis Pharma and its director Dmitry Chudakov.
The 17 winners in the awards also included the legal departments of Promsvyazbank, Norilsk Nickel, Miratorg, Siemens, Atomenergomash, AHML, Softline, NBCUniversal, Auchan, Russian Post, Interros, Nizhnekamskneftekhim, IES Holding, and Etalon Group.
Pepeliaev Group would highlight the significantly increased competition this year between nominees. This is evidence of the high quality and expertise of the legal departments’ lawyers, and their ability to solve complex multifaceted problems. To achieve outstanding results in the contest, the companies worked like Trojans to classify and analyse their own work and experience.
Pepeliaev Group’s managing partner Sergey Pepeliaev, a member of the expert council, noted: “It is especially pleasant to see our firm’s clients among the winners and nominees. We are extremely fortunate to work with companies of such professional pedigree, and this also helps us to develop, to get to the heart of the demands of business, to gain an insight into the legal problems faced across all branches of the economy, and to propose the optimum tools for solving them. Many companies have significantly strengthened their legal departments, and in doing so have acknowledged just how important the role of lawyers is for business”.
Pepeliaev Group has been working with the competition over many years, because we see a particular importance in the work of legal departments. The fact that this competition is held under the aegis of the St Petersburg International Legal Forum underlines just what an important contribution the professionals in legal departments make to the development of the Russian legal system, and shows what an especially prestigious prize this is.
Alongside the main events, those attending the ceremony found a plethora of surprises waiting for them. Pepeliaev Group, as the main sponsor of the competition, prepared for the guests an intellectual quiz. The participants in the ceremony animatedly answered the tough questions.
This year, there were 76 nominees, including the legal departments of Russian companies figuring in the top 1,000 by asset value. The expert council included representatives of leading law firms as well as the heads of the winning legal departments from 2013. Deloitte verified the counting of votes.
PEPELIAEV GROUP is a leading Russian law firm offering the full range of legal services in all regions of Russia, most former Soviet countries, and abroad. Over 160 lawyers in three offices (Moscow, St Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk) provide legal support to more than 1,500 companies from a range of industries across the economy. 60% of our clients are international corporations which are making strategic long-term investments within Russia.
For more information, please contact Alexandra Starostina, PR Manager at Pepeliaev Group:
tel.: +7 (495) 967-00-07