Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners: Litigation and Arbitration

EPA&P has significant experience in corporate, bankruptcy, antitrust, construction, marine, insurance, and intellectual property litigation and arbitration. EPA&P also has significant experience in interstate disputes, international public law and international commercial litigation, which is unusual for a Russian firm.

Between 1994 and 2000, EPA&P represented parties involved in nine out of fifteen major corporate conflicts in Russia. As a result, our firm has acquired unrivalled expertise in the field of the hostile mergers and acquisitions activity.

In the field of construction, we represent major Russian companies in a variety of cases, including investment dispute resolution in international arbitration courts abroad.

With respect to marine transport, since 1994 we have provided legal services to both Russian and foreign ship-owners, marine creditors and insurance companies in Russian arbitration courts (the ports of Saint-Petersburg, Leningradskaya Oblast, and Vladivostok), and in foreign courts (Argentina, the U.S.A., the Canaries, Panama, Cyprus, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Latvia, South Africa, French Polynesia, and Australia).

EPA&P's IP cases include, among others, the protection of a major Russian food company's trade marks; representation of a Russian IT firm in disputes against a foreign distributor in the state courts and in the international commercial arbitration court in France, as well as in Russia; and the protection of IP rights of a major European producer from the illegal distribution of its products in Russia.

In the field of antitrust regulation, we have successfully protected oil and gas companies' interests against illegal actions by the federal and local antitrust bodies, and also provided legal advice to the Russian Federation in formulating conditions and mechanisms for the legal protection of the government's interests in selling space and defense objects to foreign investors.

Experience reveals that interests of major Russian companies are no longer limited to the Russian legal realm. EPA&P cooperates closely with leading law firms in the U.S.A., Great Britain, and other jurisdictions, which allows us to protect our clients' interests in foreign courts.

Examples of foreign and domestic litigation and dispute resolution include:

• Advising the government of the Russian Federation in a U.S. federal litigation involving a claim for stable isotopes which had been smuggled from Russia in the 1990’s.
• Advising the government of the Russian Federation in the case against the City of Moscow which disputed the ownership of monuments of history and culture.
• Successfully defending of Eurocement Group against the hostile takeover attempt by Alfa Group.
• Representing BP in shareholder dispute with TNK.
• Advising Fleming Family & Partners (Russia) Limited in settlement of a dispute with a partner in real estate development project.
• Securing the dismissal of all charges brought by the Norwegian authorities against two Russian vessels accused of breaching Norwegian fishing regulations in 2005.
• Protecting the interests of the government of the Russian Federation in the insolvency procedure of 100% state-owned fishing company “Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet” amid a hostile takeover attempt.
• Advising Russian Federation on successful recovery of the fishing trawlers misappropriated in 2004 by a citizen of Mauritania in maritime litigation in Mauritania, Spain, Panama, Namibia and Ethiopia, and securing extradition of the Mauritanian from Spain in a parallel criminal case.