Avellum

Together with Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate is one of our core practices at AVELLUM. Our unique skill set and in-depth understanding of corporate matters and related commercial aspects in Ukraine and abroad enables us to transform the requirements of sophisticated foreign investors into practical realities in Ukrainian law and practice.

You can rely on us in any general corporate matters, from setting up your business in Ukraine, structuring your corporate governance and compliance to advice on sophisticated securities regulation in Ukraine. We will support  you in your shareholder meetings and in your relations with regulators in Ukraine.

We effectively combine our expertise in corporate law with our extensive experience in Mergers and Acquisitions. Our attorneys are leading experts on the market and actively participate in drafting new corporate laws.

During more than ten years of AVELLUM employment practice’s existence, we have completed dozens of projects of varying complexity. Thus, whatever help you may need, we may guide through complexities of Ukraine’s conservative labour laws.

We will be happy to assist you on the full range of employment issues, including:

• development of a full range of HR documentation
• drafting and implementation of employees’ incentive plans
• planning and implementation of complex reorganisations, staff transfers, redundancies, and layoffs
• consultancy assistance to ensure clients’ compliance with local labour, tax, anti-corruption, IP, and data protection laws
• appropriation of clients’ practices and policies to local labour law requirements
• conducting legal due diligence of clients’ HR documentation
• development and implementation of strategies for sensitive dismissals
• representation of clients’ interests during the resolving of labour disputes

At AVELLUM, we provide clients with first-class legal expertise in various IP matters, combined with innovative thinking and in-depth knowledge of the specific needs of each industry.

IP advisory work 

We regularly advise clients on all aspects of trademark, patent and design law as well as copyright and related rights matters. We have an extensive experience in assisting international “blue chip” companies with a feasibility study while entering the Ukrainian market.

IP transactions

Transactional expertise of our IP practice includes licensing agreements, IP assignment agreements and franchise agreements. Our team offers a wealth of experience in structuring complicated IP-based transactions as well as software development arrangements.

IP disputes

Lawyers of AVELLUM’s IP practice are qualified and experienced to handle various trademark, patent and copyright disputes. We also represent our clients in Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine with respect to unfair competition cases. 

Regulatory and consumer protection 

Additional expertise of our IP professionals covers regulatory advice for various industries such as e-commerce, IT, media, FMCG, cosmetics, tobacco, health care and pharmaceutical sectors. We also assist our clients with consumer protection, product liability, marketing, advertising, labeling and packaging law matters.

Overview

We provide our clients with tailored turnkey solutions for their sophisticated requests on land, real estate, construction, and infrastructure matters based on our expertise and profound understanding of the Ukrainian industries’ specifics.

By integrating our deep practical and academic knowledge, including law drafting experience, we provide the most convenient, forward-looking, and up-to-date advice, especially regarding the dynamic modification of Ukrainian legislation. Our clients rely on us to stay abreast of the most recent legal and commercial developments to catch valuable and unique opportunities successfully.

We are honored to be the trusted advisors to major Ukrainian and international businesses, as well as to work side-by-side with leading international law firms on our cross-border projects.

We help our clients to:

• negotiate, draft, and execute all types of agreements for infrastructure projects, including construction (both FIDIC-based and non-FIDIC-based), concession, or other PPP agreements
• acquire or lease state-owned assets through the public auctions
• streamline infrastructure planning, development, corporate and project financing, acquisitions, and exits
• do due diligence of, enlarge, improve, manage, systematize, and implement preventive anti-raider measures for their assets
• check the land banks based on a comprehensive methodology identifying 325 potential standard risks and provide the practical solutions on their remedying
• navigate efficiently through all the stages of the construction process, from land plot allotment to commissioning and registration of ownership rights to a building
• smoothly pass all permitting and other regulatory procedures in the course of a project’s life cycle

Overview

We have been involved in many of the high-profile Ukrainian debt restructurings.

Our expertise in matters of debt restructuring covers:

• distressed asset transactions
• reschedulings, reprofilings and other forms of restructuring, either consensual or contentious
• formal insolvency proceedings
• debtor advisory work

We regularly advise all types of Ukrainian debtors, from corporates to the sovereign to various state-owned quasi-sovereign entities, as well as individual and groups of creditors. Because we work regularly for both lenders and borrowers, we can see the very complex process of debt restructurings from every angle and can provide a strategic advice to our clients.

Our extensive experience in the fields of tax, corporate law and dispute resolution make our advice in debt restructurings comprehensive and valuable.

We act for our clients in various contentious matters including domestic litigation, cross-border litigation, international arbitration, and insolvency proceedings. We have built a team that can provide tailored dispute resolution advice to our clients by regularly representing them in high-value, complex and multi-jurisdictional disputes.

Our aim is to resolve disputes in the most efficient and suitable way for our clients. With in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge court practice, as well as national laws, we are able to bring high-profile expertise to representing our clients before dispute resolution venues.

We protect clients in a broad range of disputes:

• Commercial
• Civil fraud and asset recovery
• Corporate and post M&A
• Non-performing loans and insolvency
• Tax and other regulatory

We deeply understand the critical intricacies of being in the consumer goods business, the specifics of regulatory issues, timing and business planning. We use this knowledge to help our FMCG clients grow their business and meet the challenges of day-to-day operation.

Our extensive experience enables us to advise our clients on various aspects of FMCG business, including:

• export and import issues
• financing
• joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions
• regulatory compliance
• competition/antitrust issues
• corporate governance
• real estate
• disputes

We also assist consumer products companies in their brand protection and management and advise on other IP-related matters, franchising and licensing agreements and data protection issues.

Being aware of the wide variety of legal and commercial issues faced by companies operating in this industry, for each matter, we select a team of lawyers who have the most experience and qualifications in the relevant issues to achieve your desired outcomes most efficiently.

Overview

We protect the owners and management of Ukrainian and international companies from criminal persecution in Ukraine and in foreign jurisdictions, represent victims of fraud in criminal proceedings, and provide legal support during internal investigations.

We focus on white collar and corruption-related crimes. Among our clients are NASDAQ-listed companies, major Ukrainian businesses, as well as high-profile state officials and MPs.

Our lawyers have extensive experience of handling cross-border issues. These include communication with INTERPOL, taking evidence in foreign jurisdictions, and dealing with mutual legal assistance requests. During the recent time, we acted in complex transnational investigations into money laundering in Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Cyprus.

We will be happy to assist you with

• complex defense in criminal cases
• handling interrogations, seizures, and dawn raids
• challenging asset freezes
• representing before INTERPOL and handling international legal assistance matters
• representing victims of fraud and embezzlement