Khrenov and Partners

Litigation and Dispute Resolution

If you have taken the decision to take your case to trial and you choose K&Ps to represent you in court, you will have at your disposal a highly skilled team of lawyers who will work proactively with you to develop the most effective strategy to protect your rights and legal and business interests.

Using our experience and knowledge of local regulatory practices, we provide our clients with an initial evaluation and professional opinion of the most likely outcome of a court case. We will distinguish those claims which may be resolved without going to trial and should instead follow the pre trial mediation route. However, if the decision is made to go to trial, our litigators will develop tactics to employ when pleading your case and deliver results in line with your objectives.

Attuned to the challenges facing our clients, we fully appreciate that you need to win the case as well as achieve enforcement of a court judgment or award. A track record of broad experience and success of dealing with court bailiffs and enforcement officials, gives us the advantage of pursuing enforcement procedures in an efficient and results based manner.

Our litigators have experience of successfully protecting the interests of large Russian and foreign companies in complex disputes in such industries as energy, oil production, construction, rail transportation and so forth. K&Ps’ lawyers have acted in several court cases where the final rulings set legal precedents and which result in changes to the way the law in question is applied in practice.

The firm’s lawyers will occasionally find themselves representing a client in parallel in several interrelated court cases and have therefore the ability to simultaneously coordinate procedural case strategies if the circumstances warrant it.

The firm’s experience of protecting clients’ interests is not limited to Russian courts. K&P’s litigators successfully represent clients before international arbitration courts (London Court of International Arbitration, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation etc.)

Corporate Law and M&A

Our highly qualified and results-driven Corporate Law Group is comprised of lawyers with top notch experience in contentious and non-contentious corporate work who can provide comprehensive legal support in litigation cases, as well as advise on challenging issues of corporate law including corporate governance. Khrenov & Partners acts for both buyers and sellers in negotiated and contested M&A projects. A growing area of our M&A practice consists of advising strategic and financial investors on acquisitions in countries with developed economies as well as in emerging markets.

What we do:

• provide a full range of legal services in connection with:
  - transactions involving transfer, reallocation or strengthening of corporate control;
  - purchase of business ventures;
  - mergers and acquisitions;
  - foreign investments in Russia and projects involving Russian clients investing abroad;
• carry out due diligence exercises;
• establish and restructure various types of business ventures, groups of companies and investments;
• establish, develop and optimize the corporate governance systems and structures of various corporate entities and groups of companies;
• assess and manage risks in connection with transfer, reallocation and strengthening of corporate control in the course of purchase of business ventures and restructuring of companies and corporate groups;
• represent clients in corporate disputes including complex multijurisdictional disputes in international courts and under various international Arbitration Rules.

Bankruptcy

Khrenov & Partners has established an excellent reputation and highly valued expertise providing legal services in the area of bankruptcy and insolvency, acting for both debtors and creditors.

Our seasoned lawyers specialize in developing creative strategies and use tested legal approaches to protect the interests of clients in bankruptcy cases across diverse industries and in challenging circumstances. Extensive experience enables our professionals to competently calculate the optimal course of action to achieve a client’s goals, to minimize the risks and to maximize the results.

The firm’s lawyers have forged professional, mutually respectful and long standing relationships with trustees in bankruptcy. Khrenov & Partners is proud to represent and work with stakeholders such as strategic credit organizations and enterprises of national importance, while gaining insights and a vital understanding of the specific issues which arise in the industries where the firm’s clients operate. With multi-regional representation and substantive local knowledge, the firm is well placed to act as expert legal advisors to clients across Russia and in transnational bankruptcy cases.

Our team is expert in:

• Recovery of assets of insolvent debtors;
• Recovery of property wrongfully included in a bankruptcy estate;
• Protecting interests of lenders and parties retaining property belonging to insolvent debtors; assisting in the recovery of a debtor’s property illegally acquired by third parties in favour of creditors whose demands are not satisfied during receivership

Aspects of our practice include protecting the interests of the debtor and creditor during bankruptcy proceedings and which include:

• Assisting the head of a trustee in bankruptcy in preparing a register/petition of creditor claims and in conducting bankruptcy meetings of creditors;
• Recording objections to unwarranted demands of creditors claiming inclusion into the register;
• Preparing for and assisting in conducting meetings of creditors in bankruptcy;
• Assisting a trustee in bankruptcy to optimize the liabilities of creditors and increase assets, deal with the bankruptcy estate: i.e. challenge transactions agreed to by the creditor, make claims for declaring transactions void when necessary;
• Debt recovery from third parties;
• Filing for recovery related to property liens, claims against guarantors;
• Filing claims to hold persons whose behaviour led a creditor to bankruptcy, to be held jointly liable with the creditor
• Filing claims to be included in the register of creditors in bankruptcy;
• Confirming, according to court procedure, the basis of claims that have been lodged (in the event where they may be contested);
• Disputing the basis for including claims of other creditors into the register;
• Appealing against the actions of a trustee in bankruptcy;
• Disputes concerning transactions entered into by the debtor;
• Developing a strategy for voting at meetings of creditors in a bankruptcy;
• Legal advice concerning transactions where claims are assigned to another creditor;
• Drafting settlement agreements

Real Estate and Construction

The successful conclusion of a property sale, land transaction or completion of a construction project from a legal point of view, requires technical skills, a thorough understanding of the structure of the project and an ability to assess the likely risks. It also relies on an ability to put in place legal and contractual mechanisms regulating the legal relationship between the parties to a transaction. Guided by these principles and the experience they have accumulated, our lawyers are proficient in providing a comprehensive range of real estate and construction project legal services. The scope of these services includes:

• structuring transactions and providing legal support in connection with projects involving land and other types of immovable property;
• advising on mortgages and other encumbrances on property;
• helping clients to understand and comply with legal obligations imposed by Russian regulatory authorities

In addition, the firm represents clients in court proceedings including disputes where property rights and construction issues are at stake. Such disputes may involve:
 

• contesting legal orders, decisions and actions (as well as lack of action) on the part of central, local government and other regulatory authorities;
• consequences of entering into transactions in connection with immovable property, including acquisitions;
• property rights including various infringements of such rights;
• invalidity of transactions and their consequences

Our Real Estate and Construction Practice Group is frequently retained to conduct a due diligence of property rights including:

• legal status of a land plot or property/ building and associated servitudes;
• validity of rights in relation to a building or land plot, as well as verifying procedures for registering such rights with the relevant state entity have been observed;
• ensuring all formalities have been properly followed for the land plot to be assigned for civilian use and its inclusion in the land registry;
• evaluating legal risks, making recommendations to minimize any identified risks

We provide legal support over the entire duration of a construction project, including advising on issues such as:

• building permits and land earmarked for construction purposes;
• land usage and building rights, land parceling and development;
• joint investment and share participation considerations;
• due diligence of land and property rights;
• representing client interests before central and local government authorities and ensuring filing and registration formalities have been complied with

Another aspect of our legal services concerns property reclassification and changes to permitted uses of a land plot, in particular:

• evaluating the legal status of a land plot according to the permitted uses attributed to the land plot;
• assessing the expediency for reclassification of a land plot and its associated usage rights;
• assisting with reclassification and changes to permitted uses of land plots

Family and Inheritance Law

Our team is very experienced in providing legal services in the area of family and inheritance law. We remain fully sensitive to all matters of family relations, and the principle of confidentiality is fully respected.

We offer the following services in the area of family and inheritance law:

counselling and assistance in drawing up marriage contracts, property distribution agreements, child support agreements, agreements on the exercise of parental rights, agreements on access to minor children, as well as representation of clients in courts;

inheritance planning, assistance in drawing up wills and other inheritance documents with property assessment and restructuring, including property located in different jurisdictions;

counselling and assistance in drawing up documents and court representation in inheritance cases, including contesting wills and disputes over property ownership claims;

legal assistance and court representation in other cases related to marriage and family matters.

Employment Law

We have an extensive experience in protecting clients' employment interests (both legal entities and individuals) and offer a variety of options for interaction:

an exclusive option of accompanying all employment issues of the company, settlement of issues with supervisory authorities;

pre-trial settlement of employment disputes;

representation of client's interests in courts;

conduction and conclusion of collective agreement; resolution of disputes with trade unions;

individual employment disputes;

issues of migration legislation.