ELL PARTNERSHIP Law Firm was founded in 2011. It’s an Armenian Law Firm with a strong background in Business, Corporate Law and Litigation, providing a wide array of legal services and representing the best qualities that the local legal market has to offer. The Firm offers top level legal advice, expertise and representation in multiple fields of law, ranging from business and corporate law to international law.
The Partnership unites young and professional law scientists and attorneys, who have studied at the leading universities of Armenia and the West. They have trained abroad and are able to work and correspond in Armenian, English, Russian and French.
Our multilingual and diverse team has experience in providing top legal services to inter alia major investors, banks, sovereigns and international organizations, governments. The combination of the understanding of local business and the international standards of work culture are the essence of our services. We have also developed a strong network of offices through the world with whom we create professional relationships, in order to offer more responsive and efficient assistance to our international clientele. We provide also international arbitration services. Moreover, some of the members of our team are arbitrators at European Arbitration Chamber (Brussels, Belgium) and acting counsels.
The activity of the ELL and its members effuses from the maxim – “Expanding the borders of freedom” or “Expendus Limites Libero”. This concerns also the persons in cooperation with the Partnership, as the Partnership’s active and professional work helps the clients not to waste time and energy to perceive the whole legislation in the expense of development of own business strategy. This results in the enlargement of their freedom in the field of business and other fields.
We are strongly committed to the highest level of professional qualification and, therefore, the attorneys of ELL are frequent expositors at various events such as conferences, legal seminars, workshops, trainings, as well as do engaged in teaching at major universities in the country, moreover editorial activities of domestic and International Law reviews.
Effective development and professional growth, team unity and high quality customer service, values of ethics and morality are of foremost importance to us. This is why we heal strongly in the selection of our new partners and collaborators, both nationals and internationals.
"ELL Partnership" offers clients in all economic sectors innovative, added-value solutions that strengthen their competitive position in the market. The Partnership assists and defends clients’ interests in proceedings with the EU and Armenian competition authorities. Moreover, the Firm advises Armenian and international companies on defence in cases of competition, concentrations, government aid and general European Community Law issues, including investigations and conflicts with the authorities and in Armenian and European courts.
Intangible assets are becoming an increasingly important factor affecting capitalization of companies and their competitive success. For sustainable development under current conditions, along with efficiently structuring its production process and distribution network, engaging qualified personnel and implementing innovation, a company needs to structure and manage its intellectual property portfolio. In coping with this task, priority is given to remedies that help protect intellectual property. With a view to assisting our clients, we offer a truly comprehensive range of IP services. One of the key distinguishing features of ELL is that it has an IP team working in Yerevan. ELL specializes in supporting comprehensive and large-scale consulting projects and providing continued support to major companies operating in Armenia. One of ELL’s priorities is to provide services in relation to high-stake/risk IP disputes. The ELL IP practice includes specialists, patent attorneys, consultants, as well as lawyers with extensive experience of litigation.
One of the important fields of practice is the protection of Human Rights and representation of our clients before the European Court of Human Rights. We have gone deep in this practice and expended the framework of our clients that include not only the Armenian citizens but also citizens of all High contracting Parties of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Furthermore, the practice in this field includes also providing various legal opinions on different legal instruments on Human Rights:
The ELL Partnership's team of Labor & Employment today is one of the strongest in Armenia. Since 2011, the lawyers of our company represent the interests of both employers and employees during negotiations, out-of-court dispute resolution processes, court cases, provide legal representation, provide advice on any issue. Our many years of experience advising and acting for major foreign investors, multinational corporations and big Armenian employers on all labor matters mean that individual members of the group can specialize in the particular aspects of labor law most in demand: pension legislation, relations with trades unions, out-staffing and immigration legislation.
We advise clients on any labor law issues that might arise in their daily business, perform due diligence of the company’s employment paperwork in order to identify and minimize potential risks, make recommendations for optimal application of the labor legislation rules considering the client’s specific sphere of business, and provide support for major comprehensive projects.
Litigation is the legal practice area most commonly and traditionally associated with lawyers. Coupled with the fact that court proceeding are understood to be the top of the pyramid of any legal dispute this means that litigation practice in one of the lawyers most important tasks. Our Litigation & Arbitration practice area advises on civil and commercial disputes. We create multidisciplinary teams so that, in addition to leading specialists in litigation and arbitration, every client benefits from the expertise of lawyers from relevant practice areas. Our aim is to offer our clients added value in every negotiation, claim and arbitration. It is one of our main goals to understand the specific characteristics of the sectors in which our clients operate, be it banking, finance, energy, infrastructures, construction, real estate, consumer goods to name but a few. In determining the strategy to be adopted in a dispute, we use this specialist knowledge to ensure the needs and concerns of our clients are paramount, an approach which affords us a competitive advantage valued at both an international and domestic level.
ELL Partnership's primary Litigation & Arbitration services include the following:
The firm's International Arbitration group is assisting clients with complex, cross-border dispute resolution. Our International Arbitration team can quickly and efficiently assemble experienced and knowledgeable teams to provide global service on arbitration involving international commercial and investment disputes. ELL has a practice in investment treaty arbitration, as well as in international commercial arbitration. ELL has also practices in the “investor-state” disputes before the ICSID. ELL’s lawyers regularly serve as mediator in many disputes.
The Real Estate area has a team of lawyers with extensive experience in the real estate and construction sectors, both State-owned and private. We provide legal advice to individuals, companies and institutions with interests in a real estate and construction sectors, on town planning, the environment, taxation, contracts, finances, litigation and labor. Our lawyers are highly specialized, which allows us to offer a quality services and to form, when needed, multi-disciplinary work teams made up of lawyers from each of the above areas.
ELL handles all aspects of real estate transactions in virtually all major real estate sectors. This includes offices, hotels, warehouse and distribution facilities, large-scale residential developments and infrastructure projects. Our clients include many institutions, international developers, banks, private equity houses and multinational corporations.
Today’s increasingly complex global real estate markets require law firms to provide a unique blend of real estate, M&A, finance, corporate and commercial advice in a rapidly changing legal environment, which is often multi-jurisdictional in nature. To do this successfully requires combining cross-border legal expertise with practical local experience, which is the foundation of ELL practice and dedicated real estate sector groups.
ELL provides the following services:
ELL is advising on telecommunications, media and technology. Our knowledge of state-of-the-art technology, innovations and trends are keys to providing our clients with the best possible service. We often work with experts from other sectors (technical engineers and economists) to provide a comprehensive service, which includes legal consulting on:
Founding Partner
Education: Taron Simonyan graduated from Yerevan State University (Department of Law) with Honorary Distinction in 2007, has a Master’s degree on European Law from YSU (2009). In 2009 he graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (International Legal Studies), Tufts University (Boston, USA), and in 2012 he did his PhD on Theory and History of State and Law at YSU.
Professional trainings, memberships and publications: Taron served as a member of the Armenian Parliament till 2021.
Taron has been appointed as the National Correspondent of the Republic of Armenia in the UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW (UNCITRAL) since 2017, has been elected as a member of the Council of the Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia since 2017, is a co-founder, a member of the Council of the Asociation of Arbitrators of the Republic of Armenia since 2017, a co-founder, a member of the Council of the Mediators of Armenia Self-governing organization since 2016, is an Arbitrator at the European Arbitration Chamber since 2014 (Brussels, Belgium); the Executive Director of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia (since 2012); the Director and founding member of International and Comparative Law Center (since 2010); member of Chamber of Advocates of RA (since 2010); the Big Council of the Department of Law (since 2005); and the Council of YSU (2007-2011) and is an author of several scientific articles on international, comparative law and theory of state and law.
He is a lecturer and associate professor (Docent) at the Faculty of Law; Center on European Studies (Yerevan State University); a lecturer at the French University in Armenia and at the International Accountancy Training Center.
Taron has participated in several professional trainings in Russia, Greece, Belgium, Poland, USA and France.
Practice Areas: Taron has provided all-inclusive legal services to IT, media, mining corporations, local casinos etc. He has acted as a program expert for IBF International Consulting, Council of Europe project “Support for Access to Justice in Armenia”, assisting the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia in drafting of the new Code for Civil Procedure. Taron has also acted as an expert for OSCE, Protection of Human Rights without Borders, Armenian UN NGO, the Asian Development Bank, EuropeAid etc.
Negotiation and Mitigation, International Law, EU Law, Human Rights, Investment Law, Arbitration, Litigation, Constitutional Law, Civil Law and Procedure, Administrative Law and Procedure, Competition Law, Corporate Law, Labor Law, Mining Legislation, Intellectual Property Law, Legal Due Diligence.
Languages: Armenian, English, Russian
E-mail: [email protected]
Executive Partner
Education: Gohar Gevorgyan graduated from Yerevan State University (Department of Law) with Honorary Distinction in 2010; she got her Master’s degree in Criminal Law and Procedure at Yerevan State University and graduated with Honorary Distinction in 2012. Now, she is doing her Ph.D. at the Yerevan State University.
Professional trainings, memberships and publications: Gohar is a member of the Armenian Bar Association, Chamber of Advocates of the Republic of Armenia. From 2008 to 2011 she was working as a Lawyer at "DGA Realty", from 2010 to 2011 she was working at the "Armenian Association of Criminologists" NGO as an expert. From 2012 to 2015 she was working at "AM Law Firm" LLC as a general counsel and attorney. From 2013 to 2014, Gohar was working as an expert at "International and Comparative Law Center-Armenia". Since 2013, she has been lecturing at the International Accountancy Training Center. From 2015 to 2018 Gohar was with "DGA Law Firm" LLC as a general director/attorney. Prior to joining the firm, Gohar was working at the Academy of Justice of Armenia, as a Head of the Unit of Scientific research and Programmatic-methodological activities. She participated in various trainings in Armenia, Russia, and Europe. Gohar took part in the training course of the Council of Europe on the "Violence against women and domestic violence''. She participated in the conference entitled "Access to Justice for Women Victims of Violence" in Strasbourg as a member of the Armenian delegation. She has published more than 35 articles on Criminal and Civil procedure and Advocacy law.
Today Gohar Gevorgyan is a Leading Partner in our law firm. She is a corporate lawyer who serves as a counsel and legal adviser to a variety of clients. She focuses on transactional cases, including the purchase and sale of businesses and creation, restructuring and reorganization of corporate and partnership enterprises. She advised corporate clients on governance, shareholder rights, and succession planning.
Gohar’s practice is focused on Intellectual property law, such as trademark and copyright matters. In this sphere, she has represented clients ranging from individual inventors to the largest camping tent manufacturers in the world. Her clients are both domestic and foreign.
Gohar is aware that every person is different, as is every case, and tailors her approach to each client accordingly.
Practice Areas: Corporate law, administrative Law and Procedure, Civil Law and Procedure, Labor Law, Tax Law, Human Rights, Negotiation and Mitigation, Criminal Law and Procedure.
Languages: Armenian, Russian, English, French
E-mail: [email protected]
Managing Partner
Education: Norayr Balayan graduated from Yerevan State University (Department of Law) with Honorary Distinction in 2007, has a Master’s degree on Constitutional Law from YSU (2009). In 2012 he did his PhD on Administrative Law at Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Armenia.
Professional trainings, memberships and publications: Norayr is a member of the Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia (since 2008) and is an author of several scientific articles on constitutional and administrative law.
Before joining us, Norayr was the Head of the Department of Legal-Organizational Issue of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia. Before working for the Ministry of Justice he worked as Senior Lawyer at the National Center for Professional Education Quality Assurance Foundation.
He was also a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, Vanadzor State Pedagogical Institute named after H. Tumanyan. Norayr has participated in several professional trainings in France, Belgium, Croatia, Georgia.
Norayr is a co-author of several laws, such as: “Law on Non-Profit Organizations”, “ The Law of Probation”, “The Law on Registration of Security transactions on movable assets”, “The draft law of amendments of Criminal Executive Code of the Republic of Armenia”, “The draft law of amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia”, “The draft law of amendments to Notary”, “ The draft law of amendments to the Civil Status Acts”, “The draft Law of amendment to the Compulsory Enforcement”, “The draft law of amendment to the Compulsory Enforcement Service. Norayr is a Partner, Chair of the Domestic Practice group at ELL. His practice focuses on corporate and administrative law. He represents emerging growth, as well as established companies in a wide range of transactions, including angel and venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, public offerings, state securities law compliance, and corporate governance issues. As a trusted advisor and counselor, Mr. Balayan’s priority is to provide quality service to his clients through his wealth of experience and personal attention to every matter. With a background in corporate, civil and administrative law, Norayr brings an added dimension to the practice of law.
Practice Areas: Constitutional Law, Civil Law and Procedure, Administrative Law and Procedure, Competition Law, Labor Law, Mining Legislation, Intellectual Property Law, Legal Due Diligence.
Languages: Armenian, Russian, English
E-mail: [email protected]
