Valuable Experience
It seems that in 2009 and at the beginning of 2010 the main trend of legal practice has been the growing volume of work in the field of different administrative procedures. It concerns both simple procedures, such as registration of companies, and more complex ones entailing serious analytical and intellectual work. “A large number of administrative procedures require dozens and even hundreds of pages of documents to be prepared. Such work must be done by a quality lawyer; especially if a license is issued based on the results of public competition. Take, for instance, licenses for television and radio broadcasting, etc,” thinks a senior partner of Volkov Koziakov & Partners, Sergii Koziakov. His opinion is that participation in quasi-judicial administrative procedure, e.g. the Antimonopoly Committee’s (in terms of competition law violations) and Ministry of Economy’s (anti-dumping and other) investigations, is the most enthralling experience for a lawyer.
Vasil Kisil & Partners is constantly known as a top practice delivering outstanding results in a range of disputes of public nature falling within the jurisdiction of administrative courts, with a special emphasis on the energy, pharmaceutical and finance sectors. In 2009 the Supreme Court of Ukraine delivered a judgment in favour of the firm’s client, a large Ukrainian pharmaceuticals business, in a multi-million dispute with customs authorities of Ukraine regarding application of tax and customs import privileges. The firm also succeeded in representing a Ukrainian subsidiary of a worldwide group of energy and petrochemical companies in a dispute with a customers protection agency allegedly regarding the non-conforming quality of motor fuel; an international pharmaceuticals company, a world-renown producer of original medicine in court disputes with the State Pharmacological Center and the Ministry of Health of Ukraine regarding the unlawfulness of state registration of generic drugs. The team of Oleksiy Filatov, Vadym Belyanevych and Andriy Stelmashchuk are widely recognized as leading practitioners in this field.
Salkom law firm enjoys a stable reputation in the market and recently protected the interests of a large foreign oil company with regard to a suit brought against state bodies of Ukraine, namely: recognition of purchase and sale of a share agreement as invalid, disaffirmation of state registration, etc. Alexandra Fedorenko is the firm’s leading administrative litigator.
The experience of Magisters includes representation of the interests of private individuals and companies in various courts, regarding disputes with the state authorities. Partner Olexiy Reznikov was named by peers.
Volkov Koziakov & Partners was active in tax disputes, representing clients like Kiy Avia and the Aviatour travel agency before regional tax authorities. The team also assisted the State Pharmacological Center in litigation against an international pharmaceuticals company. Sergii Koziakov is an exemplary general practitioner who is highly regarded by the market. His colleague Mykola Podpalov was also named by peers.
In 2009 Lavrynovych & Partners worked on land issues, including representation of the interests of a society of individual developers in a case concerning the recognition of decisions on assignment of land as invalid with a prosecutor participating. Another significant case was one where representation of Ukrenergomontazh against the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine in an administrative court was provided. Partner Stanislav Skrypnyck is the right specialist to represent a client’s interests in courts.
Asters represents both national and multinational companies before administrative courts of all instances. The firm has experience of representing clients in administrative litigation procedures before a wide range of governmental bodies, including the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and others. Managing partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy is recognized as a top litigator.
The litigation practice of ILF was recognized in 2009 as actively protecting the interests of a large Ukrainian bank in administrative courts in the part on implementation of mortgage property sale. Anna Gebeleva and Sergiy Silchenko were involved in the case.
In 2009 Pravochin attorneys at law was involved in proceedings according to a suit by CJSC Region against the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine in connection with avoidance of a special permit to use sub-surface mineral resources. Alexander Onishchenko is a visible litigator focusing on administrative matters.
Konnov & Sozanovsky successfully represented a client in an administrative court in a dispute with the tax authorities related to abolishing tax demands. The court obliged the authorities to cancel its tax demands and to provide a private entrepreneur with the certificate on single tax payment.
The most recent experience of Pavlenko & Poberezhnyuk includes protection of the legal rights of one of the biggest Ukrainian importers of medical goods, and this concluded challenging a decision by authorities regarding imposing high anti-dumping measures on the import of medical syringes to Ukraine in an administrative court. Konstantin Dovbnya and Oleksandra Pavlenko appeared as key lawyers.
Strengthening its dispute resolution practice in Kiev, Baker & McKenzie acted for an international investment company in Ukrainian administrative and commercial proceedings with respect to protection of ownership rights of the client to one of the biggest hotels in Kiev. Partner Svitlana Romanova and associate Nataliya Demir worked on legal matters.
LCF Law Group successfully completed representation of an investment company against a regional state administration. Anna Ogrenchuk is the leading lawyer in the firm’s administrative law practice.
Oleksiy Bezhevets, Irina Pystovitenko and Eugene Scheglov make up the experienced team at Legal Alliance Company. An administrative dispute in the action of an agricultural enterprise to the Crimean tax authorities on invalidation of tax notices-resolutions of USD 3.1 million is the recent highlight of the firm.
Irina Nazarova and Andriy Vyshnevsky, founders of ENGARDE, are well known in the market for extensive experience in administrative proceedings. In 2009 the firm successfully completed several sound representations of international and Ukrainian companies on land law and taxation issues. In the preceding year ENGARDE advised Crimean hotel Karasan in a EUR 2.5 million lawsuit regarding illegal acquisition of a land plot; represented the Ukrainka City Council in a lawsuit against the Kiev City Council regarding illegal intentions of the latther to build a ring road for Kiev using land reserves in Ukrainka. The firm’s attorneys also represented Agricultural Complex Kalyta before the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine in a USD 4 million case regarding tax collection.
Over the last year, Gvozdiy & Oberkovych played a notional role in a number of administrative cases and successfully represented Ukrainian and foreign businesses in disputes with the state and municipal authorities, involving the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, etc. The remarkable list of cases regarding revocation of a number of tax penalties in 2009 included representing Ukrainian air carrier South Airlines, Medcom Ukraine, PSG-International a.s. Valentyn Gvozdiy and Stanislav Kononenko are involved in administrative proceedings.
The recent highlight of Paritet Law Firm is representing a major Ukrainian state enterprise specializing in servicing air transportation in a tax litigation case with an approximate value of UAH 50 million. Igor Kyrylyuk, Yuliya Cherkashina, Oleksii Domashenko are members of a team.
With extensive experience in dispute resolution, Andriy Kravets & Partners successfully represents large international companies and major Ukrainian corporations with state authorities and municipal organizations, including the State Tax Administration of Ukraine, State Customs Service of Ukraine and others. The firm’s professionals have recently represented TransBulkTerminal, Ukraine’s second largest high-class crop port terminal in several disputes as to contesting tax notifications by the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. They also acted as a legal counsel to Estron Corporation Limited in a pre-judicial dispute regarding the intentions of Odessaoblenergo to stop supplying electricity to a plant owned by Estron. Partner Vladyslav Lyaskovskiy is well known for his broad expertise in this sphere.
Alexander Kifak and Elena Pushchenskaya of the Odessa-based ANK law firm acted on behalf of Delta Wilmar CIS in a dispute with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
Arzinger is acknowledged in the sphere. The firm acted as legal representative of a well-known international company in a land dispute heard by an administrative court and one of the largest Ukrainian banks in a dispute with the tax authorities.
Ilyashev & Partners has continued to service ANTONOV Aeronautical Scientific and Technical Complex. A recent dispute involved with the State Tax Administration of Ukraine over the sum of USD 5 million. Roman Marchenko and Maksim Kopeychykov are key practitioners in the firm.
Enjoying an extensive workload in Ukrainian administrative courts, Jurimex law firm assisted telecom operators VostokTelecom and CDMA Ukraine in a number of disputes related to applying for frequency resources to the National Commission for Communications Regulation of Ukraine. Danylo Getmantcev, Jury Krajnyak and Svetlana Yazykova are top litigators.
LEXFOR, KM Partners and Jurvneshservice are specialists in disputes against tax bodies. Voropayev & Partners, Dynasty law firm, Legal Consulting Centre and Solodko & Partners work proactively to manage conflicts with various government bodies.