More than an Anniversary!
Alena A. Chernyavskaya, Nataliya V. Koloskova
The first issue of the Yuridicheskaya Practika Weekly was published 16 years ago in 1995. Since then the tradition to celebrate the Yuridicheskaya Practika’s birthday is preserved year on year. This year turned out to be no exception and practicing lawyers again celebrated one of their professional holidays on 15-17 March. Each year the organizer of the celebration, the Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing, arranges events of a different kind which fluctuates from practical seminars and round tables to a bowling tournament among lawyers.
Within the framework of Yuridicheskaya Practika Days a round table called Some Perspectives of Court Reform was held on 16 March at the premises of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The event gathered judges of courts of appeal from many regions of Ukraine. The audience was greeted by Igor Samsin, chairman with the Judicial Qualification Commissions (JQC). Congratulating Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing, Mr. Samsin marked, that it is one of the best professional publications.
In spite of court reform, distrust is observed in court authorities and the task for all court bodies consists of raising the level of trust in them, Mr. Samsin pointed out. Ruslan Kirilyuk, head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, stressed on the importance of trust in judges as favorable conditions for investment attractiveness of Ukraine. Pavel Gvozdik, a head of the Council of Judges of General Courts of Ukraine, reported on practical implementation of the regulations of automated system of document circulation in the courts. While Andrey Bodelan, director of Informational Court Systems, spoke about hardware and software for the functioning of the above-mentioned system. Finally Nina Fadeeva, a member of JQC, highlighted the facilities of disciplinary inspectors’ work and bringing of judges to account. And Nikolay Melnik, a member of JQC, talked about the national school of judges.
In the evening the sixth open bowling tournament for the Cup of The Ukrainian Journal of Business Law went off in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. In the aftermath of competitive battle, the combined team of Eurojuris Ukraine, consisting of Oleg Davydenko, Alexander Onishchenko and Alexander Pashchenko outplayed a novice at the tournament, the team of Magisters, and took third place. Vasil Kisil & Partners team, represented by Alexander Borodkin, Sergey Denisenko and Yegor Svidlo, turned out to be luckier than the second-place team from Derevyanchuk & Partners (Vladimir Derevyanchuk, Nikolay Boyko and Gennadiy Rashkovskiy), called Triple Kick, and came out on top, gaining the Cup. A captain of the winners, Alexander Borodkin, demonstrated the best result of 180 points and received the title of top performing player in one game.
On 17 March a practical seminar called The Role of the Law Firm in Investigations of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), with contributions by lawyers from leading Ukrainian law firms, took place at the Kiev National Taras Shevchenko University. On this occasion, Sergii Koziakov, managing partner with Sergii Koziakov & Partners, and Dmitry Taranyk, a counsel with Sayenko Kharenko, explained the stages of investigation and tactics of lawyers’ relationship with clients, AMCU’s officials and experts, engaged in investigation. Tatyana Vovk, a senior lawyer with Asters, gave a report on analysis of AMCU’s investigating actions. Ms. Vovk underlined that observance of antimonopoly legislation has to be like preventive measures. Oleksander Melnychenko, former acting chairman of the AMCU, noted that law firms endowed much to the development of Ukrainian antimonopoly legislation.
The Forum on 17 March 2011 became the successful final point in the chain of the Days of Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing. It is no secret that a successful company anniversary celebration should demonstrate appreciation, share the company’s yearly achievements and provide clear direction for the future. Following the tradition, a lot of warm greetings and compliments were heard and expensive presents were given at the reception.
During the festive atmosphere of the holiday, Yuriy Zabara, general director of Yuridicheskaya Practika Publishing, handed out awards to the first 10 top leaders of 50 Leading Law Firms of Ukraine annual research.
At the same time, Sergiy Kivalov received the award of Best Lawyer 2010.
A special award called Business Shark went to Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Asters law firm, for the merger assets between the Russian mobile telecom operator VimpelCom (Beeline brand) and the leading Ukrainian mobile telecom operator Kyivstar G.S.M. in the newly formed VimpelCom Ltd on USD 23.8 billion. While Vasil Kisil & Partners, together with the Sayenko Kharenko law firm, were in the nomination titled Candidates for Business Shark for establishing a joint dairy venture in the CIS Region between Unimilk (Russia) and Danone (France) for USD 2.5 million. Traditionally in the framework of the event famous lawyers received an excellent opportunity to acquire the necessary circles of friends and meeting well-known colleagues, as well as catch up on the latest news from the legal world.
