19.11.2009, Thursday, The Ritz Carlton

14:00 - 15:00

Registration

15:00 - 16:45

Opening

Fernando Pelaez-Pier, IBA President

Vassily Rudomino, IBA European Forum, Senior Vice-Chair

Norman Clark, IBA Law Firm Management Committee, Chair

Session 1.

Economic integrity of law firms: a mission for national bars?

Panel discussion:

Regulators, bar leaders and managing partners of leading law firms are invited to discuss the necessity and admissibility of either active or omitting policies in regulating the national markets for legal services.

• Is the economic integrity of the legal market operators a necessary element of their professional integrity and independence?
• Should national bars be committed to provide a regulative environment that excludes any unreasonable limitation of economic liberties for practicing lawyers?
• Protectionism aimed at support for developing markets for legal services: admissible? justified? expected?
• Is there a space or a need for the 'Big Firms' Party' within the regulation policy?

• Pros and contras of a regulative interference into the legal market

íÏderators:

Alexander Muranov, Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners, Managing partner; Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia, Advisor to the President

Tomasz Wardyński, Wardyński & Partners, Partner; IBA Legal Practice Division, Elected Member of the Council

Panelists:

• Fernando Pelaez-Pier, IBA President

• Elena Borisenko, Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Advisor to the Minster

• Genry Reznik, Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia, Vice-President, Moscow City Bar, President

• Vassily Rudomino, ALRUD, law firm, Senior partner; IBA European Forum, Senior Vice-Chair

• Oleg Makarov, Vasil, Kisil & Partners, Managing partner

• Dmitry Afanasiev, Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, Partners Committee Chair

• Dominique Basdevant, of counsel in the Paris office of Latham & Watkins, former member of the Council of the Paris Bar

16:45 - 17:15

Coffee-break

17:15 - 19:00

Session 2.

Uniformed regulation and omission to regulate the legal profession in the post-Soviet countries: promises and risks for the market operators

Panel discussion:

Topics include:

• 18 years after dissolution of the Soviet Union: what is the stand of the development of legal markets in the region?

• What models of regulation / self-regulation / deregulation of the legal profession have proved most effective?

• Are there any perspectives for harmonized or uniformed regulation of the legal profession in the Russian-speaking region?

• Advantages and disadvantages of free international circulation of legal services: EU experience

íÏderator:

Alexander Khvoshchinskiy, LegalStudies.RU, Managing partner; Commission for Liberal Legal Professions at the Association of Lawyers of Russian Federation, Deputy-chair

Panelists:

• Axel K. Filges, German Federal Bar (BRAK), President; Taylor Wessing Law Firm (Hamburg, Germany), Partner

• Irina Paliashvili, RULG Ukrainian Legal Group P.A.; CIS Local Counsel Forum, Co-chair

• Sergey Pepeliaev, Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners, Managing partner

• Juri Raidla, Raidla, Lejins & Norcous, Managing partner, former Minister of Justice of Estonia

• Evgeny Artukh, Ural Legal Chamber, Chairman of the Board

19.00 -

Reception at the O2 Lounge (The Ritz-Carlton) with a view over the Kremlin and Moscow

20.11.2009, Friday,  The Ritz Carlton

09:00 - 09:30

Welcome tea and coffee

09:30 - 11:15

Session 3.

Can law firms themselves increase a demand for their services in the global crisis?

Panel discussion:

Topics include:

• What lessons did law firms learn from the crisis?

• What kind of legal and judicial systems do form a better 'product 'in the national markets for legal services?
• What can key market operators do for an increase in the overall market capacity?
• How can market operators proactively influence the development of a client community? And should they?
• What is the actual influence of corruption on the development of the legal markets?

Moderators:

Timur Bondarev, Arzinger, Senior partner

Andrey Goltsblat, Goltsblat BLP, Managing partner

Panelists:

• Sergey Uchitel, Regionservice Law Firm,  Co-chair

• Viktor Burobin, Yustina Law Firm, President

• Glenn Kolleeny, SALANS, Partner

• Vladislav Zabrodin, Capital Legal Services, Managing partner

• Hendrik Haag, Hengeler Mueller, Partner; IBA LPD Chair

11:15 - 11:45

Coffee-break

11:45 - 13:15

Session 4.

Motivation management for partners and associates in a law firm: what impacts an individual performance?

Panel discussion:

Topics include:

• Profit distribution and motivation of partners
• What indicators and personal qualities are to be considered and analysed while developing a comprehensive partners/associates' motivation/compensation system?
• Departure from an administrative-paternalistic approach in the HR-management: how to grow a team of free and responsible professionals?

Moderator:

Vassily Rudomino, ALRUD, Senior partner

Panelists:

• Olga Romanova, RATUM law firm, Managing partner

• Soren Johansen, Kromann Reumert, Managing partner

• Pierre Raoul-Duval, Gide Loyrette Nouel A.A.R.P.I., Senior Partner

• Michael Roch, KermaPartners, Partner

• Oleksiy Didkovskiy, Asters, Managing partner

13:15 - 14:15

Lunch

14:15 - 14:45

Special session.

Exclusive research on how the economic crisis in Russia has forced clients to reduce their legal costs without sacrificing quality 

Special presentation:

This will be the first public presentation of previously unpublished data from a new survey with heads of legal departments at major companies in Russia. This is a follow up from the 2008 survey: How in-house counsel in Central & Eastern Europe select and retain their external counsel. Both surveys were sponsored by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell and conducted by the Forbes Institute.

Topics include:

• Have companies reduced their legal budget and if so by what percent?

• Which industry sectors have been affected most by budget reductions?

• Are legal departments adding or reducing the number of lawyers?

• How are legal departments increasing productivity and saving money?

• How are legal departments communicating risk to management?

• How are legal departments reducing their external legal costs?

• What percent discount have clients negotiated with their law firms and for what type of legal matters?

Presenter:

Jeffrey Forbes, Founder & Executive Director, Forbes Institute

Download Flyer

14:45 - 16:15

Session 5.

Law firm professional managers

Panel discussion:

We can see plenty of successful law firms denying  a need for a powerful administrative directors. An alternative management model encourages promotion of highly qualified and specialised non-lawyer managers to senior positions. What proves more efficient? 

Topics include:

• Who are those to enjoy the lawyers' trust in a law firm management? Why not trust?
• What should be delegated to non-lawyers in a law firm management? What should remain within the scope of the partners' responsibility?
• What are the functions where lawyers might need professional management support: HR, PR, marketing, knowledge management, BD, office-management?
• What are the criteria for the assessment of the back-office performance?
• Motivation of the professional managers in the law firm

Moderator:

Irina Nikitina, Magisters, COO

Key-note speech - Norman Clark, Law firm management Committee, Chair

Panelists:

• Alexander Stepanovski, Stepanovski, Papakul & Partners, Managing partner

• Boris Kalashnikov, Sameta, óïï

• Laird Cenotto, Baker & MacKenzie CIS Limited, COO CIS

• Dovilė Burgiene, Lideika, Petrauskas, Valiūnas ir partneriai LAWIN, Partner

16:15 - 16:45

Coffee-break

16:45 - 18:15

Session 6.

Business Development: applying a business approach to strategic and tactic development of a law firm

Panel discussion:

Topics include:

• Should profitability be the key and the only indicator of development in strategic and operational dimensions?
• Business-oriented performance: efficiency indicators.
• How do you secure and sustain your competitive advantages?
• Client-driven products v. Proactive product development

Moderators:

Tatyana Kamenskaya, Kamenskaya & partners, Managing partner

Alexander Khvoshchinskiy, LegalStudies.RU, Managing partner

Panelists:

• Philip Brown, H4 Partners, Senior consultant

• Boris Firsov, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Partner

• Dmitry Dyakin, Magisters (Moscow), Managing partner

• Alexander Sitnikov, Vegas-Lex, Managing director

18:15 - 18:30

Closing remarks

Vassily Rudomino, Co-Chair of the Conference Organisation Committee

Alexander Khvoshchinskiy, Co-Chair of the Conference Organisation Committee