News date: 17 November 2023
Valeriia Gudiy, Attorney at Law, Partner and Vadym Kizlenko, Attorney at Law, Counsel, Co-Head of Insolvency & Financial Restructuring at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm, delivered speeches at the XI Annual Forum of Legal Counsels held on 15 November 2023 in Kyiv. The event was organized by Yurydychna Praktyka Publishing House.
Vadym Kizlenko in his report entitled Interaction with External Legal Counsels noted that an external legal counsel would be an effective assistant for the Corporate Legal Department. Vadym gave examples from his own practice, when a non-resident financial company issued a loan to a resident Ukrainian company. The loan became non-performing, and the non-resident company in Ukraine had only one representative office. Therefore, they had no other options than to engage external legal counsels.
Vadym also provided an example where an external legal counsel helped a client, a Ukrainian company, to sell his debt to a company that had initiated bankruptcy proceedings on favorable terms for the client and, thus, to repay a debt that was considered bad.
“There are no lawyers who know absolutely everything, so it makes sense to engage external legal counsels. The main criterion by which, in my opinion, it is advisable to involve external legal counsels is the effect of their involvement. Engaging external legal counsels is usually more expensive than paying for the services of in-house lawyers, but you always need to take into account the expertise and results, – noted Vadym Kizlenko. – It makes sense if the funds you received as a result of the work of external legal counsels exceed the cost of their services. Then cooperation is effective and worth the cost. By engaging external legal counsels, you get reliable partners.”
Valeriia Gudiy moderated the session Areas of Increased Attention in In-House Work: Inside View and raised such issues of current importance as minimizing risks in public procurement, changes in tax legislation, problems of enforcement proceedings.
The session participants, including civil servants, business representatives and partners of law firms, discussed legal mechanisms and risk minimization in public procurement, problems of law enforcement of changes in tax legislation during the war and the lawfulness of applying penalties to business, the practice of applying non-compete agreements in Ukraine, and also shared advice on how to reduce potential negative impact from business communication with the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine.
The XI Annual Forum of Legal Counsels is a key specialized event of the year, serving as a platform for communication between and exchange of professional experience by the representatives of the law departments of the largest Ukrainian and international companies operating on the Ukrainian market, as well as significant players in the legal business and the government officials. Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm was a professional partner of the forum.