Two years ago, almost all foreign law firms left Russia, some of which opened Moscow and Leningrad representative offices back in the days of the late USSR. Online, not only the legal map, once clearly segmented by “elfs” and “rulfs”, changed, but also client portfolios and the business climate: with the departure of transnational players, the largest redistribution of assets since the nineties began with record investments in real estate, a parade of downnaming and downbranding, and competition in the context of market compression, sanctions pressure and with the advent of the “Nyulfs” has become even tougher.
More information about how the legal map of Russia has changed, what was lost and gained with the departure of conditional foreigners by Russian legal practices, can be found in the commentary of the Managing Partner of Nordic Star Law Offices Andrei Gusev in the material for CRE (article in Russian).