Oct 05, 2011: Goltsblat BLP announces expansion of its dispute resolution practice and appointment of new partner

Law firm Goltsblat BLP is pleased to announce that Oleg Arkhipov has joined the firm as a Partner in the Dispute Resolution Practice.

Oleg was previously a member of the Goltsblat BLP team and, since then, over the last several years, has worked for the Hannes Snellman international law firm. Together with Oleg, the firm will welcome Rimma Malinskaya, Senior Associate, who also comes from Hannes Snellman.

Oleg has over 20 years’ experience of representing clients in complex disputes in state arbitration courts, courts of general jurisdiction and various state bodies.  He is a dispute resolution lawyer recommended by the leading international rankings and directories. Most recently, he has advised a major international manufacturing company on a number of bankruptcy cases worth a total of over EUR 100 mln, has successfully represented a Russian subsidiary of a leading international producer of mobile communications facilities in a commercial dispute against a chain mobile retailer to the amount of EUR 1.3 mln, and many others. The clients with which Oleg co-operates include such companies as Kimberly-Clark, Rosenergoatom, Kone, Nokia and many other well-known Russian and international companies.

Oleg will be the third LDR Partner in the practice and will work together with Partners Rustam Kurmaev and Elena Trusova.

Goltsblat BLP is planning to broaden further the capabilities of each of the three dispute resolution groups headed by partners, in line with their core specialisations. This is a new horizontal approach compared to the previous vertical structure of the practice and it will give the firm more  flexibility in staffing teams for each particular project and ensure a more efficient and tailored approach.

To this effect, Goltsblat BLP’s Dispute Resolution team will be joined by 2 more associates specialising in commercial and intellectual property disputes. With these changes, Goltsblat BLP will have one of the biggest Dispute Resolution Practices in Russia: at the Moscow Office, the firm will have 33 dispute resolution associates, including 11 lawyers engaged exclusively in litigations, as well as 22 lawyers who are mainly involved in specialised litigations.

Andrey Goltsblat, Managing Partner of Goltsblat BLP, comments on the new Partner’s appointment: “I am glad to welcome Oleg back to our firm. I am sure that the new structure of our dispute resolution practice and this appointment will let us develop our capabilities further and be more flexible in order to better serve our clients’ needs.”

Oleg Arkhipov, Partner, Goltsblat BLP: "I am pleased to join Goltsblat BLP, which I consider to be one of the strongest and most dynamically developing law firms in Russia. I am also, of course, delighted by this opportunity to continue working with Rustam, Elena and my other colleagues, together with whom I previously achieved victory in the most complex disputes -- and I am sure we will continue to do so in the future.”

Oleg’s appointment follows those of Tax Partner Evgeny Timofeev, who joined the firm from Salans in July 2011, Simon Allan, former head of finance at BLP in London, who relocated to the Moscow office in 2011, Oleg Khokhlov, Partner, a highly regarded Russian-qualified banking & finance expert from Linklaters, who joined the firm last month, and Andrey Shpak, who joined from PWC in 2010.

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