About Us

We provide a full range of legal services for business leaders, helping resolve challenges that require international experience and a deep understanding of Russian law.

We have advised global clients when they started operations in Russia and other CIS countries, helped leading Russian companies structure the most complex deals in various sectors, and won some of the most challenging court cases in Russia and abroad.

We have unique, sector-specific experience, including in IT, healthcare and medical devices, mining and energy, retail, and industrial construction.

We specialize in the fields of corporate and antitrust law, sanctions and general compliance, dispute resolution, labor, customs and tax law, real estate, intellectual property, finance, and capital markets.

History

The first international law firm to open an office in the USSR

Paul Melling,

founder of the Moscow office

The history of our firm begins in January 1989 when Baker McKenzie was the first international law firm to open an official representative office in the USSR. Paul Melling, a British lawyer who founded the Moscow office of Baker McKenzie, specialized in projects in the USSR and fully understood the possibilities of the new market for investors.

Baker McKenzie opened an office in Moscow because it strived to create a Russian law firm where Russian lawyers would work. This firm aimed to represent major international companies entering the new market and provide them with the same premium-level legal services that Baker McKenzie’s clients in the USA and Europe received.

A Russian lawyer becomes a partner in a Western law firm

Baker McKenzie was the first Western law firm in Moscow where a Russian lawyer became a partner. In 1996 Eugene Arievich became head of the intellectual property practice and took it to the highest level, which it is proud to maintain to this day.

Most partners in Baker McKenzie have spent their entire legal careers in our firm, beginning as junior lawyers or students. Our managing partner, Sergei Voitishkin, joined the company in 1994 as a translator; in 2002 he became a partner and since then has led the corporate law and M&A practice.

30+ years in Russia — precedent-setting disputes, landmark deals

In the three decades since it began working in Moscow, the Baker McKenzie team has transformed into a successful Russian law firm, one of the largest on the market, where Russian lawyers with international experience hold leading positions.

We advised major Western companies on their most significant projects, when they were just entering our market, as they enlarged their presence here, and also when some of them left the Russian market: BAT, International Paper, Emerson, Carlsberg, Pepsi, Siemens, Ford, Akzo Nobel, Indesit, Boeing, Takeda, Hitachi, and thousands of others. Our lawyers helped structure many significant projects with the participation of Russian companies, such as VSMPO-AVISMA, KAMAZ, Rosnano, Russian Railways, Gazprom, and Sollers.

We have advised some of the largest technology companies on entering the Russian market, on creating distribution networks, and on complying with requirements for personal data localization and the “Landing Law”.

Our court specialists have participated in precedent-setting disputes, including representing clients in the RF Supreme Court in a series of key cases, the outcome of which defined the fate of their businesses.

New times, existing standards

We survived the crises of 1998, 2008 and 2014, when many of our competitors either left the Russian market or seriously reduced their staff. We held on, confident that the need for our services would continue thanks to the impeccable qualifications of our staff and the stellar reputation of our leading practices.

In 2022 we became the independent Russian law firm Melling, Voitishkin and Partners. Like before, our main assets are our clients and our lawyers. We also continue to value the operating principles that helped Baker McKenzie become one of the leading global law firms — quality, speed, a commercial approach and the ability to explain complex matters in a simple way. We are proud to be entrusted with the most complicated tasks. We remain one of the largest and most successful teams on the Russian legal market.