On October 13, 2017, Managing Partner of Capital Legal Services Vladislav Zabrodin spoke at and moderated a discussion organized by the St. Petersburg International Business Association (SPIBA) with the business community of the northern capital. The date of the discussion had some impact on its subject matter: “Friday the 13th. Business-divination: the socio-economic situation in Russia.”

Vladislav spoke not only about legal initiatives that the lawmakers implemented in 2017 and plan to implement in 2018. The presentation was a peculiar type of summary emphasizing the highlights of 2017 affecting society and business.

What are the results of 2017 through the legal lens?

Vladislav Zabrodin does agree with the observations of meteorologists that the summer of 2017 was cold, but he made this conclusion based not so much on temperature anomalies, as much as on the socio-economic events in the country’s life from January to October 2017.

First, there are the landmark cases. Probably, the lawsuit instituted by Rosneft against Financial Corporation Sistema was the most discussed event in the legal community in terms of developing a line of defense, reviewing positions of the parties and, of course, impact on the business environment and the investment appeal of our country.

Accusations of major embezzlement and fraud in the sphere of lending and credit, along with bribery, were among the top headers in legal news bulletins. Among those involved are Alexei Ulyukayev – the former Minister of Economic Development, Kirill Serebrennikov – Art Director of Gogol Center, Dmitry Kostygin – co-owner of online retailer Ulmart, and others. Ongoing bankruptcy of private airlines is another ‘trend’ that affects the situation on the market.

As regards trends on the legal market, Vladislav Zabrodin drew the attention of the discussion participants to changes in the economics of the legal services market, services switching to criminal and bankruptcy processes, as well as development of the market sector associated with management of private equity.

Vladislav touched on the topic of the legal profession. In recent months, the legal community has been in a hot debate over a draft law proposed by Pavel Krasheninnikov, the Chairman of the Association of Lawyers of Russia (ALR), and a discussion dedicated to this law with the Russian Federal Bar Association. The Chairman of the ALR believes that a degree in law should be mandatory for providing legal defense for citizens and companies in court, and that the ALR should license these activities.

In his presentation, the Managing Partner of Capital Legal Services also spoke about the most important legislative changes in corporate law, antitrust law, tax law, public-private partnership, protection of intellectual property, personal data and regulation of block chain technology.

Stanislav Murashov, Macroanalyst at RaiffeisenBank, Anna Ustiyants, Operations Director of Kelly Services, Julia Strelchik, Head of Sales & Marketing at M-Brain also gave their assessment of the events and their forecasts.

Karina Khabacheva, SPIBA Executive Director, thanked Vladislav Zabrodin and noted that the discussion was rousing, the audience was grateful and open to the information. “We did what is missing at official events, where boring people give boring presentations for a likewise boring audience. We discussed very important and serious topics with irony, adding a second or third meaning to them. We were able to captivate the audience and assure thoughtful and positive perception of the information. Our speakers with enthusiasm took part in this game under the code name ‘Friday the 13’ and enjoyed it.”