Russian response to Western sanctions became not only famous for the import substitution policy: it also boosted the development of trade with territories and countries outside the EU or the USA.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, alongside BRICS and other market economies, is the next cooperation opportunity for Russian businesses, whose development demands for businesses to understand the Russian legal system, the process of incorporation, the know-how needed to set up their operations there.
MGAP has been actively exploring the possibility of providing legal assistance and advisory support to Iranian, Chinese, Brazilian, African, and Indian businesses and initiatives reaching out to Russian and CIS markets. The approach that has been developed has allowed such cooperations to grow quickly and efficiently.
MGAP approach relies on putting our clients in contact with leading experts and establishing direct contact between business organizations and contractors, which result in a significant reduction of the price and an overall improvement in the quality of the service.
When providing support to large and complex projects, a proper selection of lawyers and legal advisers from our headquarters in Moscow and London is gathered to work alongside external specialists – such as auditors, accountants, business developers, and patent specialists, to ensure a clear coordination between the different sectors of a project.
Our expertise in this area is unique, and includes transactions of major international real estate items, projects concerning the management of natural resources, of the food and agriculture industry, as well as high-tech and IT projects, and major international movie and media projects, with budgets exceeding 120 million USD (for example, Wanted, 9, and Apollo 18).
Working at the intersection of different jurisdictions requires a multi-level analysis of the specific corporate structure created for this project, and a proper assessment of the tax consequences of each transaction performed. MGAP offers over 10 years of experience in this field, during which over a hundred corporate models have been developed and implemented, ranging from small, still developing businesses to large companies with a cross-border constituent.
Working as part of MGAP, a team of international lawyers have prepared themselves with leading international law firms, and established strong contacts with the most competent specialists around the world.
Our expertise in this area includes corporate structuring for major Russian holding companies working abroad, and developing procedures for a large number of foreign companies to help them enter the Russian market.
MGAP provides their clients with the traditional range of services tied to financing transactions, such as lend, mortgage, and lease, as well as other services, which include asset tracing and debt recovery. Our financial and law department covers the support of claims both in the courts of Russian jurisdiction and in other international jurisdictions, including the ability to connect to litigation funds – unprecedented as of today in the Russian finance market – in order to finance judicial protection and debt recovery.
Our experience includes successful projects with both Russian and foreign banks and with other financial institutions, which includes Russia’s “top ten banks,” some leading Russian and foreign retail chains, and the financing of transactions for both private and corporate air transport.
One of MGAP’s main specialisms is work with media and other networks of communication, and on content development for high-tech projects, meeting fully the goals established by the guidelines of cooperation among emerging countries in the fields of science, technology and innovation. Over the years, MGAP has consistently been ranked in the first places of prestigious international rankings in this field (Top Legal 500: as leading firm for EMEA, and as noted firm for Chambers Europe).
One of the main elements of any high-tech project is dealing with intellectual property and its protection, which is a problem that has to be addressed in a highly professional manner. Similarly, other content-based projects require the same degree of attention.
Our experience includes a victory, for the first time in the whole Russian judicial history, in a case regarding the download of music content through a mobile device; the legal support of leading mobile phone operators during the sale of mobile technologies; the protection of intellectual property for a major aviation holding company; the legal support of many large international projects in the field of music, film and television.
By means of the skills and experience hereby presented, MGAP’s team of experts is capable of providing a rapid and effective establishment of the necessary infrastructure for projects of any scale and complexity.
In this context, one of our most relevant skills is the capacity of structuring, moderating and coordinating complex and multi-level professional communication in different cultural and language environments.
We also manage and run events aimed at studying markets and legal and regulatory innovation; at training personnel and developing a proper methodology for project implementation in an international cooperation framework.
Our experience includes a vast array of items, ranging from the development of subject matter and content for round tables at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, to leading discussions and workshops on joint productions of media projects, both at the Moscow International Film Festival and on other international forums, to cooperating with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Federal Fund for Social and Economic Support of National Cinematography as part of programs supporting Russian film producers and national film production, to conducting training workshops for entrepreneurs and investors in the field of internet technologies.