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Getting to the Belarus market through the lawyers

14.09.2008

A joint business law alliance TLS Alliance recently established by three leading law firms of the Baltic States has stepped into Belarus. According to the founders of the alliance, such a step is related to the prospects of the Belorussian economy and business.

This week the business law alliance TLS Alliance, uniting Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian law firms which have been continuously cooperating for five years, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the oldest and one of the largest Belorussian law firms Vlasova Mikhel & Partners.

According to Mrs Eugenija Sutkien?, Managing Partner of law firm Sutkien?, Pilkauskas & Partners which is one of the founders of the alliance, cooperation between TLS Alliance and the Belorussian lawyers will be particularly useful to clients of all the members of the alliance who are interested in promising changes in the neighbouring country.

"Our clients pay more and more attention to positive changes in the Belorussian economy, new investment opportunities and successful projects in Belarus, therefore, with strong partners in Belarus we will considerably reinforce our successful cooperation with our clients, will be able to urgently provide information about processes going on in this country, calls for tenders and promising investment areas, changes in the Belorussian law, as well as the case law, and will ensure coordination and provision of high-level business law services of various profiles", she said.

According to Konstantin Mikhel, Managing Partner of the Belorussian law firm Vlasova Mikhel & Partners, Belarus is becoming more and more interesting for many foreign investors due to changes in the Belorussian state policy related to liberalisation of many economic processes, privatisation of banks and enterprises and anticipated positive changes in the securities market and in the real estate market.

He said that law firm Vlasova Mikhel & Partners had traditionally been the organiser of many changes significant for the Belorussian legal market.

"We believe that the conclusion of the strategic cooperation agreement with TLS Alliance and related practical actions are one of such significant changes. We have established good working relations with foreign colleagues in many countries of the world and these relations are getting ever stronger as time passes. Cooperation with TLS Alliance supports further development of our mutual relations on the basis of the common vision of the partners pertaining to the development of the law firms forming the alliance, marketing, unification of standards of legal services and expansion of possibilities in regions in order to create a shortcut from a client's wish to invest to generation of profit", he said.

According to him, Belarus, with a population close to 10 million, is taking decisive steps in opening up the economy to foreign investors and enhancing economical cooperation both with the East and the West.

"In coming years the Belarus government intends to privatise over 70 companies, many of them major players in manufacturing or services sector. Allegedly, also minority holdings in some banks like Belarusbank and Belagroprombank will be sold to private investors. Last year the telecommunications sector saw the country's biggest M&A transaction when the state holding in Velcom, one of the two leading mobile operators in Belarus, was sold to Telekom Austria. Further deals in telecommunications sector are expected", says Mr Konstantin Mikhel, Managing Partner of Vlasova Mikhel & Partners.

According to Mr Aare Tark, Managing Partner of alliance member, the Estonian law firm Tark & Co, cooperation of the Belorussian firm with TLS Alliance markedly reinforces the position of the legal alliance in all the relevant markets.

"We believe that the alliance's cooperation with this firm is a significant step forward and substantially strengthens TLS Alliance's position as a leading business law expert in the Baltics and neighbouring regions. The cooperation with Vlasova Mikhel & Partners will bring not only a good synergy but also new challenges for the alliance. However, we are confident that our clients will greatly benefit from this cooperation", said Mr Aare Tark, Managing Partner of Tark & Co.

TLS Alliance was founded by three law firms Tark & Co, Loze, Grunte & Cers and Sutkien?, Pilkauskas & Partners in the beginning of September 2008.

According to the founders, the founding of TLS Alliance was prompted by the general development of all three firms, exchange of knowledge and skills as well as provision of uniform services. With engagement of the Belarusian lawyers into the activities of the alliance, over 120 attorneys-at-law and lawyers will work under common trademark.

The members of TLS Alliance (Tark & Co, Loze, Grunte & Cers and Sutkien?, Pilkauskas & Partners) have been engaged in several landmark transactions, for example in founding the first European Company (Societas Europaea, SE) in the Baltics by merging the Baltic subsidiaries of Sampo Life into a single European company. The three law firms were the first to provide legal counselling on the EU cross-border merger in the Baltic banking sector. The members of TLS Alliance also advised the launch of Pohjola Bank in the three Baltic States as well as together with international law firm Lovells LLP conducted a research on electricity sector regulation in a number of EU jurisdictions.

Facts about TLS Alliance members

Sutkien?, Pilkauskas & Partners was founded in early 2003 as a result of the reorganisation of the Vilnius office of USA law firm McDermott, Will & Emery. The founders of the firm were the first and for some time the only private international law practitioners in the country. Over the years of practice, the firm has developed long-term relationships with the leading law firms in USA, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia and other East and Central European countries.

Tark & Co, one of the oldest and largest law firms in Estonia, was established in 1991. Since its founding, Tark & Co has been oriented to providing services to foreign clients. For many years, the firm has been closely co-operating with leading law firms in the Nordic countries, Europe and USA, and as a result has acquired considerable international experience. Besides being a member of TLS Alliance, Tark & Co also strategically co-operates with leading Nordic law firms, such as Mannheimer Swartling, a leading commercial law firm in Sweden, Hannes Snellman and Castrén & Snellman in Finland, and other leading law firms. Tark & Co is a member of the Association of European Lawyers, an international network of law firms.

Loze, Grunte & Cers is a major business law firm with more than 15 years of experience. The law firm was formed in May 2005 by a merger of two leading and most experienced Latvian law firms, Loze & Partners and Grunte & Cers. The lawyers of the firm have been closely co-operating with the leading law firms in Great Britain, USA, Scandinavia and other countries worldwide.

Vlasova Mikhel & Partners have been operating under the current name since April 2007 after the merger of the leading law firms Vlasova & Partners and Mikhel & Partners. Currently the company employs more than 20 lawyers who have completed internships in leading US and European law companies. Vlasova Mikhel & Partners' cooperation with international law companies such as Clifford Chance, White&Case, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and others has contributed to the development of high standard legal services. In recent years the company has significantly extended the range of legal services including e-commerce, banks and finance, intellectual property, telecommunications and antidumping procedures. The firm, having a representative office also in Warsaw, provides services to a number of major international and national companies in the fields of banking and finance, manufacturing, services, etc.

For more information, please contact:

Mr Aare Tark
Phone: +372 6110 900
E-mail: aare.tark@tarkco.ee

Vlasova Mikhel & Partners: http://vmp.by/en/
TLS Alliance: http://www.tlsalliance.eu/

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