The managing partner of ART DE LEX, Dmitry Magonya, answered questions in Legal Insight about the influence of sanctions on the Russian legal-services market

Will sanctions influence the Russian legal-services market?  Will the Russian businesses be more oriented toward the East in the future?  An article in Legal Insight recently analyzed these issues.

According to the article’s author, Daria Lopashenko, any analysis of the legal-services market should consider the common features of the crises of 1990 and 2008: a decrease in budgets for legal services, a reduction in legal work, changes in clients’ portfolios, and shifts in the Russian legal-services market.

She noticed that the demand for legal services has increased, especially in the sphere of investments, capital markets, and M&A transactions. Clients have become more concerned with decreasing the risks associated with the sanctions, so one may notice a growth in practices that specialize in sanctions.

Today, Russia is more oriented toward the East, Latin America, and Africa, according to Lopashenko. For example, the ART DE LEX law firm opened a Brazilian Desk in 2013 to serve Russian and Latin American businesses. Moreover, in early 2015, ART DE LEX will organize two workshops, in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, to augment their efforts to guide Latin American firms doing business in Russia.

The increased interest of Russian legal services in Russian, Latin American, and African companies also is connected to the possibility that sanctions may increase in the future and that Russian business ties with the United States and the European Union may evaporate.

The article is useful to everyone interested in the legal-services market and to those who want to gain insights from the opinions of leading experts.