LEGAL SERVICES IN RUSSIA

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Focus. Russia-related disputes and enforcement. Track record includes insolvency and D&O defense; cross-border litigation and enforcement (including New York proceedings and interfaces with investment arbitration); shareholder and corporate-control disputes; and PPP/major contracting matters. Illustrative work covers disputes across Russia, from Sakhalin to St. Petersburg, and includes significant recoveries in international supply cases.

Selected matters below highlight Alexander Dondokov’s track record.

Defense in subsidiary-liability claims, director/officer exposure, and bankruptcy litigation strategy.

Selected matters:

• A40-191296/2019 – subsidiary-liability claims in the bankruptcy of an SPV of VEB Infrastructure JSC (PPP concessions for kindergarten construction). Defended a senior manager (co-signatory director); established absence of fault and secured dismissal of claims against the client, while the other director was held liable.
• A56-42260/2016 – validity of a transaction in bankruptcy proceedings. Defended the owner in an avoidance claim challenging a real-estate transfer made in repayment of loans (alleged asset withdrawal); the court refused to invalidate the client’s transaction.
• A40-5582/2015 – defended the director of the FC Otkritie fund (established under the RAO UES reform) against a RUB 36bn subsidiary-liability claim; claim dismissed.
• Advised a subsidiary of a Russian state corporation on recovery of unpaid PPP consulting fees; prepared objections in the debtor’s bankruptcy and against an extraordinary-review application of the enforcement judgment.

High-value commercial disputes across multiple jurisdictions; strategy before foreign courts; recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Russia.

Selected matters:

• 0652251/2017 (NYS) & A40-100218/2017 (Russia) – Russian-law advice to a US-based global insurance group in New York Supreme Court proceedings against a Big Four audit network (audit-related claims).
• A40-66152/2014; A40-51969/2014; A40-118863/2014 (and others) – acted for a US insurance group and a US private-equity fund in a corporate-control dispute involving a Russian commercial bank.
• 3m-0132/2018; A40-168348/2014; A40-92676/2015; 13-54/2016 – enforcement of Latvian court judgments in Russia for two Latvian banks.
• Advised a state-owned North African bank on prospects of enforcing a Luxembourg judgment in Russia.
• Investment arbitration (HKIAC): archival evidence work (State Archive of Russia; USSR Parliament materials) to support BIT interpretation on tribunal competence in unfair-expropriation disputes.
• A17-8715/2019 – acted for Qube Medical (Malaysia), recovered USD 700k+ under an international supply without a formal contract – built the case via customs data & proof of messenger account ownership.

Conflicts over share issues, corporate governance, and control in financial institutions and large corporates.

Selected matters:

• A04-3903/2019 – acted for an international investment holding in a dispute with an affiliate of a major private-equity fund over the validity of a Far Eastern commercial bank’s share issuance.
• А70-7811/2011 – represented a shareholder (claimant) vs a global energy major; secured > USD 3bn in damages relating to a failed Arctic exploration arrangement with a Russian energy company (granted at first instance; settled on appeal).

Concessions, PPP structures, and public-infrastructure project disputes; unjust-enrichment and non-performance claims under works and services contracts.

Selected matters:

• A59-597/2022 – validity of road and power-grid concessions in Sakhalin (private-initiative route); judgment for the project companies of a regional development corporation.
• 2-621/2022 – unjust enrichment arising from de facto contracting; RUB 47m in favor of the client (claimant).