Morgan Lewis announced today that a group of eight lawyers from the international law firm of Gide Loyrette Nouell will join its Business and Finance Practice, resident in Moscow. The group is led by partners Grigory Marinichev—the former head of the Banking and Finance and Restructuring Practices at Gide—and Konstantin Kochetkov, a leading project finance lawyer. They will be joined by six associates.
“Grigory and Konstantin’s team of top-tier finance and corporate transactional lawyers represent many large financial institutions and corporate enterprises that are particularly active in Russia and Europe,” said Firm Chair Francis M. Milone. “The diversity of their practice and client base offers attractive synergies with our international presence and deep bench in related areas,” he added.
Mr. Marinichev launched the Banking and Finance Practice at his former firm 10 years ago, and with Mr. Kochetkov, has built it into a well-managed and high performing group. Mr. Marinichev’s practice focuses on structured finance and secured lending as well as debt restructuring and insolvency matters for blue chip borrowers, Russian and European lenders and debtors undergoing liquidation or reorganization. He also counsels companies in a variety of industries including metals and mining, telecommunications, oil and gas, energy, and municipal infrastructure.
Mr. Kochetkov advises clients on project finance transactions, as well as on issues relating to pre-export finance, export finance, restructuring, equity financing, and private equity transactions.
“This team’s arrival offers us an opportunity to establish one of the leading banking and finance practices in Russia and helps to build out the firm’s global restructuring capabilities,” noted Charles Engros, Leader of the Business and Finance Practice. “The innovative counsel that they provide on cross-border banking, lending and financing issues for companies in a number of industries will prove invaluable to our wide array of clients. Their practice also ties in well with our current emerging market finance practice in London and the new finance team to be based in Dubai,” he said.
“We have always been proud of our uncompromising approach to recruiting top talent in Moscow,” said Oleg Berger, recruiting partner for the Moscow office. “Grigory’s and Konstantin’s success in assembling one of the most respected finance teams in the market and their reputation for unyielding client service is consistent with our approach and complements our already formidable team in a key practice area.”
The group joins a Business and Finance team that spans the United States, Europe, and Asia, with more than 350 transactional lawyers who focus on a wide variety of areas, including finance, bankruptcy and restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and capital markets.
