KK&P prepared a Russian law legal opinion for the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report

An independent expert review was required to describe the court proceedings modelled by the World Bank in preparation for its index of protection of minority shareholders in Russia, which is one of the indicators used in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking. The firm’s lawyers, led by Managing Partner Maxim Kulkov, gave a legal assessment of the interpretation of two provisions of Russian legislation, on which opinions are sharply divided and which could therefore have a positive or a negative impact on Russia’s position in the 2019 Doing Business report.

The firm prepared one legal opinion in relation to the interpretation of Article 66 Clause 4 of the RF Arbitration Procedure Code Submission and Request of Evidence. In their opinion, the firm’s lawyers argued that a “lack of detail” in a list of requested evidence would affect satisfaction by the court of the application to request evidence.

The second legal opinion concerned the concept of “guilt” in the context of Article 53.1 of the RF Civil Code and Article 71 in the Federal Law On Joint Stock Companies, as well as the potential for bringing a company director to liability for actions carried out unintentionally but with negligence.

The firm participated in the project at the invitation of Prosperity Capital Management, an investment company specialising in Russian assets. Both companies worked on the project pro bono.

The annual research done for the World Bank’s Doing Business report makes it possible to objectively assess laws regulating business and the application thereof in 190 countries, as well as in individual cities on a national and regional level. Doing Business 2018: Reforming to Create Jobs, was the 15th in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.

In the Doing Business 2018 report, which came out in the autumn of 2017, KK&P partner Oleg Kolotilov was listed among the Russian experts under the Regional Contributors to the report.