Maxim Ali has named for the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information the main outcomes of 2020 for Russia’s legal business
The events of the past year were unprecedented in the recent history: internal self-isolation and international quarantine, political crises in most leading countries and the fall of all financial markets, the radicalization of public initiatives and significant changes in legislation. Maxim Ali, partner at Maxima Legal, spoke specifically for the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information about the impact of these trials on the Russian legal market and the major trends of the last year.
Maxim recalled how law firms, against the backdrop of the pandemic, “started informing clients about the changes in regulation that were occurring on a daily basis and preparing analytical materials. Often all this was done for free”.
In addition, according to the expert, “remote work did not go smoothly everywhere. For some industries, this format of interaction proved to be unfamiliar and overlapped with sick leave and employee isolation. Therefore, many of the issues required to launch and run new projects took longer to resolve. There was less travel and personal contact. This also affected the speed with which new projects were formed and the choice of legal advisors. All this led to a pent-up demand for services. As a result, many lawyers have felt an increase in enquiries since the new year. For example, January, which is relatively quiet because of the holidays, turned out to be a busy month for many teams.”
“Traditionally in a crisis there is an increased interest in litigation and bankruptcy and 2020 was no exception. It is true that the pandemic has left its mark on the courts in particular: The lockdown has temporarily frozen judicial work”, Maxim Ali added.