Sergei Bakeshin has listed for the DP the most common grounds for bringing lawyers and attorneys to a criminal responsibility

Sergei Bakeshin - Counsel

Especially for the Rating of Lawyers application, Sergei Bakeshin, Senior Associate, Head of Dispute Resolution and Insolvency Practice at Maxima Legal, told the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper about possible reasons for bringing representatives of Russian legal community to a criminal responsibility:

“There have recently become more criminal cases against lawyers and advocates. Although it concerns business in general – more and more often the criminal-leverage is used. Lawyers and attorneys may be held liable for political reasons. One of the most notorious examples of this kind in recent times is the case of Mikhail Benyash, who represented participants in the procession against the pension reform in Krasnodar. There have been and still are situations where lawyers and attorneys have been held accountable for some illegal actions in the interests of their clients. This may involve falsification of documents or theft of a property. Lawyers and attorneys are also being prosecuted for receiving remuneration (allegedly excessive) for their legal services. In general, we can say that many such cases are economic, money and business related. It happens that such economic cases also have political motives. We all remember it from the Yukos lawyers’ case.

To read the full article (in Russian) please see the website of the Delovoy Peterburg newspaper >>>