Ivanyan and Partners

The research for this section took place and was published 2021, before the current crisis in Ukraine; these rankings reflect the market as it was at that time. We are not requesting submissions from firms in Russia for the 2022 report at this time and they will not feature in future reports under the current circumstances.

The firm’s work for Russia lands it in the GAR 100 for the first time

NEW IN 2021. Russia’s Ivanyan and Partners was founded in 2006 by Khristofor Ivanyan, former head of litigation at GAR 100 firm Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners.

The full-service firm has since grown to over 90 lawyers in Moscow and St Petersburg and won a series of mandates to represent Russia in cases at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice.

In 2019, Ivanyan and Partners was instructed to represent Russia in eight investment treaty arbitrations lodged by Ukrainian investors over the alleged expropriation of their assets in Crimea. The state had before then refused to participate in such cases, a strategy that failed to prevent a series of adverse awards.

Soon after, the firm recruited Baiju Vasani from Jones Day as global head of its newly formed international arbitration practice. Vasani, who has also worked at Crowell & Moring, has a long track record in investment treaty work, particularly against Central Asian states.

Andrey Gorlenko, who is the president of the Russian Arbitration Centre at the Russian Institute of Modern Arbitration, joined the partnership in 2019 and the following year James Dingley joined as a partner from Clifford Chance.

Another name to know is partner Vasily Torkanovskiy in Moscow, who heads the public international law team.

Network

The firm has offices in Moscow and St Petersburg but is seeking regulatory approval for an office in London, where Vasani and Dingley will be based.

Who uses it?

Russia is using Ivanyan for all its Crimea-related treaty cases, but not for the Yukos case.  Ivanyan also represents large Russian corporations such as Gazprombank.

Track record

Vasani was part of the Jones Day team that helped Canadian mining company World Wide Minerals win more than US$50 million in a pathbreaking claim against Kazakhstan brought under an investment treaty signed by the former Soviet Union.

At his old firm, Vasani also helped Turkish investor Federal Elektrik prevail on liability in an ICSID claim against Uzbekistan; and defended Kyrgyzstan in an ICSID claim by Uzbek investors in a tourism project.

Recent events

The firm’s work for Russia in the Crimea cases continues. These include a claim brought by Ukraine’s national gas company Naftogaz that the firm says is worth US$8.6 billion claim

Other BIT cases have been filed by Ukraine’s transmission system operator Ukrenergo; Airport Belbek and Ukrainian businessman Igor Kolomoisky; and Privatbank – which was formerly co-owned by Kolomoisky but is now under Ukrainian state control.

Vasani continues to co-counsel with his old firm Jones Day on an ICSID claim brought on behalf of a group of Kazakh cement investors against Uzbekistan. An award is pending.

They are also co-counselling World Wide Minerals in a resubmitted damages claim against Kazakhstan – after the Commercial Court in London annulled the quantum findings in the company’s US$50 million award.

Client comment

Maxim Mozgov, a member of the legal team at Gazprombank, says he has used Ivanyan & Partners for several disputes and the firm is “reliable and experienced”. Vasily Torkanovskiy “understands the client’s needs” while Gorlenko is a very experienced lawyer who provides “well-grounded advice”.