Agreements and documents
for operations, deals, projects in / with Russia

Consulting, assessing, revising contracts, agreements, documents in the office. Oral explanations, arguments, justifications, comments. The necessary details of the explanations. Clarification of related factors and circumstances under the contract. Consideration of the general situation or project in connection with the contract, agreement, document. Assumption of various circumstances for the purposes of legal effects under international law and under the law of the Russian Federation. Analysis with changing questions, filling in the missing elements to determine the optimal terms and conditions and wording of the contract. Editing simple contracts and initial editing of specific, rare contracts in Russian and (or) English. Demonstration and coordination with the client of the modifications on the big TV screen in the office. If necessary, demonstration of legal rules related to the contract, publications, foreign trade news.

Identification of risks and opportunities under contracts and documents. Verification and thesis written assessment of contracts and documents without their correction. It can be carried out regarding already concluded contracts, standard forms of contracts and company documents for their frequent operations, framework agreements for typical operations, or before entering into an agreement with an independent partner without the possibility of modifying it, as well as deciding on subsequent partial (selective) or full revision of the contract presented for legal assessment. It may contain thesis indications of any non-compliance of the contract provisions with the legislation of the Russian Federation and international law, the usual requirements of regulatory authorities and banks and law enforcement practices in the Russian Federation, risks, contradictions, discrepancies, problematic information in the contract, "pitfalls", adverse legal consequences, unused opportunities.

Legal audit of contracts and documents. Verification and detailed written evaluation of submitted contracts and documents without making adjustments therein. It can be carried out regarding already concluded contracts, standard forms of contracts and documents of companies for their frequent operations, framework agreements for standard operations, or before the conclusion of an agreement with an independent partner without the possibility of changing it. It may contain conclusions on compliance or non-compliance of the contract provisions with the legislation of the Russian Federation and international law, the usual requirements of regulatory authorities and banks and law enforcement practices in the Russian Federation. Also, identification and indication of risks, contradictions, discrepancies, problematic information in the contract, "pitfalls", adverse legal consequences and opportunities to minimize them by non-contractual legal means. Substantiation of conclusions by legal references to and key extracts from legal acts. Necessary comments, explanations, notes.

Partial (selective) revision of the agreement and (or) documents. Legal and linguistic revision and modification of the presented contract / documents on the agreed with the client goals, issues, sections, conditions, in English and (or) Russian. Any other issues and conditions of the submitted contract are not considered. Editing contracts and documents with the indication of changes and additions in the reviewing format in MS Word. The objectives of such partial revision may be to bring a foreign agreement in line with the mandatory requirements of Russian legislation and the requirements of Russian regulatory authorities and banks, elaboration of the contract and documents in order to reduce the risks of foreign exchange transactions, taxation, customs clearance in the Russian Federation, elaboration of agreements and documents for the use of foreign trade, tax, customs, and other legally established benefits in the Russian Federation. Generally, there will be provided brief comments and explanations in English by e-mail or more detailed oral explanations, arguments, justifications, comments in the office.

Full revision of the contract, agreement and (or) documents. Legal and linguistic revision and modification of the presented contract / documents with regard to all their terms and conditions. In particular, contracts from Russian partners, standard forms of contracts or framework agreements for activities in the Russian Federation, new agreements with counterparts in the Russian Federation, in English and (or) Russian. Generally, such full revision is carried out in order to protect the commercial interests of the client and to comply with statutory requirements, benefits in the Russian Federation, to specify in the contract the oral agreements reached by parties. Changes, additions, notes and comments in the MS Word review format. Brief comments and explanations in Russian by e-mail or more detailed oral explanations, arguments, justifications, comments in the office.

Drafting agreements and documents. Drafting in English and (or) Russian languages relatively simple, small, not particularly important contracts, agreements, documents in order to comply with the mandatory requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, the usual requirements of regulatory authorities and banks of the Russian Federation. Agreements, contracts and documents are prepared mainly on the basis of the key actual details of the operation, deal, project and the main related legal issues. Terms and conditions of the contract and documents are drafted in a simplified form to simplify their understanding by counterparts, as well as by currency control inspectors of banks, Federal Tax Agency, Federal Customs Agency, and other regulatory authorities of the Russian Federation. Key terms and conditions are specified in the wording pursuant to applicable laws and legal acts of the Russian Federation (particularly, in the Russian version of the contract), international conventions, publications of international organizations (particularly, in the English version of the contract). There will be added to the contract the necessary information, appropriate conditions as answers to frequent and most likely on the situation requests of banks and regulatory authorities of the Russian Federation. Adverse, problematic circumstances for the purpose of government inspections, if possible, are excluded from the contract or set forth in the form of language that does not attract attention. Bilingual agreements and documents in English and Russian are made out in a compact presentable form with the placement of bilingual paragraphs in English and Russian strictly opposite each other.

Detailed development of agreements and documents. Detailed development of complex, complicated, important, contracts, agreements, documents in English and (or) Russian in order to protect the commercial interests of the client and comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, the requirements of regulatory authorities and banks of the Russian Federation. In such elaboration, there will be taken into account both the main key actual details of the operation, deal, project with the applicable basic legal points and the relevant actual (on the situation) and legal nuances. Key terms of the contract for the purposes of the operation, transaction, project are intentionally strengthened by introducing into the contract separate articles on terms, on the statements of the parties indicating the key actual circumstances and particulars, giving such terms of the contract a formal sign of "material terms" and (or) by other contractual means. The legal liability of the client's party under the contract is limited to the amount of the contract, or the amount of an individual operation, or by types of liability, time terms and (or) by other contractual provisions. The contract terms of the opposite party which are unacceptable or inconvenient for the client, are "blurred" by making small changes therein or adding to them some additional conditions. Major formal legal risks in Russia, such as the huge penalties on the repatriation of currency, are minimized by stipulating special contract terms to this end and by changing the terms of performance of obligations from the formal viewpoint. Applicable tax, customs and (or) other benefits under the legislation of the Russian Federation are carefully complied with by establishing detailed provisions to this end. In general, the favorable circumstances for the client are emphasized in the contract and unfavorable circumstances, if possible, are excluded or at least obscured.

Legal support on a stage-by-stage basis. Legal support for the conclusion of a contract or agreement is usually reduced to the preparation of new versions of the agreement and documents to it during negotiations and approvals by e-mail. If necessary, services of legal consulting, legal opinions, legal analysis, legal planning on important issues of the contract can be provided. The cost of a set of legal services is determined at the beginning of each stage of legal support based on the number, complexity, the desired timing of the issues at a particular stage. For more details, visit Legal support of deals, projects, situations in Russia.