A Great Expert Lands at GRATA International Dispute Resolution Practice

Zhandarbek Ramazan, an experienced judge of the Specialized Interdistrict Economic Court of Almaty, joins GRATA International as Counsel and Co-Head of the Almaty Office Litigation Practice effective February 16, 2022.

Zhandarbek Nurzhanovich is widely known among practising lawyers for his extensive experience in resolving complex commercial disputes.  While GRATA has historically been joined by retired judges who wished to continue their professional activities, Zhandarbek has decided to convert his career path from an active judge to a disputes expert at GRATA International.

With over 12 years of Zhandarbek's judicial experience, we believe that the firm's reinforced litigation practice will protect the interests of clients in courts more effectively and determine the chances of clients to succeed even at the pre-trial stage with higher precision - noted Almat Daumov, partner of the firm.

Saule Akhmetova, Director of GRATA's Almaty office, expressed confidence that the appointment of Zhandarbek Ramazan would significantly strengthen the position of the firm's litigation practice and provide clients with advice on strategic litigation issues. In her opinion, this decision is one of the key stages in the further development of dispute resolution practice in GRATA.

Zhandarbek Ramazan worked as a judge of the SIEC in Almaty from January 2010 to February 2022. During this time, Zhandarbek resolved major commercial and fiscal disputes. In 2017, Mr. Ramazan successfully completed a six-month intensive legal training course and an internship at the London office of the Law Society of England and Wales (The Law Society of England and Wales: Judicial Training Program at City Law School, placement in law firms, barristers’ chambers, and High Court of Justice) within the framework of the Bolashak scholarship program and on the initiative of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the AIFC.

The arrival of an expert with such impressive track record will significantly strengthen the team's leading position in the Dispute Resolution market in Kazakhstan.

Contacts: 

Zulfiya Akchurina contributed to the World Bank Group research

We would like to congratulate Zulfiya Akchurina, Representative in USA, on receiving the Certificate of Appreciation from the World Bank Group!

The World Bank Group is formulating a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate in economies worldwide following the discontinuation of the Doing Business project. Updates on the development of the new Business Enabling Environment (BEE) project will be published on this website as they become available. In the interim, the website will act as a one-stop shop to spotlight a set of curated indicators and resources for users focused on improving the business environment.

For more information please contact Zulfiya Akchurina by:

📞+1 646 387 4757 
📩zakchurina@gratanet.com

GRATA International in Pravo.ru-300’s «recommended lawyers» Russian ranking

Pravo.ru-300, one of Russia’s leading legal directory, has recently published its list of 1048 country’s leading lawyers. The selection was based on several criteria: key projects in 2021, legal experience, years of practice, professional achievements.  

Three members of GRATA International’s team in Russia were named among the top experts: 

• Inna Makarova – Maritime law – II group 
• Oksana Afanasieva – Tax advising and disputes – II group 
• Mikhail German – Labour and migration law (including disputes) - II group 

Full list of Pravo.ru-300 recommended lawyers can be found here (in Russian). The names of lawyers are placed in alphabetical order.  

Launching mobile application "Kazakhstan Consular Service"

On 19 January 2022 Grata Beijing took part in launching mobile application "Kazakhstan Consular Service" organized by the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Beijing together with China Overseas Development Association.

This event has been dedicated to the 30th year of establishing diplomatic relationship with People's Republic of China. The innovative system provides a detailed information regarding consulate services in Chinese language, as well as information regarding epidemiological and migration requirements of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The mobile application is already available in WeChat messenger using QR code.

GRATA International offices in Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were noted as an active partners of the EBRD

On January 22, 2022, the EBRD’s Legal Transition Team has completed an assessment of business reorganisation tools in all 38 emerging economies where the EBRD is active. The mai goal is to help governments and legislators to identify where longer-term legal reforms are needed to encourage the use of insolvency tools for business continuity and turnaround. At the beginning of February, an online presentation of the research will be held for three days.

This Annex acknowledges the law firms with which we cooperated closely in each of the 40 jurisdictions covered by the EBRD Business Reorganisation Assessment. One of the law firms is GRATA International in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan which provided invaluable assistance by helping the assessment team to validate the factual economy specific data and reviewing all Economy Profiles and the cross-jurisdictional tables annexed to the Main Report. 

GRATA International in Azerbaijan held a webinar on: "Doing Business"

On February 3, 2022, the online webinar on Doing Business in Azerbaijan was held, which covered issues from the corporate, labor, migration and tax points of view of doing business.

Ummi Jalilova, Managing Partner, covered issues of state guarantees, classification of legal entities, legal forms of doing business and company registration. Read more here→

Shabnam Sadigova Huseynova, Senior Associate, covered the issues of labor law: the procedure for entering into an Employment contract, procedures employing foreign nationals, documentation requirements for termination. Read more here→

Royal Ibrahimli, Associate, covered the issues of taxation: tax regulation, VAT tax regime, double taxation. Read more here→

Fatima Eyyub, Junior Associate, covered the issues of financial and currency regulation: subjects of currency transactions, currency control, repatriation requirements. Read more here→

At the end of the webinar, the speakers answered questions from the audience.

The recording of the webinar is available on our YouTube channel.