FT Innovative Lawyers 2017 recognised AVELLUM for pioneering the litigation

strategy that helped to achieve a unique resolution from the Ukrainian court in

favour of the bondholders of Ukrainian agricultural group Mriya.

Financial Times commended AVELLUM’s ability to convince the Ukrainian judiciary to admit

new forms of evidence and to ensure protection of foreign investors’ rights

through the Ukrainian court procedure.

This was the first occasion when the Eurobond transaction was tested successfully

before the Ukrainian courts. The litigation itself involved a number of unique

and complex matters, such as explaining complicated structure of the Eurobond

transaction; applying the English law concept of trust, which is unknown to

Ukrainian law; proving that the trustee, rather than individual bondholders, is

the proper claimant. AVELLUM was successful in resolving all these challenges.

Dmytro

Marchukov, partner and head of dispute resolution, commented: “It is the

privilege to have worked on such case and we are glad to be distinguished by FT

Innovative Lawyers in the outcome. Our litigation team would not have made it

without the assistance from our banking and finance colleagues. We also

received valuable support from Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright and CRI

Group. In fact, the case is no longer unique as we have done similar exercise

in three more proceedings since then.”

The

AVELLUM team was led by senior associates Serhii Uvarov and Taras Dmukhovskyy,

with support from Iryna Vlasiuk and Oleksii Maslov, associates, and under the

supervision of partners Dmytro Marchukov and Glib Bondar.

The

FT Innovative Lawyers Report represents a unique analysis of the legal

industry, assessing lawyers on their innovation. Over the past 11 years it

has assessed legal innovation in over 50 different countries from

over 400 unique law firms and over 450 company in-house legal

departments. This year FT Innovative Lawyers received a record 1,006 submissions

and nominations.