SDM Partners LLC

SDM Partners provides a full range of legal services in all regions of the Ukraine and CIS countries and internationally through partnership networks with leading local firms in all major capital markets and jurisdictions. Among the firm’s clients, there are many top representatives of the international and local businesses.

Our main feature is focusing on clients’ goals through understanding the Ukrainian market, special attention to each of the industries and unique longstanding experience.

Areas of practice
Antitrust and competition: Our team of antitrust and competition lawyers includes lawyers with extensive expertise in the practical application of competition law. We offer our clients a full range of legal services on competition and antitrust law, including antitrust issues that include merger cases, concerted practices, abuse of dominance, unfair competition, etc. We stay on top of industry trends, we constantly monitor the dynamics of the market and various factors that have an influence on business and always inform our clients regarding such changes.

Banking and finance:  Financial leasing, debt restructuring – are fields of our activity, as banking and finance are one of the key practices of SDM Partners. We have created a strong team of highly qualified lawyers, many of whom have long professional experience in banks’ structures and are familiar with the particularities of the banking industry from inside. There are the largest international banks and financial institutions among our clients. Our experience allows us to be indispensable in the implementation of the most difficult financing projects, but due to the same experience, we can be extremely effective when working on the standard banking products or regulatory issues.

Dispute resolution and litigation: SDM Partners provides a full range of dispute resolution services. We represent our clients before general, commercial, and administrative courts in all instances, as well as before international commercial arbitration institutions. Moreover, we have extensive experience in representing our clients in administrative procedures before such agencies as the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the State Tax Administration. SDM Partners gathers together the best litigators and arbitration professionals to provide bespoke solutions to any particular dispute.

Energy and natural resources: Legal advice on energy and natural resources is one of the major focus areas for our company. The energy and natural resources group advises on every tier of the energy industry and has a particular understanding of conventional power and renewables sectors. We have extensive experience in real estate and land transactions, mergers and acquisitions, tax and finance, corporate law, and IP protection, which enables us to provide comprehensive solutions for energy projects.

Intellectual property: Intellectual property is one of the most complex and interconnected areas of law, which has become a key asset of all types of business. These assets require consistent and comprehensive protection. Our clients are from different industries, including but not limited: the manufacturing and realization of light industry goods, machinery and equipment, banking, medicine, project finance, investment, agriculture, insurance, real estate, logistics, automotive, oil and gas, telecommunications, software, advertising and media, and many others fields. SDM Partners has developed comprehensive expertise in all aspects of patents, trademarks, copyright, designs, domain names, trade secrets, and related unfair competition issues. Whether designing strategies and developing worldwide intellectual property portfolios or litigating the newest generation of cases, we focus on delivering a practical and positive experience.

Commercial law: Due to our considerable experience in commercial law, we provide practical advice which is ideally positioned to add value to our clients. We are experts in the full range of commercial contracts s, including the areas of distribution, supply, sale, supply within the group, logistics, marketing, advertising, intellectual property, IT support, banking and finance, insurance, lending , sponsorship, utilities, partnership, construction, leasing and leasing, and others. This practice covers all trading activities of a business.

Corporate/ mergers and acquisitions/ investment projects: This is one of the key practices of the firm. SDM Partners provides legal advice across all manner of corporate matters to help businesses of all sizes develop and grow, whether organically or through mergers and acquisitions, including such matters as governance, finance, reorganization and liquidation, and other corporate issues. We have substantial experience in local and cross-border transactions, involving the acquisition, and the establishment of companies, joint ventures, and partnerships in Ukraine. We provide services in the development of optimal corporate structures for legal entities, company formation, tax planning, mergers and other regulatory clearances as well as share and asset deals. Our integrated team includes experts in antitrust/competition law, funds and investment management, insurance, private equity, and public policy. Our team also offers clients the combination of specialist technical and industry expertise across 12 sectors from financial services through to chemical.

International trade, project and trade financing: SDM Partners has a long-standing reputation for providing comprehensive international trade legal services of exceptional quality. Our team constantly advise and represent domestic and foreign clients in various international trade matters, including customs regulations, project and trade financing, and antidumping and safeguard investigations and representation in different dispute resolution proceedings, including international commercial arbitration. Moreover, SDM Partners is able to advise our clients on the legislation of other jurisdictions through the network of our corresponding law firms in Europe, USA, and Asia.

Oil and gas: SDM Partners has a strong track record in legal support for the companies in the oil and gas industry. With a strong track record in power projects, our expertise has evolved with the industry to include renewables, energy from waste and oil & gas, as well as increased international projects and transactions. Many of our lawyers have worked as senior in-house counsel for large multinational energy and oil companies and our secondment program means that we’re working with many clients day-in-day-out. In addition, we have vast experience in real estate and land transactions, tax and finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, and IPR protection, which enables us to provide comprehensive solutions for energy projects.

Real estate and construction: SDM Partners’ real estate group comprises some of Ukrainian leading lawyers with proven expertise in this multifaceted field. Committed to delivering practical and timely results, the SDM Partners team provides clients with cost-effective advice, innovative solutions and responsive documentation for both simple and complex transactions. More than 19 years our experts have been acting for international and domestic investors as well as financial institutions on numerous large-scale residential, commercial and corporate real estate transactions at all stages of development: starting from the initial idea, legal due diligence of the property, acquisition of a land plot, transaction structuring, establishing project entities and joint ventures, endorsement of funding conditions, licensing, construction of the property, its commissioning and title registration, facility management contracts (operation and maintenance of property), leasing out and exit of the developer. SDM Partners usually takes part in drafting new laws for real estate, construction, and PPP.

Tax: SDM Partners’ tax team is a dedicated and market-leading team of tax specialists with many years of experience advising clients both in Ukraine and overseas. The members of our tax team are repeatedly recognized by experts, professional associations, and international ratings. Our firm works with our clients (whether a multinational corporation or an owner managed the business) to understand their commercial objectives and then deliver creative tax solutions that are tailored to those objectives. We support our clients with effective and practice-proven solutions in all areas of tax which are based on industry-specific insight.

Forensic and compliance: We have comprehensive experience in the fields of compliance audit, corporate investigations, litigation support, integrity due diligence, asset tracking, and computer forensics. We possess a deep understanding of Ukrainian business and regulatory environment. We provide a complex solution to your problem; we have specialists in forensic accounting, compliance, forensic IT- solutions, corporate and business intelligence.

Labor and employment: The peculiarities of the Ukrainian labor law are mainly dictated by its obsoleteness. Being employee-oriented hampers to a certain extent labor market flexibility and makes it difficult to resolve labor and employment-related matters on a parity basis. Consequently, it poses serious challenges for companies in various sensitive employment issues, including top-management dismissal. That is why SDM Partners pays close attention to the labor law area and practical application of its outdated provisions for purposes of maximum achievement of the company’s goals with respect to employees’ needs. Our lawyers from the employment team have been advising clients in nearly all industries on an entire spectrum of employment matters from the drafting of agreements to litigation for over 19 years. Moreover, our team of experienced lawyers has worked in the government team for drafting employment code.

Private client: Legal support to family businesses, private entrepreneurs and wealthy individuals. SDM Partners helps to preserve and protect the assets, to multiply them and to minimize the tax burden. We provide an extensive legal service in the protection of assets by corporate, tax and marriage law. Of all the diverse ways that can be used to structure private investment, we also recommend our clients to consider trusts and family foundations. SDM Partners has more than 100 partners in Europe, the US, and Asia and can offer clients a number of options for obtaining a residence permit to suit individual preferences.