Focus on… О2 Consulting

О2 Consulting is a law firm with offices in Moscow, Zurich, Nicosia and Minsk. The firm has been advising clients on Russian and foreign law, tax and corporate finance since 2003. O2’s clients include international and Russian private equity funds, venture capital funds, financial and investment companies, brokers, industry leaders, hi-tech start-ups and business owners. O2’s team has a vast experience in setting up investment funds and related corporate structuring, tax compliance, financial engineering, acting as in-house counsel to funds and advising on M&A / Private Equity / VC deals in various jurisdictions, acting as corporate lawyer accompanying private equity and venture capital structures and supporting complex M&A / JV projects.

The firm’s experts have topnotch Western and Russian education and practice in Russia and abroad, are licensed under the law of Russia and foreign jurisdictions. O2 Consulting team is valued for non-standard solutions, understanding commercial implications of the issue and ability to support the client in making business decisions. The firm focuses on complex transactional work. For each particular complicated project the firm assembles multi-functional team of specialists from different practice areas.

One of the key elements of the company’s leadership comes from a large expertise in various areas of practice:

VC, Private Equity, M&A, cross-border JVs and Corporate: O2 Consulting has one of the biggest and noted corporate / M&A / Private Equity / VC teams in Russia which we doubled within the last 2 years. The firm provides comprehensive legal advice on public and private M&As; cross-border and Russian joint ventures; corporate restructurings; corporate finance and private equity and VC deals governed by English, Russian and US law and the firm is proud of its impressive transactional record in this area.

Intellectual property: The firm offers a unique, global, full-service capability, covering all types of legal support for commercial activities and IP rights protection in Russia and other jurisdictions.

Real estate: O2 has a large and highly developed real estate practice. The firm advises its clients on all matters related to real estate in Russia and other jurisdictions, including structuring of transactions to acquire and sell real estate, full legal support for real estate investment projects, development of optimal project structures, including with co-investor participation; legal and tax aspects of financing and security arrangements, performance of comprehensive due diligence of assets for acquisition, commercial development, agricultural enterprise, production and natural resource use, legal support for implementation of greenfield and brownfield projects, support for various transactions in the spheres of trade, warehousing, office, industrial and agricultural real estate, contractual support for commercial leasing, management and operation of real estate.

Tax: The firm provides tax-planning services to individuals and companies. Virtually any project implemented by O2 Consulting in such areas as M&A, Private Equity, VC, corporate restructuring, Real Estate and Funds is assessed for tax implications, and the firm’s clients conveniently tap into our tax expertise when we handle their projects.

The firm’s tax services include tax compliance for businesses and transactions, tax planning and advice, taxation of financial service and bank transactions, investment target tax due diligence, advice on disclosure of financial information within the scope of information exchange between Russia and other countries.

FinTech: The O2 Consulting team has accumulated considerable experience in supporting financial and digital technology projects and is one of the market leaders in legal support for state-of-the-art financial technologies.

The firm’s specialists support projects with various investment attraction options using the blockchain technology, including independent pre-sales, private and crowd-funding and their combinations, depending on the client’s needs. Besides, we advise on various legal aspects for the new digital financial solutions, multifunctional digital platforms, virtual financial assets, big data and personal identification.

O2 Consulting has it’s finger on the pulse in the latest digital spheres and understands sensitive points and grey zones, as well as trends in the global regulation of this sphere.

Private client: The O2 Consulting team has many years’ experience of supporting projects in the area of private capital, including protection of interests of wealthy families and individuals, growth of wealth of their families and business establishments, prosperous development of their life standards.

The firm’s clients are successful people who are prominent leaders in a wide range of spheres, including top managers, owners of big businesses, patrons of arts, representatives of the art profession, the world of fashion and sports, private entrepreneurs and investors. For many of them, O2 Consulting acts as their counsel and attorneys protecting their interests.

TMT: The firm’s TMT practice comprises both regulatory and transactional work and enjoys a well-deserved reputation among our clients for our tremendous expertise, innovative approach and efficiency. O2 team is capable of resolving most complex industry-specific issues.

The firm is proud to have handled most advanced TMT projects in such areas as artificial intelligence and machine learning, neural networks, Internet of Things, Industrial Internet of Things, tele-healthcare services, cyber security, Big Data, robotics, blockchain, digital assets etc.

Key events

2005 – the company was established and started its activity in Moscow

2010 – after restructuring and re-branding of the company it started operations under the current name (O2 Consulting)

2012 – the company has opened a new office in Zurich

2018 – the company has opened a Cyprus office and an office in Minsk

2019 – 6 new partners joined the company

2019 – the company has opened offices in Kiev and St. Petersburg

Key clients