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.