Concern Dialog

Managing Partner: Aram Orbelyan

Number of partners: 4

Number of lawyers: 34 (18 are attorneys)

Languages: Armenian, English, Russian, French, German

Firm Overview:

Concern Dialog law firm is one of the oldest and the largest law firms in Armenia. The firm offers its unique know-how and expertise in the fields of litigation, representation, and legal advising (including support of transactions).

The firm’s 23 years of hands-on experience serves its clients—ranging from individual, corporate, and state body clients, including major international and foreign law firms.

The firm has proven its expertise many times by working with national banks and international finance organisations, major telecom operators, mining companies, and the Government of Armenia. Concern Dialog is highly trusted among its clientele, including high stake individuals, such as the ex-president and ex-prime minister of Armenia, ex-ministers, judges, prominent businesspersons and prominent families.

Recognition of Expertise:

The expertise and professionality of Concern Dialog have been proven many times by the well-known and well-regarded Chambers and Partnersrankings. During the previous years, Concern Dialog and its partners also received several top mentions and recognition in the world-leading law initiatives such as Legal 500, IFLR 1000, Who is Who Legal, Benchmark Litigation Europe, Top Ranked Legal, Pravo.ru-300 International, and many more.

International Reach and Network:

Concern Dialog provides legal services to clients internationally - some of the recent cases covering France, England, Spain, Cyprus, several states in the USA - and continues to geographically expand the scope of cooperation thanks to its TAGLaw and Next Law referral network (by Dentons) memberships.

In addition to the membership in the leading international networks, the firm also has established cooperation with international and major local law firms from jurisdictions not sufficiently covered by the networks (including Georgia, Russia, some US states, Europe, and Asia) to ensure genuinely global, yet specialised coverage to its clients.

Pro Bono, CSR, and Academic Involvement:

We genuinely believe that lawyers (especially the big law firms) can and should substantially impact society and the legal sphere.

The firm annually takes several pro bono cases (completely free of charge or at a substantially discounted rate) for vulnerable groups - mostly in criminal law defence and labour law practice.

The professionals of Concern Dialog are actively engaged in legislative and judicial reformprocesses by actively reviewing the relevant drafts, participating in public consultations, providing opinions within these processes, and undertaking studies by their initiative to find the shortcomings and suggest solutions.

Moreover, Concern Dialog’s highly qualified lawyers transfer their knowledge and expertise to students by lecturing at various universities in Armenia and the Justice Academy and the School of Advocates of Armenia.

As contributing authors, Concern Dialog’s lawyers cooperate with the leading international law platforms and organisations, such as Chambers & Partners, Lexology, The Legal 500, Mondaq, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, and others, providing their research and analysis, as well as professional insights on the legislative regulations related to different spheres and topics, especially in Armenia.

Practice Areas:

Antitrust & Competition

Litigation, Arbitration & ADR (Disputes)

Corporate Law/M&A

Banking & Finance

Labour Law & Employment

Tax Law & Tax Litigation

Criminal Law Defence

Contracts, Transactions & Projects

Restructuring & Insolvency

Family Law

Citizenship, Residency & Migration

Human Rights & ECHR

Public International Law

Real Estate & Construction

Mining & Resources

Renewable Energy

Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT)

Main Areas of Practice:

Litigation & Arbitration:

Concern Dialog offers the following litigation and arbitration services:

■ Representation at the courts of general jurisdiction

■ Representation during the appeal and cassation processes

■ Representation at the international law (including ICSID), Armenian and foreign arbitration processes, including ICC, UNCITRAL, and other arbitrations

■ Providing Armenian law expert opinions and memorandums for foreign arbitrations

■ Arbitration services via Yerevan Arbitration Institute – a permanent arbitration centre acting adjacent to the firm since 2021

Managing Partner: Aram Orbelyan, PhD, President of Arbitrators Association of Armenia

Tel: +374 93 66 27 26

Email: [email protected]

Corporate/M&A:

The firm offers the following services in the field of corporate law:

■ Consulting at all stages of company foundation and companies’ operation

■ Registration of companies and non-for-profits

■ Preparation of shareholders’ agreements

■ Representation in state bodies and at the Central Depository (account operators’) in connection to corporate law issues

■ Support in companies’ reorganisations and M&A

■ Undertaking the drafting and reviewing of corporate documentation of company’s activities and provision of corporate secretary function

■ Provision of corporate legal due diligence checks

■ Support with mediation on disputes among shareholders/ between top management and shareholders

■ Legal protection of companies from unfriendly acquisitions

■ Legal protection of rights of minority shareholders

■ Litigation and arbitration on corporate law issues

Partner: Narine Beglaryan, Head of Corporate Law Practice

Tel: +374 99 35 34 52

Email: [email protected]

Tax:

Concern Dialog offers the following services in the tax law area of practice:

■ Advising on general issues of tax law and tax calculation

■ Consulting on tax refund issues (including VAT overpayments)

■ Representation in refunding processes, as well as complete legal guidance in tax accounts refund process

■ Legal guidance in business transactions considering tax legislation requirements

■ Participation and support during the tax inspection or administrative process

■ Representation during the administrative appeal process in tax law connected issues

■ Tax law litigation

Partner: Artur Hovhannisyan

Tel: +374 91 414 139

Email: [email protected]

Labour Law:

Concern Dialog offers the following services in the area of practice of labour law:

■ Advising on labour law issues

■ Labour law due diligence checks

■ Legal guidance in human resources services

■ Representation during inspections and in related administrative proceedings

■ Representation during labour law negotiations and at labour law litigation

Partner: Janna Simonyan

Tel: +374 91 21 10 50

Email: [email protected]

Competition Law/Antitrust Law:

Concern Dialog offers the following services in the competition (antitrust) law area of practice:

■ Analysis of the activities of companies and competitors aimed at finding possible violations of competition law, as well as the development of relevant internal procedures to ensure full competition law compliance

■ Analysis of competition law issues, including the study of relevant foreign experience/legislation

■ Consulting on competition law connected to M&A transactions and (merger) concentration filings

■ Representation in the Committee of the Protection of Economic Competition, as well as in other administrative bodies on the issues connected to competition law

■ Review and advise of advertisements, product packaging, and services promotion materials, marketing strategies to ensure their competition law compliance

■ Competition law litigation

Tel: +374 60 27 88 88

Email: [email protected]

Contracts & Transactions:

Concern Dialog offers the following services in the field of contract and transaction law:

■ Drafting and review of contracts

■ Participation in contract negotiations

■ Support with execution and closing of contracts

■ Provision of legal memorandums or opinions on the validity of contracts, their action, and full legal force

■ Support with notarisation of contracts and representation at the Notary office

■ Representation during contract law litigation and arbitration

■ Provision of contract management services

Managing Partner: Aram Orbelyan, Ph.D., President of Arbitrators Association of Armenia

Tel: +374 60 278888

Email: [email protected]

Criminal Law Defence:

Concern Dialog offers the following services in criminal law with an emphasis on politically complicated cases and white-collar crime.

■ Criminal law defence

■ Representing the victim of the crime, including corporations within the criminal law process

■ Support of the witnesses for the criminal law issues

■ Assistance with applications to ECHR and other international human rights bodies

■ Providing legal opinions and expert opinions on Armenian law and practice for the foreign proceedings

Head of the criminal law practice, senior associate: Hovhannes Khudoyan

Tel: +374 60 27 88 88

Email: [email protected]