Clifford Chance

Closure of Clifford Chance Moscow Office

Today we announce that we will be ceasing our operations in Russia with effect from 31 May. Subject to receiving client agreements, we will be transferring existing Russian client work to a new, independent law firm called Bortkevicha & Partners, which will be based in Moscow and headed up by Vika Bortkevicha, currently the Office Managing Partner of our existing Moscow Office. We expect the new firm to be operational from 1 May and, subject to receiving client agreements, we expect to be transferring Russian work to this newly created independent law firm during May, after which period the operations of our existing Moscow Office will cease with effect from 31 May.

Torsten Syrbe, one of the partners from our former Moscow Office will move to Dusseldorf, along with a small team of lawyers from the Moscow Office. This team will continue their anti-trust and pharmaceutical practices and become integrated into the Clifford Chance global network.

We have also been exploring a number of opportunities to relocate team members from the Moscow team to Clifford Chance Offices across Europe. We expect to be able to relocate a small number of the existing Moscow Office team via these arrangements in the coming weeks.

These future arrangements mean that we do not expect that all members of the existing Moscow team will leave Clifford Chance and move to the new firm or have the opportunity to relocate. Unfortunately, we therefore anticipate that a small number of the existing Moscow team will be made redundant as a result of these changes. We are working closely with those who are impacted to ensure that we can offer them all the support they need.

While we have been considering future options with our colleagues in Moscow, our priority has been to focus on the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues during this difficult time and on ensuring the winding down of our services is consistent with our legal and professional responsibilities to our clients and our responsible business principles and values.