'The world will change now': Law firms in Ukraine cope with Russian invasion - Reuters
The Independence Monument is seen during an early morning in central Kyiv, Ukraine, February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
(Reuters) - With Russia launching the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, local and international law firms in Ukraine said they have taken steps to protect their employees and client work amid the invasion.
Representatives for Baker McKenzie, CMS and Dentons, three of the largest foreign law firms with lawyers in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, said they have closed their offices there for now.
At least two Ukraine-based firms -- 140-lawyer Asters and Avellum, a full-service law firm with 90 employees -- said they have also shuttered their offices and their employees are safe.
After Russian attacks began Thursday, Avellum managing partner Mykola Stetsenko said the firm's lawyers working remotely are able to respond to clients' emails, "but there are not many."
"I hope it will end soon," Stetsenko said in an email. "The Ukrainian army is strong and able to fight. We will prevail, but the world will change now."
In addition to widespread Russian shelling, Ukraine has reported columns of troops pouring across its borders from Russia and Belarus and landing on the coast from the Black and Azov seas.
Ukrainian troops fought Russian forces along practically the entire border, and fierce fighting was taking place in the regions of Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, Odessa and at a military airport near Kyiv on Thursday, an adviser to the presidential office said.
Representatives for Baker McKenzie and CMS said their Ukraine-based employees were accounted for. A Dentons spokesperson said the firm is in contact with its 49-employee Ukrainian team, and once they are safely relocated, they "will be working remotely or from other Dentons offices to serve the needs of our clients."
A Baker McKenzie spokesperson said Thursday its partners are "working with clients affected to determine the options for continuing to provide legal assistance elsewhere."
Baker McKenzie has about 100 employees in Ukraine, and CMS has 67, the firms said.
In the run-up to the start of fighting, Ukrainian lawyers told Reuters they could ensure their work would not be lost.
"We have well tested, top-of-the-market security procedures for client data and other sensitive data, including storage and back-up on servers outside of Ukraine," Serhiy Chorny, a managing partner of Baker McKenize's Kyiv office, said in an email.
Asters has implemented an e-document management system so that "our operations are not dependent on the physical presence of employees in the office," senior partner Armen Khachaturyan said in an email.
Liliya Yanovska, Asters' marketing director, said the firm had made advance salary payments to all employees "due to potential problems with the banking system."
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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/the-world-will-change-now-law-firms-ukraine-cope-with-russian-invasion-2022-02-24/
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