Last week on 20-21 September 2007 the conference related to the issues of corporate strategies in Russia and CIS states was held at the conference hall of Renaissance Penta Vienna Hotel in Vienna, Austria. The participants from elite law companies of Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus arrived to share their k nowledge and experience among each other. The event was organized by Marcus Evans company.

During the conference there were considered and discussed the issues of legal support of the activity of holdings and corporations, which are very actual for the lawyers from all of the CIS states. In particular, there were discussed the most problematic and demanded aspects of the corporate law, laws regulating the competition, civil law and business law. The reports of the representatives of practicing lawyers from Ukraine were a pleasant surprise for every participant. The presented reports were the following - Regulation of the aspects of protection of confidential information related to business activity of the company under the laws of Ukraine by Mr. Andriy Shumilov, President, ULGroup Association, Ukraine; The aspects of protection of the creditors’ rights under the delivery agreements and related court proceedings by Ms. Tatyana Shulga, Head Lawyer, Ferrero Ukraine, New-day practice of mergers and acquisitions deals – a study of legal strategies by Mr. Andriy Zhurzhiy, Head of Legal Department, FOZZY GROUP Ukraine. Mr. Taras Moskalenko, Head of Legal Department, Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine was the only representative of the government. His report – Competition and legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions deals in Ukraine – raised a lot of questions. Unfortunately, most of them were related to the fact that the competition law of Ukraine is far from being perfect and it needs subsequent improvement.

Other reports were presented by the participants from Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Summarizing the conference Ms. Irina Sergiyenko, General Director, ULGroup Association, Ukraine acting as the Chairperson pointed out that taking into the consideration close relationships and interrelation between the development of CIS economies the lawyers representing the CIS states must not apparently restrict their activity within the limits of their country and their legislation. Further on, Ms. Irina Sergiyenko proposed to develop cooperation between the lawyers from the CIS states, to meet more frequently in order to exchange knowledge and experience. This proposition was followed by the unanimous approval from all of the participants.