|
|
|
B.C.Toms & Co |
|
|
B. C. Toms & Co is a multinational law firm of Western and Ukrainian lawyers specialising in Ukrainian law. We were the first Western law firm to open a Kiev office, having focused our practice on Ukraine at its independence in 1991. We are now among the largest law firms in Ukraine, and the only Western firm with an office in Odessa. In the last three years alone, we have handled the legal work for transactions having a value of over a billion and a half dollars. The Firm was founded by Bate C Toms, a lawyer with substantial previous experience practising in the US and Western as well as Eastern Europe. He studied Soviet Studies at university and law at Magdalene College, Cambridge University and Yale Law School, from which he graduated in 1975. At Yale, he was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Prior to establishing the Firm to handle, initially, a project financing for one of the largest European companies, Toms was a partner in the London office of one of the largest US based multinational law firms. Our locally qualified Ukrainian lawyers include Alexander F Vysotsky, a 1952 graduate of Kiev State University (senior consultant to our Firm who is also the President of Ukraine’s special advisor on maritime and port legislation), Vladslav Ivanovich Kalnyi, (senior consultant and President of the Kiev Bar Association), Vladmir Sayenko (Muskie Fellow, LLM), Michael Kharenko (LLM), Dmitry Serdyuk, Svetlana Kheda, Nicholas Orlov, Tina Krivonogikh, Irina Bodnarchuk, Olesya Zhulinska and Julia Chernyshova. We also have a correspondent association with the Simferopol practice of Tatyana Ustinove, a graduate of the Moscow State University Law Department and the LLM programme of the Capital University Law Centre (Columbus, Ohio), where she was a Muskie Fellow. We have written numerous articles on Ukrainian law, including for the CBI book "Doing Business in Ukraine", which are available to clients. In addition to our Ukrainian offices, we have affiliations with firms in Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan. The principal areas of practice of the Firm include oil and gas law, both for exploration, development and production projects and for refinery upgrading and related matters, construction and project finance, securities law, electricity regulatory law, real estate conveyancing and commercial and residential property development, environmental law, privatisation, corporate acquisitions, franchising and distribution of products, litigation and arbitration, trade law including structuring barter transactions, and corporate, banking, and bankruptcy law. We regularly advise on Ukrainian and multinational tax planning. In addition, we cover labour, trade, immigration and environmental law, as well as administrative law. Often, on behalf of our clients, we intervene before government ministries and committees. We have established numerous branch offices and subsidiaries for European, North American and Asian multinationals. Our clients include many of the largest multi-national companies and banks, as well as international and multinational organisations, smaller companies focused on Ukraine and some individual investors. In particular, we represent companies in Ukraine involved in oil and gas, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, hotel and office development, selling and bartering products, product distribution and corporate and real estate acquisitions. We also act for clients building and renovating office buildings and factories. Our Firm prepares, for example, joint venture agreements, oil and gas joint activity agreements, production sharing agreements, oil and gas license agreements, construction contracts, project financing documentation, private placement and syndicated credit agreements, leases, and corporate acquisition, agency, distribution, franchise and licensing contracts. We can assist with practical commercial advice on how to set up a Ukrainian office or commercial operation, including to arrange for accounting assistance. We also undertake due diligence examinations, including on a preliminary basis to evaluate potential business partners. Ordinarily we are engaged in transactions involving different languages as well as different laws and cultures. We have lawyers fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, English and French and can draft and negotiate documents in these languages. Generally we expect to receive compensation for our services based on our standard hourly rates, that are subject to revision annually, with reimbursement for reasonable disbursements. Depending on the nature of an assignment, we may also be able to consider a fixed fee or even a partial, speculative fee with a success bonus. In order to keep our clients fully informed, we render statements regularly and advise clients of charges as progress is made on a project. Please contact Bate Toms or Vladimir Sayenko if you would like to discuss our services. We are always pleased to consider a matter at length on a no-obligation basis to determine whether we may be of some assistance.
FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT B C TOMS & CO MAY BE FOUND AT: www.bctoms.net
BATE C TOMS, born Virginia, U.S.A., September 22, 1949; Legal education: Yale Law School (J.D., 1975); Magdalene College, Cambridge University (Law Tripos I; 1972 - 1973); General education: Washington and Lee University (B.A., magna cum laude, 1971) (Phi Beta Kappa); Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (1969-1970) (Soviet Studies); Yale University (M.S., 1977); admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1975, the District of Columbia Bar in 1977, and as an avocat in France in 1992. Editor: Yale Law Journal, 1975-1976; Journal of International Banking Law, 1986-; Oil and Gas Law and Taxation Review, 1984-; Author: "Ukrainian Real Estate Law", Butterworths' Central and East European Business Law Journal, March 1994; "Privatisation in Ukraine", Euromoney IFLR, September 1992; "Ukrainian Oil and Gas Licensing", 13(2) Oil and Gas Law and Tax Rev., 1995; "Ukrainian Law on Banking", Journal of International Banking Law, June 1992; "Ukrainian Special Economic Zones", CCH Doing Business in Europe 1992; Ukrainian Tax Law, Interforum Conference on Doing Business in Ukraine (November 1992), "Compensating Shareholders Frozen Out in Two-Step Mergers", 78 Columbia Law Review 549, 1978; "Offshore Share Offerings," 1 Journal of International Banking Law 36, 1986; Editor, B O T and Other Non-Recourse Projects - Proceedings of the Second International Construction Projects Conference (1989); co-author, Doing Business in Ukraine (CBI 1998); Vice-Chairman - British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce. FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT B C TOMS & CO MAY BE FOUND AT: www.bctoms.net
|
|
|
|
|
|