Asters Highly Rated For Its Brilliant Business Acumen, Industry Knowledge and Good Value for Money by The Legal 500 EMEA

Asters received top law firm rankings as a result of qualitative assessment of a country's finest legal practices, provided by the 2011 edition of The Legal 500 EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) published on 30 March. The firm earned the broadest range of client and peer recommendations in all five practice areas evaluated – Banking, Finance and Capital Markets; Corporate and M&A; Dispute Resolution; Intellectual Property; and Tax.

In Banking, Finance and Capital Markets Asters' "excellent team is considered one of the best in Ukraine". Senior partner Armen Khachaturyan is highly rated as one of leading professionals in the area and "a good all-round lawyer with a clear understanding of the needs of non-Ukrainian clients". Svitlana Poroschuk is "very capable, experienced, available and delivers on time". The firm's representation of Russia’s Sberbank on a $700m loan to the mining group Metinvest is highlighted.

Within Corporate and M&A Asters gets excellent feedback from clients who say the firm operates at "the highest level, with brilliant business acumen and industry knowledge" and demonstrates "deep and extensive knowledge of Ukrainian corporate law". Partner Vadym Samoilenko is referred as "highly professional". Highly recommended lawyers in the practice include managing partner Oleksiy Didkovskiy as very well regardedexpert and partner Oleksandr Padalka as "very experienced and flexible".

Regarding the Dispute Resolution practice the guide recommends the "small but very responsive and good value for money" team at Asters headed by Oleksiy Didkovskiy, and highlights its recent active work for ED&F Man against a series of raider lawsuits in various regions of Ukraine, as well as other clients including Coca-Cola, Nissan and Sopharma.

In Intellectual Property Oleksandr Padalka leads the team, which "boasts an enviable list of clients". The firm is praised for being "particularly active in trade mark enforcement, registration and protection".

Real Estate and Construction team is as a "strong" one, which is "particularly experienced in real estate acquisition and finance" advising on a series of real estate projects. Roman Kostenko is mentioned as a leader of the team.

Asters is also noted for its tax practice, headed by Oleksiy Didkovskiy and Vadym Samoilenko.The guide stated the firm's representation of Telenor on the tax implications of the $23.8bn formation of Vimpelcom, as well as Swedbank and Sumitec Ukraine and others in a number of tax issues.

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The Legal 500: EMEA is the most comprehensive clients guide to the best law firms and leading lawyers in Europe, Middle East and Africa including Ukraine. The task of the editorial team is to research the legal market, practice area by practice area, to assign rankings to firms' practices and to write accompanying editorial and to present a true picture of the market. This review is based on editorial research and takes into account such factors as strengths and strategies of the firm, the quality of work handled, the caliber of clients, client feedback and the reputation of individual practitioners.