Our Approach

The firm’s private corporate practice and legal consulting go hand in hand as the commercial practice experience is consistently applied to the process of reforming the legal framework of transition economies and bringing them up to date with the modern notions of globalization, free markets, the rule of law and economic pragmatism. ILC attorneys are not only knowledgeable about the requirements for transitional economies to be conducive to business, but also have the skills to communicate such requirements effectively. At the same time, the firm attorneys’ active participation in the process of legal reform gives them significant knowledge in the challenging legal environment of various jurisdictions and contributes significantly to their hands-on international corporate legal expertise.

ILC is uniquely positioned to seamlessly merge our attorneys’ international experience and background with the highest professional level of domestic legal practice ensuring that international transactions and knowledge sharing flow free of misunderstanding. While our cultural sensitivity and knowledge of local customs permit us to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation and enable us to resolve numerous disputes before they even arise, ILC adheres to the highest standard of legal ethics and remains dedicated to the legal profession’s integrity and confidence. We strongly believe that there could be no compromises when professionalism, legality or ethical considerations are at stake.

The word “domestic” is obviously used with reservation, as it is almost impossible to find a purely domestic legal problem that would not otherwise relate to some international aspect or multi-national involvement. The migration of the population, capital, technology and business in contemporary society certainly creates “melting pots” around the globe. Nevertheless, such an exchange, as it pays homage to local cultures and traditions, produces multi-cultural “mosaics” that interact with each other at distinctly different level of cultural, legal and economic positions.

We recognize that it is more beneficial and efficient for an Eastern European entrepreneur, for instance, wishing to do business in the United States, to retain a skilled “domestic” attorney that would be able to understand his or her mentality and approach. In that sense, ILC in its US and European corporate practice, as one of our clients put it, “translates from English to English and from Russian to Russian.” At the same time, it is obviously crucial for a Western company doing business in Central and Eastern Europe, to be guided by a Western-trained attorney who is able to provide effective legal advice and transact business in the local language and local legal environment. ILC’s teamwork, experience and ability in providing counsel in such challenging circumstances is what we consider of the utmost value to our clients.

Our modern approach also could be seen through the firm’s other distinguishing features. For instance, ILC places very little significance to the “billable” hours and focuses on the true value of services provided to the clients. To us, this has three implications:

• first, we don’t shift the burden of gaining the expertise in our key practice areas onto the client and thus substantially reduce the overheads and our learning curve;
• second, we view legal advice from the point of view of value to the client, provide for the client’s monitoring and establish a relationship with the client that makes the legal fees predictable and ascertainable; and
• third, our attorneys are rewarded based on the value provided to the client not the hours they spend on the project.

This approach is not just a declaration as claimed by many law firms as they try to re-do their infused “billable-hours” structures to compete with other professions’ increasing efficiency. ILC’s main modus operandi is demonstrated in the firm’s willingness to use fixed, incentive-based and flexible fee structures.

ILC attorneys are known for a high level of professionalism in small and large projects alike and have been recognized by private and government clients for their ability to work efficiently and effectively in difficult circumstances, under pressure without compromising their persistent pursuit of high professional standards. In addition to representing international and domestic clients in commercial transactions in their daily legal practices, the firm’s attorneys have played and continue to play a significant role in the development of social infrastructure and the reforms of public institutions in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and the Newly Independent States (NIS). The firm attorneys’ legal experience coupled with the ability to feel at ease in providing first-class professional services and counsel in different legal environments and languages have been recognized by clients as one of the greatest unique assets of the firm.