A&O grows Moscow practice

A second partner is to join Allen & Overy's Moscow office, adding to the four lawyers who have also joined recently.

Chris Roberts, a senior project finance partner responsible for developing the firm's Asian practice in the early 1990s has left London, where he has been based since 1995, to become a resident in Moscow.

"In many respects, Moscow is still virgin territory to western lawyers, which is a challenge in itself," said Roberts. "But unlike Tokyo where I built the practice up from scratch, in Moscow the practice is already well established, so I want to be able to take it further."

Roberts' overseas experience includes training local people in the Anglo-American style of practice. Doran Doeh, who has been a partner in Moscow since early 1995, said: "Chris's extensive international experience, especially in project finance and cross-border transactions, will be ideal for working with multi-national companies and international banks."

The Moscow branch, established in 1993, has tripled in size in the last twelve months. It now has 17 lawyers, six of whom are ex-patriots.

"Every time we take on lawyers the volume of work jumps forward to catch up. Having a second partner will add to our rate of growth, without diminishing our quality," said Doeh.