Jones Day takes its first step into East Europe

Jones Day has boosted its burgeoning European operation with the launch of its first Eastern Europe office.

As first revealed on www.thelawyer.com last Thursday (1 July), the US firm has launched an office in Moscow to focus on M&A, capital markets, finance and dispute resolution.

The new office will be headed by Washington DC-based corporate partner Vladimir Lechtman, who will relocate to Russia. Jones Day plans to have up to 10 lawyers in Moscow by 2005. Lechtman said: “Russia is a good source of quality legal work so we really view this as an exciting opportunity.”

Jones Day already has relationships with a number of Russian clients, including oil giant TNK. Last year he led the team advising TNK and its shareholders, the Alpha Group and Access-Renova (AAR), on Russia’s largest ever corporate transaction, the $31.2bn (£17.18bn) Russian joint venture (JV) between TNK and BP.