UK set to get Russian staff

THE LAW Society has drawn up a shortlist of 40 Russian lawyers to vie for positions on its £250,000 UK-based placement programme.

Funded by the European Commission's Technical Assistance programme to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS), the project deal was struck by the commission and the Brussels office of the Law Societies of England and Wales and Scotland last December.

The funding is being used to bring 20 lawyers to the UK to work in law firms for two-three months from September.

Society staff recently visited Russia to interview 70 of the 250 applicants who responded to advertisements for the programme in the Russian press.

Forty applicants will attend a four-week management and professional practice course in Moscow in July and 20 delegates will them be selected.

Nabarro Nathanson's Helena Twist, Michael McKean of Wedlake Bell McKean, Scottish solicitor Jane Ryder, De Montfort University's Professor Peter Hibbert, and Matthew Moore and Mike Dodd of Central Law Training will lecture on the course. They will be assisted by the project's academic co-ordinator Roger Ede.