MGM is a pioneering law practice drawing on over 15 years of unrivalled hands-on experience providing bespoke legal advice to a select pool of corporates and high net worth individuals. Our primary focus is cross-border M&A, as well as corporate and commercial law, real estate and private wealth, with our legal advice being provided to the highest internationally recognized practices and steadfast ethical standards.
Over the years we have worked on some of the most emblematic deals and projects in the CIS market involving domestic and multinational blue chips and foremost private investors across various industries*:
After thirteen and a half rewarding years, Mikhail Movshovich left a top-tier US law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he was a senior member of the M&A group, to run his own law practice focusing on M&A/corporate, commercial, real estate and private wealth matters.
He is a pragmatic and creative lawyer with over 15 years of unrivalled hands-on experience in advising domestic and foreign corporates on cross-border M&A in real estate, metals, petrochemicals, oil and gas, banking, TMT and other industries in Russia and the CIS and, more generally, on diverse matters of corporate and commercial law. Mikhail also advises high net worth individuals and other clients across a wide variety of matters relating to civil and private international law (including private wealth structuring) and has extensive experience in economic restrictive measures (sanctions/counter-sanctions), antitrust, strategic investment, currency control and other regulatory matters in Russia and the CIS. He routinely works alongside local counsel in major foreign jurisdictions that are normally used for the structuring of M&A deals in Russia and other CIS countries and can offer first-rate insights into the various issues of deal structuring and corporate governance involving those jurisdictions.
Mikhail developed a number of model forms for M&A deals for the Moscow office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, including Russian law governed sale and purchase agreements for LLCs and JSCs, put and call options, non-disclosure agreements and a set of M&A closing documentation for both Russian and foreign targets. He has also assisted clients with developing their model documentation, including Incoterms-based agreements for international supplies, commercial contracts and various corporate documents.
Mikhail is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Commission on Commercial Law and Practice (ICC CLP) and a member of the ICC Russia working committee on Incoterms® 2020.
Mikhail joined the Moscow office of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in June 2006 and also worked in their London office in 2012. Prior to joining Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, in 2005 he worked at a prominent French international law firm, Gide Loyrette Nouel, where he was a member of the M&A practice group.
In 2006 Mikhail graduated with honours (among the top five students) from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), with a Master’s in International and EU Law.
Mikhail is admitted to practice in Russia. A native speaker of Russian, he is fluent in English and French.
We advise on Russian and English law*
Implied Duty of Good Faith in English Contract Law, The Ukrainian Journal of Business Law (February, 2020), read
Doctrine of Good Faith in English Case Law, Yuridicheskiy Mir (January, 2020), прочитать
Top 10 Legal Developments in Russian M&A in 2018, Joint Stock Company Law Review (February, 2019), read / прочитать
Model Charters for Russian Limited Liability Companies, Joint Stock Company Law Review (December, 2018), read / прочитать
Re-Domiciliation of Foreign Companies in Russia, Joint Stock Company Law Review (November, 2018), read / прочитать
Exit from Negotiations. How to Avoid Liability, Corporate Lawyer (April, 2018), read / прочитать
Top 10 Legal Developments in Russian M&A for 2017, Joint Stock Company Law Review (February, 2018), read / прочитать
A consortium of UAE investors in establishment of a joint venture in Turkey with a local trading company to specialize in commodity trading, including the structuring of commercial relations between the JV and its partners
A venture fund in the corporate merger of PlaySight, an Israel-based artificial intelligence and technology sports platform, with Connexa Sports Technologies (formerly, Slinger Bag), a U.S.-based connected sports platform
Private investors in discontinuance of their joint venture in publishing businesses operating in Russia and other CIS countries
A private investor in discontinuance of two JVs in real estate development followed by restructuring of intragroup loans and swap of corporate and real estate assets
A private investor in its sale of upscale land of around 10 hectares in Moscow for residential housing
Alibaba in its formation of a joint venture with Russian Direct Investment Fund, Mail.ru and MegaFon to launch an e-commerce marketplace
MegaFon in its transaction with VimpelCom to discontinue their Euroset joint venture resulting in MegaFon taking control over 100% of Euroset
Post of Russia in developing its corporate documentation
A Swiss oil trader in an Incoterms-based export crude oil supply contract governed by Russian law, including funding arrangements by way of prepayment
An oil company in an English law governed Incoterms-based gas condensate supply agreement
Norilsk Nickel in the development of its model Incoterms-based agreement for international supplies governed by English law
Vladimir Potanin Foundation in the organization of an unparalleled exhibition of Soviet and Russian contemporary art at the Centre Pompidou in Paris
Universal Cargo Logistics Holding (UCL Holding) in a division of the shipbuilding and shipping business of Volgo-Balt Transport Holding (VBTH) with its minority shareholders, whereby the river cruise business of VBTH (Vodokhod Group) was taken over by the minority shareholders and UCL Holding consolidated 100% of VBTH, which has retained control of all of the shipbuilding and water cargo transportation assets
A leading oil and gas field service contractor in the CIS in its acquisition of a Kazakhstan oilfield services business from a major global oilfield services corporation
Shareholders of the International Centre for Financial and Economic Development (MCFR) in the buyout of Wolters Kluwer’s stake in a joint publishing business in Russia and other CIS countries, followed by the sale of the consolidated business of MCFR to Aktion, a major Russian publishing house (including a pre-sale repatriation of the Russian business from foreign jurisdictions back to Russia)
Titan Group in its establishment of a joint venture with Sibur and Gazprom Neft on the basis of the Omsk Polypropylene Plant (Poliom)
A major Russian state-run bank in connection with joint venture to establish and develop cash-in-transit business in Russia
Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) in its purchase of a metal-rolling plant in Russia
Interros in an agreement with Millhouse and UC RUSAL on settlement of the shareholders’ conflict, corporate governance and sale of shares in Norilsk Nickel
Interros in the sale of its stake in the logistics companies in the Sheremetyevo Moscow airport in favor of infrastructure fund TPS AVIA Holding
Sberbank in a joint venture with Cetelem, the consumer lending division of the BNP Paribas Group
Schneider Electric in its acquisition of a 50% interest and further consolidation of 100% stake in Group of Companies Electroshield – TM Samara active in Russia and other CIS countries
A private investment company in its acquisition of a 50% interest in six office buildings in Moscow and the establishment of a 50/50 JV
A private investor in its acquisition of a 50% interest in the project for the construction of a premium-class residential complex, Snegiri Eco, including funding matters and acquisition of apartments and other premises in that complex
Asteros, a leading systems integrator in Russia and other CIS countries, in its group restructuring
Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) in the development of its model agreement for international supplies of equipment (including assembly and pre-commissioning works) and model forms of non-disclosure agreements governed by English and Russian law
Forest Laboratories in its distribution agreement with a Russian pharmaceutical company
RusHydro in its acquisition of an office building in Moscow
A major industrial group in Russia in the exchange of its oilfield service assets for land plots located in the most prestigious district of the Moscow region
Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) in its acquisition of VMI Recycling Group, a group of companies that owns facilities for the collection and processing of ferrous scrap metal
A major investment fund in its reverse sale of two retail banks in Russia
Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant in its sale of real estate assets
Inter RAO UES in its acquisition of a business centre in Moscow from Horus Capital
Pirelli & C. in a €250 million joint venture with State Corporation Rostec (Russian Technologies) to build a tire production plant in Samara
Baring Vostok, a leading private equity fund in the CIS, in its acquisition of a 30% stake in a major Russian privately-owned bank, Orient Express
A UK-based private agricultural company developing its Russian farming operations with financing from Och-Ziff Capital Management, including its taking a majority equity position in the group
A major systems integrator in Russia and the CIS in its pre-IPO corporate restructuring
ОGК-6 in its RUB 21 billion sale of 17% of its shares to a strategic investor
Kausar Oil and Gas (Kazakhstan) in its acquisition of three companies holding licenses for geological survey in Russia
JCDecaux in its acquisition of the Russian subsidiary of Wall AG*