In the new issue of magazine ‘Expert South”, CEO of the National Law Company “Mitra”, Yury Mirzoev, spoke about the current situation in the legal services market, as well as about the changes over the past five years that are related to the company's development.
What is the legal services market in the South of Russia?
- Legal business as such is just emerging, there is no common structure, the image of the legal community. The market is full of "lawyers of all trades" without a clear specialization, experience (which undermines the prestige of the profession in the eyes of business). There are some strong players, but their units.
What place does the law company "Mitra" occupy on it? What kinds of disputes have you to solve recently?
- We provide services in the branch of tax law, antimonopoly regulation, real estate and construction, bankruptcy, energy, administrative protection of business, representation of interests in arbitration and courts of general jurisdiction. This year we are five years old. Today, specialists of “Mitra” work in the North Caucasus and southern Russia, as well as in Moscow and other regions.
The total volume of transactions and disputes, accompanied by our lawyers during 2016, amounted to more than 4.8 billion rubles. The cases with our participation are among the key disputes of the year. The company topped the last rating of legal companies in the south of Russia under the version of Pravo.ru and is included in the list of the best in the branch of tax law, arbitration litigation, dispute resolution and bankruptcy among all regional legal companies of the country in 2016.
Is the business ready to transfer a number of functions to ensure its activities (especially legal support) for outsourcing?
- It all depends on the size of the company. It is more profitable for an average business to provide legal support for outsourcing, since the content of a good lawyer is beyond the power of such a business, and hiring a specialist with low qualifications is fraught with the worst consequences. Progressive businessmen began to apply more and more often for legal conclusions on revealing of risks at fulfillment of transactions, consultation on separately arising questions. This is a gradual transition to outsourcing.
Large companies also contain, and will continue to contain, legal departments in connection with the large volume of contract work and similar disputes. It is necessary to understand that in them are working lawyers who carry out the same type of work. Therefore, in my opinion, the big business will continue to give complex projects to external consultants - experts in their branch.
Is the number of disputes growing among companies?
- Judicial statistics show that the number of court disputes has increased. The number of disputes related to non-fulfillment of contracts has increased, especially after the appreciation of the currency. Pre-trial order still does not inspire confidence in our citizens, it is connected with mentality, that is why mediation and arbitration courts have not taken root in the country. Russian business considers the judicial act of the state court to be more significant. But there is another side of the coin - the possibility of enforcing a judicial decision. Often by this time the debtor is already bankrupt. Following the results of 2016, the Rostov region and the Krasnodar region entered the Top 10 regions of Russia in terms of the number of bankrupt companies, but it should be borne in mind that these regions are in the lead in the number of re-registered companies. We also had several disputes over the Olympic construction projects, many disputes over the contracts in the electric power industry. We could save in court from the bankruptcy of the largest electricity supplier in Dagestan and the largest gas distribution company in Dagestan.
As You touched the topic of energy, I need ask the following question: is the situation with energy pricing clear now? What tools do economic entities have to influence the tariff policy of the monopolies?
- For the ordinary consumer, including for legal persons, the situation with pricing is rather opaque. The pricing technique is complex. Enterprises overpay for years supplied electricity. At the same time, timely identified overpayments allow to reduce the costs of enterprises, estimated at several million each year. That is why companies resort to the services of legal consultants. With regard to instruments: in case that the consumer believes that the fixed price (tariff) is unreasonable, he has the right to apply with the application to the antimonopoly authority or to the supervisory authority (prosecutor's office).
Has the attitude of economic entities to taxes changed: is their activity clear now? Have you become more out of the shadows?
- In 2007, taxpayers won about 75 percent of all the additional taxes assessed in arbitration courts, and according to the latest information from the Federal Tax Service, only 18-20 percent are now allowed in favor of taxpayers. The total number of tax revenues in the budget system over the past couple of years is also steadily growing. Therefore, taxpayers have no other way than to "get out of the shadows."
How can you characterize the latest legislative initiatives linked with your company?
- We follow the initiative of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to establish a system of new appellate and cassation courts in the country's districts in the system of courts of general jurisdiction. If this idea can be realized, our company will expand the practice of resolving disputes in courts of general jurisdiction.
Materials were taken from “Expert South”
