Editor’s Preface
Olga USENKO, Chief Editor

Olga USENKO
Chief Editor

Business Not as Usual

The current environment in Ukraine is extremely challenging for doing business irrespective of whether these are foreign or national investors. All economic actors inside and outside of the country are waiting for the termination of the conflict in Donbass and speedy, comprehensive reforms. And these two words are hallmarks of every single political speech, business meeting or public discussion. But is the current Parliament capable for designing a responsive regulatory frame and corporate regime notoriously strong in investment protection both quickly and efficiently?

The rapprochement between the business sector and state is far from ideal but public inquiries prove this is the only way to revive the economy. As you can further examine in the Ukrainian Legal Market section, representatives of the legal business became subjects of political and government policies. The role of non-government initiatives and business associations is gradually changing from one of observers to active participants of the policy-making process.

In the meantime, the legal business has to pass through very painful shrinkage. Legal managers have no choice but to adapt to changes in the dynamics of clients development. It has already forced many firms to tighten their belts even tighter. Since 2014 the Ukrainian legal business is completely not as usual. All policies and strategies are functioning in crisis mode.

The Ukrainian Handbook is unique as it provides for not only practices sections, but also industry-specific analytics. This totally reflects present developments in economic policies, law firms' industrial approaches and strategies of doing legal business.

Therefore, written by the leading legal market players, Practice Areas and Industries Review offers valuable insight into relevant Ukrainian law and its most recent practices.

The Who is Who in Ukrainian Law section is designed to provide a user friendly directory ensuring businessmen and general counsels with a quick snapshot of the legal market landscape structured by firms and individuals.

Printed copies of the Handbook are distributed free of charge to in-house counsels, state authorities and business leaders. The publication is also circulated among delegates at various legal and business conferences in Ukraine and abroad.

The editorial team is very grateful to all contributors for their commitment and participation in drafting this Handbook in these challenging times. From our perspective, it was one of the most complicated but interesting pieces of research to be compiled by us in the entire history of this project.

Certainly, a lot still needs to be done to restore the confidence of investors. By way of tradition we try to contribute with a piece of unique insight.