Jennifer Handz and New Hires Olga Koniuhova and Jeff Browne join Moscow office
NEW YORK, December 1, 2008 — LawFuel – Legal Newswire – The international law firm of Chadbourne & Parke LLP announced today that it has bolstered its corporate, restructuring and banking capabilities in its Moscow office by transferring another partner to Moscow and hiring a new corporate counsel and senior associate.
Partner Jennifer Handz, a former senior counsel with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has moved from London to the Moscow office where she will focus on bank restructuring work and other banking and finance matters. She was with EBRD’s Corporate Recovery Group in the early 2000’s and has extensive experience working on multilateral and bilateral debt and equity financings.
Joining the Moscow office as counsel is Olga Koniuhova, previously a director (legal practice) at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Moscow. Her experience includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, shareholder and joint venture arrangements, corporate restructuring and reorganization, cross-border and offshore structures, restructuring of companies for listing or the raising of debt on Russian and international capital markets, and corporate governance matters. Ms. Koniuhova is actively involved with The Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, a pro bono group. Also joining Chadbourne’s Moscow office is senior banking associate Jeff Browne.
He previously worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London and Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Melbourne. His experience includes syndicated lending, project finance, acquisition finance and debt capital market transactions, with particular experience in asset-backed and highly structured cross-border leveraged transactions, derivatives, and structured products.
“We are delighted, as these moves expand Chadbourne’s senior level capability in Russia in the areas of corporate, restructuring and banking,” said Chadbourne’s Managing Partner Charles K. O’Neill. “In addition to having an in-depth understanding of clients’ needs in Moscow, Jennifer, Olga and Jeff also have the skills and insights to help clients successfully navigate the challenges of this turbulent economy.”
Chadbourne’s Moscow office was established in 1990 and has been recognized as one of the leading law offices in Russia, most recently by Acquisition Finance Magazine and International Law Office. Despite the current economic environment, the Firm is confident it will be able to continue building upon 18 years of servicing both foreign and domestic clients out of its offices in Moscow, and since 2005, St. Petersburg.
“These recent moves and hires will provide us with the exact set of skills we need in these challenging times. Jennifer has the restructuring experience and experience working with multilateral institutions critical to financing and restructuring projects in the market,” said Laura M. Brank, Moscow managing partner and head of the Russia & CIS Practice.
“Jeff, with his diverse financing experience, will provide our clients with a broad range of financial sector services to meet their needs in these difficult times, and Olga makes available senior Russian corporate experience to broaden our corporate capabilities in the market and expand our client base,” Ms. Brank noted. “Olga is well respected in the market and a number of her former clients at PwC are already Chadbourne clients.”
Ms. Handz, 45, was senior counsel at EBRD before joining Chadbourne’s London office in 2006. She has represented lenders, sponsors and borrowers on transactions in the telecommunications, infrastructure, energy, steel and manufacturing, oil and gas and real estate sectors. Her experience includes the restructuring of credit facilities totaling $390 million for Astelit, a Ukrainian telecommunications company majority owned by Turkcell; a proposed EUR330 million financing by EBRD of a port in Russia; an up to EUR350 million facility by EBRD to Russian steelmaker SeverStal for energy efficiency purposes; and a $90 million syndicated financing by EBRD to Russian oil company Rosneft. Ms. Handz holds B.Juris. and LL.B. degrees from the University of Western Australia.
Ms. Koniuhova, 42, led the PwC mergers and acquisitions team, supervised the work of its St. Petersburg legal practice and acted as a liaison for the legal practices in Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Her previous private experience in Moscow includes work at KPMG and Baker & McKenzie. She also worked as head of legal services at C.A.M. International, Inc., based in both Chicago and Moscow.
Ms. Koniuhova holds a law degree from Kyrgyz State University, and received a Ph.D from Frunze Polytechnic Institute, where she majored in Engineering & Geology.
Mr. Browne, 33, started his career at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, advising clients on matters involving syndicated lending, debt capital markets transactions, acquisition finance and project finance. He relocated to the UK, joining Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he advised leading financial institutions on structured finance, capital markets and derivatives transactions. In addition to Mr. Browne’s private practice experience, he has spent time on secondment at National Australia Bank and Deutsche Bank, London. He has a Bachelor of Laws (with Honors) degree from Bond University in Australia.
About Chadbourne & Parke LLP
Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, private funds, corporate finance, energy, communications and technology, commercial and products liability litigation, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, special investigations and litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters. Major geographical areas of concentration include Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Latin America. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Mexico City, London (a multinational partnership), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Kyiv, Almaty, Dubai and Beijing. For additional information, visit www.chadbourne.com.
