Debevoise & Plimpton LLP has been named “Law Firm of the Year” by the 12th edition of Best Lawyers for Mergers and Acquisitions in Russia.

Moscow based partners Alan Kartashkin, Alyona Kucher, Natalia Drebezgina and international counsel Maxim Kuleshov have also been recognized as leading practitioners in the field.

Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. It is seen as one of the most prominent in the market, with transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services.

Debevoise’s Russian practice has worked on countless complex transactions across all key Russian industries, including mining and metals, utilities, oil and gas, transportation, financial services, TMT.

The team has a strong track record of deals which are consistently recognized as ones of the largest or most important Russian M&A deals of the year, including several major deals in 2019: $1.12 billion buyback of Megafon; the joint venture of Alibaba’s AliExpress business in Russia with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, MegaFon and Mail.ru; the sale by N-Mining of a 100% stake in a gold exploration company Third Mining Exploration Company to Kinross Gold Corporation.