Ministry of Justice to Pay $1.9 million to Legal Advisers in Gas Disputes

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine procured legal services of international law firm King & Wood Mallesons LLP worth $1.9 million, Nashi Groshi cites Prozorro.

The law firm will represent Ukraine in gas disputes with JKX Oil&Gas Plc, Poltava Gas B.V., as well as Poltavska Gazonaftova Companiya [Ukr.: Poltava Gas and Oil Company].

In March, the Ministry of Justice hired London-based King & Wood Mallesons LLP to defend Ukraine in a related case for €478 thousand. In November 2015, the Ministry also hired the UK law firm Latham & Watkins LLP to help Ukraine in this case.

The lawsuits were submitted in February 2015, each claiming approximately $500 million. Later on, they were united within an ad hoc arbitration to save government funds.

The claimants filed suits because Parliament raised gas production rents and allowed the Government to buy gas only from Naftogaz.

In June 2015, Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv pursuant to the decision of the emergency arbitrator of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce as of 14 January 2015 banned the government to charge rent higher than 28% from Poltavska Gazonaftova Companiya.

According to the agreement with the Ministry of Justice, King & Wood Mallesons LLP has to engage Ukrainian firm Lexwell and Partners in this case. So far, it is not clear what services this law firm will provide and how much they will cost. It is only known that the regular hourly fee of its partner Andriy Kolupaev is $300.

Fees of attorneys of King & Wood Mallesons LLP will be approximately three times higher. For instance, the head of its dispute resolution practice Craig Pollack will charge $997 per hour.

Source: Ekonomichna Pravda