Laura Brank (USA)

Laura Brank is the Managing Partner of the Firm's Moscow office and the head of the CIS practice. Ms. Brank, who is fluent in Russian, has been advising clients on doing business in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) for more than a decade. She currently splits her time between London and Moscow, after having been based in Moscow for seven years. Ms. Brank has extensive experience in the areas of corporate governance, corporate finance, project finance, and secured and unsecured lending. She has represented clients in some of the largest acquisitions and direct foreign investments in the former Soviet Union and has represented lenders, borrowers, sponsors and governmental agencies with respect to various types of financing structures. She also has assisted numerous Russian companies in accessing the international capital markets.

Ms. Brank has supervised the due diligence of dozens of companies in Russia and other CIS countries. She has written numerous articles on foreign investment and commercial developments in the former Soviet Union and is a frequent lecturer on legal issues in the CIS. She is named in the 2001, 2003, and 2005 Euromoney "Guide to the World's Leading Project Finance Lawyers," the 2003 Euromoney "Guide to the World's Leading Energy & Natural Resources Lawyers" and the 2002, 2004, and 2005 Legal Business Report "European Legal Experts" as a leading expert in project finance/energy, and banking and finance. Ms. Brank is listed by Who's Who as a leading lawyer in the fields of corporate and commercial law, banking and finance, and energy. She is also listed by Chambers & Partners as one of Russia's top corporate/commercial lawyers and Chambers and Partners Global Guide 2006 for her corporate/commercial expertise and banking and finance work in Russia, and by the Russia Journal Almanac as one of 75 top Foreign Executives in Russia, and is highly recommended by practicallaw.com (formerly Global Counsel 3000) in the area of corporate/M&A and finance: banking and debt finance.