Master Lawyer Valery PAPAKUL

He is one of the lawyers recommended for cooperation in Belarus by international legal rating agencies such as Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500, IFLR1000, Who's Who Legal, World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, PLC Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions, and PLC Which Lawyer. In 2008, he received the Themis Legal Award from the Republican Union of Lawyers of Belarus for his professional achievements and for his active participation in the professional activities of the legal community.Chambers about Valery Papakul: “… he knows everything about the law; he is an excellent partner with a perfect track record…”PRACTICING SINCE 1992. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Providing legal support to large transnational companies for their entry into the Belarusian market, including all issues related to the establishment, structuring, and organization of businesses in Belarus (participating in the development and implementation of investment agreements with the Republic of Belarus, as well as providing expertise in the drafting and adoption of legal acts); Managing M&A projects, including legal due diligence, in the banking, telecommunications, IT, retail, and real estate sectors; Representing a foreign shareholder during the sale of a stake in a Belarusian bank; Advising and overseeing an investment project for the organization of furniture production in Belarus, financed by European banks for a total amount of more than 70 million euros; Monitoring project financing operations and providing legal support for consortium credit investments with development banks; Advising and overseeing the opening of a Belarusian bank’s representative office abroad; Comprehensive support for the process of a foreign bank acquiring a Belarusian bank, including conducting legal due diligence. OTHER EXPERIENCE: Managing the merger project of the law firms Stepanovski, Papakul and Partners and Vashkevich, Sapego and Khrapoutski; Managing the project for the establishment of the Stepanovski, Papakul and Partners law firm branch in Moscow in 2011. EDUCATION: 1994: Faculty of Law, Belarusian State University (with honors); 2008: Executive MBA, Leon Kozminsky Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management, Warsaw, Poland; 2010: Business Owner Academy, IFL Swedish Management Institute, Stockholm School of Economics (2010). MEMBERSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: International Bar Association (IBA).