СОВЕРШЕНСТВО В ПРАКТИКЕ: REVERA – 25 лет юридической поддержки бизнеса

REVERA Belarus (Revera Legal LLC) is the leading law firm in Belarus. Over a quarter of a century it has evolved from a small office with only three employees to an international legal group with offices in six countries and numerous clients all over the world. This year, in the year of its 25^th anniversary, the company joined the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Today REVERA is providing a comprehensive set of modern legal services demanded by business, including assistance in the field of antimonopoly law, support of investment projects in Belarus, business expansion abroad, corporate law and M&A, packaging of start-ups, intellectual property protection, personal data processing, bankruptcy and debt restructuring, private wealth management, and others.

REVERA's portfolio includes many success stories of helping businesses. The key to the company's success is a combination of competent management and a team of professionals, each being an expert in their area. And more closely in this regard – from the team members' perspective.

Support of investment projects, tax consulting

"Once REVERA Belarus allowed me to succeed as a lawyer: nine years ago I came here as a trainee – and for a year now I've been the company director, simultaneously heading the infrastructure projects practice.

Specialists of my practice advise national and foreign companies on all investment aspects in the real sector of economy and infrastructure projects. The volume of investments in projects we have implemented over the last three years exceeds 2 billion euro. We advise clients on choosing the optimal site for project implementation, most preferable corporate structure, financing, construction and real estate.

Our portfolio includes implementing projects utilizing various legal regimes: free economic zones, operations in rural areas, operations in the Orsha region. Our lawyers support projects being implemented on the basis of investment contracts with the Republic of Belarus of the first and second levels.

Tax counseling is a separate type of activity within the practice. We have two highly qualified tax consultants on our staff, who assist clients both in resolving current issues and in supporting tax audits."

Startup packaging, registering of property rights, working with publishers

"My story in the company started in 2014 with corporate practice. Later I became professionally involved in information technologies and intellectual property. This is the practice I currently represent, while holding the position of a Co-Head of REVERA Belarus.

We specialize in legal support of technology companies: from small startups to large-scale businesses.

We advise startups on a wide range of issues: from building a business model and legal-packaging of the product to attracting first investments. Among other things, we support the processes of building relations between founders and startup team, establishing trade secret regime, registration of intellectual property rights and their legal protection.

Inquiries from large technology companies we work with relate to corporate structuring, business models and contractual relations. The practice has extensive experience in conducting Legal Due Diligence of IT companies in terms of registration of rights to software products, compliance with preferential legal regimes.

We have successful experience in building contractual relations in the GameDev-industry, including with renowned companies from China, USA, Europe and Russia. We have supported more than 50 projects in this field, so we understand perfectly the needs of development studios and publishers being on the same page with our clients. This is the key to client trust."

Restructuring, antimonopoly regulation, sanctions compliance

"Corporate procedures and structuring sub-practice is a part of REVERA Belarus corporate practice, where I have been working for five years.

Our sub-practice team specializes in helping clients to build ownership structure of their business based on its specifics and client's needs.

In practice, we often encounter business models in which one company is the founder of another, and that one, in turn, forms the next level of companies, and so on. However, the benefits of such a multi-level structure are not always obvious. On the contrary, management becomes very complex and not always efficient. Restructuring helps optimize the company operation, taking into account all possible legal risks. We help our clients to build their business as efficiently as possible within the legal framework.

Our work is multifaceted and includes several components, i.e. conducting restructuring process in various ways, including full support of business sale and purchase, development and analysis of the legal structure of such transactions, conducting Legal Due Diligence.

In addition, our sub-practice specializes in antimonopoly law, which always accompanies the activities of medium and large companies, especially in the restructuring process.

We also advise clients on sanctions restrictions in the corporate part of business ownership."

Protection of personal data of the company and its clients

"I had become interested in the area of personal data protection long before the regulation was introduced in Belarus. For a long time I had been working with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Now I am excited to bring this experience to the Belarusian practice.

Our sub-practice specializes in providing comprehensive consulting services and developing documentation aimed at complying with the requirements of data protection legislation. The main task is to ensure understanding and correct application of complex regulations and standards in the field of personal data protection. Our activities are aimed at developing individual strategies for each company, helping to minimize potential vulnerabilities.

Our expertise helps to avoid possible risks associated with personal data and promotes transparent and trusting relationships between our customers and their clients.

Among the services of REVERA Belarus in this area is the audit of personal data processing. The audit provides an opportunity to analyze the current data processing and identify vulnerabilities. In addition, we carry out the development of documentation in the field of personal data processing, which helps organizations to establish clear and consistent methods of work in the field of personal data protection. Additionally, our team provides training programs for company employees, which helps to increase their awareness and compliance with legal requirements.".

Legal regulation of pharmaceutical companies

"Being in my seventh year with the company, I am grateful for the large-scale projects with which I can work on as a legal partner, and the proactive people who together with me address problems in the field of legal support of pharmaceutical business – Life Science.

Our team specializes in providing legal support to companies operating in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors: developers and manufacturers of drugs, dietary supplements, medical devices and biotechnologies.

In our day-to-day work we advise on all issues related to legal regulation at all stages of product life cycle, such as clinical trials, registration and protection of intellectual property, manufacturing, localization, compliance procedures, pricing and procurement, distributor relations, retail, promotion and advertising of drugs and medical devices. In addition, we offer prompt and professional solutions to the issues related to the real sector (purchase, construction of plants, contract manufacturing, lease, etc.)."

Corporate business management

"I'm leading a team providing services to a management organization. My appointment was facilitated by more than 10 years of legal experience in investment, construction and commercial real estate, as well as six years of work in the management of a large investment company, where I accompanied the implementation of a project worth over 100 million US dollars.

Our team is guided by the principle "our competence = your safety". Corporate management is a complex service featuring organizational and legal aspects. Our task is to build business processes of the managed company according to the wishes of its owners. This can only be done competently by complying with the requirements of the legislation and constantly monitoring all relevant changes. I would like to note that more and more business owners prefer a management organization to a contracted manager – it is also bene­ficial in terms of costs.

Among the companies that trust us with corporate management are members of international groups, the Hi Tech Park residents, as well as companies in the real sector of the economy.

The type of services provided by our team requires an individual approach to each managed company based on its type of activity, structure and other features. To ensure that our services precisely meet the needs of our clients, we use customized tools and processes."

Comprehensive legal support for crypto-business in Belarus

"IT law regulates legal relations, the key element of which is information technologies and products. I have been working in this area for five years, mainly on the issues of special legal regimes and turnover of digital signs (tokens).

The Crypto&Blockchain Direction of REVERA Belarus has deep expertise in handling projects related to complex legal support of crypto-businesses (including crypto-startps), which are popular today. We advise companies on mining, activities of crypto platform operators, crypto­currency exchange operators, ICO organizers and other operations with the use of digital signs (tokens), as well as services related to the creation and placement of tokens and their promotion.

A comprehensive package of services includes analysis of business models of crypto projects and their assessment for compliance with the legislation in the field of token circulation, consulting on the requirements for applicants to the Hi Tech Park (HTP) planning to engage in crypto-activities, as well as the fulfillment of corresponding obligations by existing HTP residents.

The qualification and experience of the Crypto&Blockchain team allow us to fully cover the project implementation stage, during which a business project is prepared for HTP entry, local legal acts are developed, which are necessary for the application of activities with the use of tokens.

Among the solutions for existing business I could mention analysis of foreign legislation in the sphere of token circulation, audit of AML/CFT, KYC policies for compliance with the requirements of national legislation and international recommendations, legal opinion development for compliance with the requirements of Visa and MasterCard payment systems."

Legal protection and safeguarding of trademarks worldwide

"Brand Protection is a part of the Information Technology and Intellectual Property practice, more deeply focused on projects of brand legal protection and security.

Streamlining the direction is an important component of comprehensive business support, as the protection of exclusive rights to a brand, as well as registration of brands as trademarks are necessary for their effective promotion and asserting the company's rights. The presence of experienced specialists with the status of patent attorneys in our company has significantly contributed to the development of services we provide.

The Brand Protection team supports our clients in ­obtaining legal protection of trademarks (brands), industrial designs both in Belarus and abroad.

We also provide support in contractual work with these objects, in particular, we assist in drafting license, assignment, and franchising agreements, coordination of material terms and their registration. We represent our clients on the issues of intellectual property rights protection in case of their infringement worldwide. We support the process of inclusion of our clients' trademarks in the customs register of intellectual property objects and generally advise on the strategy of brand development and protection against infringement.

The allocation of an independent direction, i.e. Brand Protection, has been arranged primarily due to the business demand for this type of services. Companies, especially those that own a large number of trademarks, including those abroad, face difficulties in controlling the protection of their brand. We can help solve these difficulties by undertaking constant monitoring of the process and terms of trademark registration, correctness of their use, presence of violations."