Current leadership

The RCCA is run by a five-member volunteer board, headed by Alexandra Nesterenko. Ms Nesterenko is currently Deputy CEO, Legal Affairs to the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies.

Two members of the board assist the associations corporate (i.e. group) members, while two assist individual members. The RCCA also employs an executive director, a project co-coordinator and a development manager to assist with the running of the association.

Membership

The association has more than 300 in-house counsel members, from 93 different companies – both domestic and international. While the association is happy to work alongside lawyers who belong to legal, consulting or accountancy firms, such individuals are not permitted to become members of the RCCA.

To fund the association, members must pay a one-off joining fee, and also an annual membership charge. Annual membership rates vary, depending on the lawyers’ level of seniority. Discounted corporate (group) membership is permissible for teams of lawyers from the same organisation. Corporate members are entitled to chose a representative to be elected to the RCCA’s governing board.

Status

Membership of the RCCA is voluntary, and the association has no official status within the Russian legal system. As a result, RCCA membership does not automatically give in-house lawyers the right to legal profession privilege/secrecy, or to appear before the courts. However, members are free to join their local bar association and gain official status as a lawyer using that route.

In the near future, the Association intends to create a code of professional ethics which all members must adhere to.

Organisation and objectives

The RCCA has six key objectives:

• to determine, understand and address public needs and interests of corporate lawyers in Russia;
• to assist the members of the association in improving their practical knowledge;
• to contribute to maximum efficiency of legal services provided to clients;
• to promote the corporate lawyers’ status;
• to encourage the RCCA members to use the most efficient methods in legal practice, including new/efficient ways of resolving disagreements in business practice;
• to influence the increase of importance and development of legal profession and legal practice in Russia; to provide a wide range of services in the field of information support, education, cooperation and advocacy for business.

Benefits of membership

When the Russian Corporate Counsel Association was first established, it offered similar services to many other groups of in-house lawyers – i.e. specialist practice groups and an education programme, provided in association with local law offices. However, it has since modified its programme to focus on two key audiences: corporate and individual members. “There are a lot of commercial organisation who can provide education and training seminars for in-house lawyers,” says RCCA president Alexandra Nesterenko. “There was no need for us to offer these seminars also.”

As part of the association’s reorganisation, the corporate committee has now formed four specialist working groups, to examine specific areas of business law. However, unlike other corporate counsel associations, the principal focus of these working groups is not to educate the association’s members. Instead, the groups intend to promote legal reform. “What we are doing is not quite lobbying, but we do want to raise issues that concern the commercial sector, and become an influential association,” Ms Nesterenko continues. “We would like our government to ask our opinion on reforms that may affect the Russian corporate sector.”

For individual members, the RCCA has moved towards providing “master classes” in the management of the in-house legal function. “Some of our members are very experienced heads of legal, and they are happy to advise their more junior colleagues”, she says.

Each year, the RCCA organises an annual event on 12 December, Russia’s “Constitution day”. While the event is strictly a social function, it normally includes guest speakers from the Russian Constitutional Court, the Russian Parliament and the Russian Government. “Members of the RCCA tend to speak at other people’s conferences rather than organise our own – but this will come” says Ms Nesterenko.

Current hot topics

The RCCA is currently asking its members which issues it should focus on in the next few months and years. “We have identified four possible issues, and it will be interesting to see how they respond,” Ms Nesterenko concludes.