Bilateral Lawyers: The Connection between Ireland and Russia
Donnery & Co solicitors in an Irish law firm established by Elizaveta Donnery, a Russian speaking solicitor who is qualified and practicing in Ireland; she is also qualified in Russia and admitted on roll of solicitors in England and Wales. Elizaveta Donnery is the only solicitor in Ireland with these types of qualifications and experience; further to this, she writes a weekly legal column in newspaper and has appeared on RTE radio and Dublin City FM.
She speaks with Lawyer Monthly about her unique expertise and the connection between Ireland and Russia.
What are your goals which involve Russian and Irish connections?
One of my goals is to develop further economic activity and business relationships between Ireland, UK, Russia and other countries. I aim to provide high quality legal advice to all clients who are interested in investing either funds or highly skilled workers into the Irish economy. I also aim to continue working with the Irish Russia Business Association (IRBA), Enterprise Ireland, Embassies and other organisations in order to achieve my goal!
How are the legal sectors different in Russia, in comparison to Ireland? If you could adopt certain policies from each jurisdiction’s legal sector, what would you mix and change for the better?
Irish and Russian judicial systems are very different, however, after being involved in litigation in both jurisdictions I can say that there is a certain cross over. Russian system does rely on precedents; however, the Judges also compare cases and may in certain areas on law use previous decisions as guidelines.
How do your commercial disputes differ from the private clients? How do you use your expertise to manage this accordingly?
Prior to setting up in practice I worked as a solicitor in the largest Irish corporate law firm. I’m a Council member of Irish Russian Business association and holder of Law Society Diploma in Finance Law. These qualifications and experience are very helpful when dealing with international commercial clients. Working with private clients requires slightly different set of skills and different approach. I think any modern lawyer has to be flexible in terms of skills and approach to various clients. I find it very interesting and challenging when there is a correlation between commercial and private client issues. I apply my previous corporate legal experience and knowledge of general practice areas and immigration law on a daily basis when dealing with my clients.
I think a key to a successful practice is to be able to develop an individual approach to each client and their needs. This is now especially prevalent with the legal sector and society in general facing massive challenges in immigration law and human rights issues.
What positive changes have you seen overtime in Irish Finance Law?
Introduction of Commercial Court and Court of Appeal are very positive, in my view. Introduction of Immigrant investment programmes by the Department of Justice and Equality is a very positive step as it was designed to attract highly skills individuals, investors and companies with innovative approach to Ireland.
