PERICLES PROFESSORS

Looking to reunite with your professor from years ago? Click here for bios on Pericles professorial alumni.

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Abkerimov, Ruslan

Ruslan Abkerimov has been teaching English for about 22 years. His expertise includes general English (he can teach any levels from beginners to advanced), TOEFL, IELTS, and purely conversational courses and clubs. He has a diverse educational background, which includes visual graphic design, and video and music production. Teaching language, however, was always Mr. Abkerimov's passion and later became his vocation.

Having taught language for about 12 years by 2011, Mr. Abkerimov enrolled into University of Montana (UoM) where he graduated with a master’s degree in fine arts, and a thesis on "Integration of Graphic Design into Learning Process of Grammar." He got his CELTA certificate in Denver while studying at UoM. Having taken the TOEFL test twice in 2010, he decided to teach TOEFL preparation as he found TOEFL to be the most fascinating and challenging among others.  

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Ambrosio, Armando

Armando Ambrosio graduated from University of Naples and is a member of the Italian bar. He holds a Master Degree (LL.M.) in International Business Law from King's College London, and a Diploma in Maritime and Export Law from City of London Polytechnic. He qualified as a mediator at AIA in Brussels, specializing in commercial disputes. He taught mediation at Pericles in 2019 and International Trade Law at University of Sannio in 2022. He has worked as a practitioner in the areas of corporate and commercial law, M&A, international contracts and ADR in major law firms in Milan, London, Luxemburg and New York. Until recently he was the resident partner of the Moscow office of the law firm of De Berti Jacchia. He still oversees the Moscow office of the firm from his current base in Milan/Rome. 

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Basri, Carole

Carole Basri is the Chief Advisor to the Association of Corporate Counsel‘s Certification Program, is the former Corporate Compliance Advisor at Fordham Law School, as well as an adjunct professor at Fordham, is a Visiting Professor at Peking University School of Transnational Law, and is the President of the Corporate Lawyering Group, LLC., which advises on corporate compliance programs, and has created comprehensive compliance and ethics programs for major corporations including The Dunn & Bradstreet Corporation, Cendant, Benjamin Moore & Co. and Dannon Inc. Previously, Professor Basri taught Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, at NY University Law School, and others.  She has also lectured abroad, including at Hebrew University Law School; the Iraq Studies Institute in Beirut, Lebanon;  at Cairo University School of Law, and at Tsinghua Law School in China. She is also on the Academic Committee of the INTERPOL Anti-Corruption Academy. Earlier in her career, Carole Basri worked as in-house counsel for N.W. Ayer, Inc.; Maidenform, Inc.; and China-On-Line, Inc, and consulted for the Perrier Group, Inc. and Deloitte & Touche, LLP, where she helped to create their ethics and compliance practice.  For ten years, she served as a member of the Practicing Law Institute (PLI) Corporate General Counsel Advisory Committee, and co-chair of the Practicing Law Institute’s (PLI) Conferences on Corporate Compliance and on Advanced Corporate Compliance. In addition, she has served on numerous committees and lawyers’ associations in New York and internationally, dedicated to corporate counsel and compliance issues.  She has also authored several books including Corporate Legal Departments, and International Corporate Practice published by the Practicing Law Institute; E-Discovery for Corporate Counsel, published by West Publishing; and  Corporate Compliance Practice Guide: The Next Generation of Compliance, published by Lexis Nexis. Professor Basri is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University and NYU School of Law.  

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Bailey, Blake

Blake Bailey obtained his Juris Doctor from Baylor Law School in 1973. He is a prominent Texas attorney with over 35 years of practice experience, between 150-200 jury trials and over 40 appellate cases tried. He has received verdicts on subjects ranging from medical malpractice, consumer protection, environmental protection, product liability, industrial disease, to automobile accidents. Professor Bailey has been listed by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 500 lawyers in America. He was also featured on the television series "America's Premier Lawyers." He has authored several professional articles on topics related to workers compensation, sexual abuse law and more, plus, for pleasure he authored three published novels. In the course of his career, he has taught guest lectures and seminars at Baylor Law School, South Texas College of Law, and Houston Law School, as well as giving short courses in American law and dispute resolution at law schools in Udmurtia and Perm. In 2010, Blake Bailey limited his private practice to run as a candidate for the Supreme Court of Texas. Although he didn't win, his loss is Pericles' gain, because this freed his time to spend a whole semester in Russia. At Pericles taught Professional Responsibility and other topics as a visiting professor in the Fall Semester of 2011. He is also continuing his practice as "Of Counsel" with the Martin Walker Law Firm in Texas. For a link to Professor Bailey’s work on a code of ethics for Russian lawyers, please see: http://www.bailey-law.com/rusian-litigation/ 

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Bean, Bruce

Bruce Bean has a B.A. in international relations from Brown University and his J.D. from Columbia. Bruce practiced law for over 20 years in New York and California before moving to Moscow in 1995 to be managing partner of Coudert Brothers' Moscow office. Between 1998 and 2002, Bruce was the Head of the Corporate Department for Clifford Chance in Moscow. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce from 1996 to 2003 and was a founding director of the Institute of Corporate Law and Governance. Bruce taught the Business Organizations course in the spring 2003 semester and returned to Moscow in 2005 to teach International Business Transactions, and in 2010 to teach Emerging Markets in the University of San Diego summer program. Now a Professor in Residence at Michigan State College of Law, when in Moscow Bruce continues to teach at Pericles on a visiting professor basis.

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Bellerose, Brian

Brian Bellerose is an attorney and adjunct professor of law.  He graduated from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and the University of Chicago and studied education at Columbia University. Brian has taught US business law, international business law, and legal language and writing at several universities such as Concordia University of Chicago, Suffolk University Law School and Bentley University.  He also has several years of experience teaching English to foreign language speakers. Brian's legal career has specialized in international business, investments and financial services.  He has over 25 years of experience advising multi-national companies and start-ups.  He was the General Counsel and Managing Director of Renaissance Capital and MDM Group in Moscow Russia, the General Counsel of Oriflame Cosmetics, a publicly-traded company headquartered in Brussels Belgium.  He was also the General Counsel of two groups of investment funds—Kazimir Funds, which specialized in investing in the former Soviet Union and BeiKai Capital, a group of private equity funds in China.  Brian lives in New York City.

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Beresnevich, Anatoly

Anatoly Beresnevich was educated at Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages (Now Moscow State Linguistic University) in the 1980s and at the Columbia School of Journalism (1995). Starting professional life as an Intourist Guide in the 1980s, Anatoly found nothing but opportunity in the opening up of the U.S.S.R. to the West. He soon became a translator for U.S. News & World Report, then for the American Bar Association, and finally went freelance in 1996. Since then his career has taken him to simultaneous and consecutive interpreting and translating for the U.S. Embassy and multiple departments of the U.S. government, the British Embassy, the American Bar Association, the Ford Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the WTO, and the G8, as well as for private law firms. He became a specialist in simultaneously interpreting court sessions in Russia and America. He has interpreted at the Supreme Court and Constitutional Courts of Russia, as well as at the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also interpreted speeches at the World Bank (Washington, D.C.) the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Congress. He has worked for numerous ambassadors and statesmen, including such U.S. luminaries as Condoleeza Rice, and Dr. Henry Kissinger. And in all his work, Anatoly keeps a sense of humor and irony that engages and entertains. At Pericles, Anatoly teaches 'Approaching Legal English course' designed for the low-intermediate and intermediate English level students.

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Bleicher, Sam

Samuel A. Bleicher is currently Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law School and the Principal of The Strategic Path LLC, through which he consults on strategic decision making.  Since 2007 he has taught law and lectured at various law schools in Russia and China on a wide variety of topics, mostly to foreign students, including Chinese judges, prosecutors, and lawyers.  From 1981 to 2001, he was a Principal in Miles & Stockbridge P.C. and other law firms, where he worked on legislative and regulatory matters.  From 2001 to 2007, Mr. Bleicher was a State Department official responsible for developing and implementing strategic funding initiatives to build and maintain US diplomatic facilities.  From 1977 to 1981, he held various positions in the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, including Deputy General Counsel.  He served as Deputy Director for Regulation & Enforcement in the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency from 1972 to 1975. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

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Bointon, Rosemary

Rosemary Bointon has a wide range of experience in financial and corporate transactions.  Qualified as an English solicitor, she now works in Moscow but has worked in London, Brussels, Kyiv, Tbilisi and Vienna.    She has advised the British and Czech governments on public private partnerships as well as advising banks and companies on their projects.  She has worked on projects with a number of international development agencies.  She has taught courses on legal issues in Tanzania and at MGU in Moscow.  She was editor of the DLA Piper European PPP Report published with the European PPP Expertise Centre (based in the European Investment Bank) in November 2009.  She advises on  off shore transactions, restructuring,  project finance, infrastructure, and other concessions.  Rosemary has two grown up children.  She enjoys living in new countries and learning about their culture and languages.  She is keen on skiing and passionate about sailing. She taught PPP Project Finance at Pericles as an adjunct professor.

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Bott, Michael

Michael Bott is the head of the banking and finance practice group at Linklaters in Moscow. Prior to Linklaters, he worked for Allen & Overy in London and for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York.  Professor Bott has a general debt finance practice which encompasses a broad mix of acquisition financings, sovereign lending, real estate financings, private placements, syndicated loans, project financings, securitizations, trade finance and restructuring & insolvency.  Recently, he advised 30 international banks on their restructuring of various syndicated debt facilities for Mechel, as well as lenders and borrowers on various financings for Gazprom, VimpelCom, Evraz, LUKoil and Norilsk Nickel.   He  holds a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Georgetown University.  He is dual-qualified as both a New York and English lawyer.

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Brank, Laura

Laura M. Brank heads the Russia practice of Dechert LLP.  She has been advising corporations, investment funds, banks, multinational institutions, and high net worth individuals on complex corporate and finance transactions in emerging markets for over two decades. Since 2014, Professor Brank has become one of the leading experts on U.S. economic sanctions against Russia, speaking and writing extensively on the topic, as well as counseling clients on compliance and sanctions matters.   She has been ranked in The Legal 500 EMEA and Chambers Global since 2007 and is top-ranked for her corporate/M&A work in the 2021 edition of Chambers Europe. She is listed in The Legal 500 EMEA 2021 for banking and finance, dispute resolution, energy & natural resources,  real  estate and more.   Laura obtained her B.A. from the University of Maryland, J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and M.S. from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.  She is a member of the bar in New York and Washington D.C., and is a registered foreign lawyer in England and Wales.  Laura has been leading  courses on Economic Sanctions at Pericles since 2017.  You can see her more extended bio on Dechert’s web page. https://www.dechert.com/people/b/laura-brank.html

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Brooks, Patrick

Patrick J. Brooks is a Senior Associate at the law firm of Squire, Sanders and Dempsey's Moscow office. He has a diverse corporate practice focused on cross-border transactions with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and corporate finance in Russia. He has represented both US and Russian companies in numerous M&A and investment ventures. Mr. Brooks focused the first 7 years of his legal career on corporate restructuring matters and U.S. bankruptcy law and has extensive experience in providing strategic counsel to distressed businesses, debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, asset purchasers and investors in connection with the restructuring and reorganization of distressed companies and the acquisition and divestiture and their assets. Mr. Brooks served as lead associate for the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Enron Corp. in litigation seeking to avoid billions of dollars in transfers related to highly complex financing structures involving Enron and one of its tier-one banks. He leads the Mergers & Acquisitions Master Class at Pericles and team teaches Business Organizations with Professor Webb.

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Budylin, Sergey

Sergey Budylin is an advisor at the Bartolius Law Office in Moscow. Mr. Budylin got his LLM, with honors, from Pericles in 2007, where he was the valedictorian of his class. In addition to his Pericles degree, Sergey also holds a Candidate of Science in Physics from Moscow State University, a diploma in economics and management from the Russian American Independent University (American University in Moscow), and a law diploma from the Russian Academy of Investment Specialists (GASIS). Sergey has taught various courses (such as tax planning, English trusts, English contract law, comparative corporate law, and others) at the Higher School of Economics, the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences (“Shaninka”), the Russian School of Private Law, and Pericles. He is the author of numerous articles on tax, intellectual property and civil law issues, including several well-read English language articles on various topics of Russian law and comparative Russian-US law that have been published in US an European law journals.

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Cannon, Donald

Donald Cannon graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle.  He began his professional life working first as translator for business concerns involved in commerce with the USSR, soon acting as negotiator and commercial representative as East-West trade increased.  During this time, he also participated enthusiastically in citizen diplomacy and the Sister Cities Program.  After the dissolution of the USSR, Donald embraced the economic changes taking place in Russia and, following the then-popular trend, he helped create several joint ventures.  In the 1990s, he also established and managed a new business venture in Russia and was responsible for all of its operations, including complex technical issues.  Donald ardently supports cultural diversity and has always advocated for pinpointing and interpreting societal differences and their underlying realities;  he believes this to be as important as interpreting words and ideas.  Operating on this conviction, he has supplied in-depth Russian company profiles to Western investors, mediated in contract negotiations and edited English-language website for Russian businesses.  Wherever Donald has been throughout his career, he has always taught English, also using the principle that experiencing cultural differences is the root of language acquisition.  To grasp English fully, we need to perceive its culture from the inside out.  Traditional instruction in Russia, however, typically explains English and its culture from the outside in.  Donald’s approach is to restore the inside-out flow and to give students a sudden “Aha!” experience uniting both language and culture.

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Chaviano, Dustin

Dustin Chaviano is from Chicago, Illinois. He spent ten years working in finance at the Chicago Board of Trade as a commodities broker, moving through various companies and positions on the busy trading floor. After the 2008 financial crisis, he left finance and decided to pursue an early love of teaching. He retrained as a teacher and then took a first teaching position Wuxi, China, teaching children from a very young age through high school. He recently moved to Moscow to work with a new, private school here, and to round out his schedule and keep a little bit of adult contact and business communication into the mix, he has agreed to teach TOEFL listening and speaking here at Pericles. Dustin holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Loyola University, Chicago, as well as various certificates in futures and options, and trading strategies. His personal interests are in American sports and movies.

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Collins, Bruce

Bruce Wilkie Collins, Q.C., is an international lawyer and professional arbitrator with more than 36 years of experience, specializing in complex commercial and engineering construction and infrastructure disputes. He has chambers in London and Hong Kong, and has been appointed to arbitration panels at the HKIAC, LCIA, the ICC. He has recently been appointed to chair an ICC International Arbitration sited in London and an ICC Arbitration between Russian and Chinese companies to be determined according to Russian law. Bruce has also been active in sports arbitration: he has been a Member of an Appellate Panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, has been appointed to the Judicial Branch of World Sailing, to the Australian National Sports Tribunal, and was appointed to chair an Independent Inquiry into the Australian Women’s Hockey Team. As an adjunct professor of law and an honorary lecturer in international commercial arbitration, Bruce Collins has lectured all over Australia as well as at a number of institutions around the world, in cities including Hong Kong, Bahrain, Shenzen, Canaberra, Kiev, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul and Moscow. In addition, he was selected to train young lawyers in international commercial arbitration on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce. He holds a B.A. in economics and an LL.B. from the University of Sydney, an LL.M. from Melbourne University and a Barrister-at-Law degree from Kings Inn, Dublin. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is admitted to the Bars of England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, and Fiji. At Pericles, he teaches a popular self-authored course entitled “Designing an Effective Arbitration.”

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Collins, David

David Collins is a senior lecturer at City Law School of City University, London, where he teaches international economic law specializing in the law of the World Trade Organization and international investment law. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation at Maastricht University, a frequent Visiting Professor at the ESADE Law School in Barcelona and a Current Development Editor for the Manchester Journal of International Economic Law. He has been a Visiting Fellow at a number of academic institutions including the Institute of International Economic Law of Georgetown University, the World Trade Institute of the University of Bern, the University of Sydney Law School, the Asian Institute of International Financial Law at the University of Hong Kong, and most recently Columbia Law School in New York. He holds a B.A. and a J.D.from the University of Toronto, an M.Sc. and a BCL (Master of Laws) from Oxford, and is currently working on a Ph.D. in law from Maastricht University. Apart from academic qualifications, David Collins has been a practicing attorney and a Crown Prosecutor in Canada, is a U.K. solicitor and is admitted to the Bars of Ontario and New York. He will be visiting at Pericles in Summer 2012 and teaching W.T.O. law while he works on a book on foreign direct investment from emerging markets in services. In July of 2012 Professor Collins was asked to write an article for the Economist’s Forum on Russia’s Accession to the WTO.

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Cook, Moses

Moses Cook is an American trial attorney and law professor who served as the Executive Director of DC Law Students in Court (recently renamed Rising for Justice) the oldest legal clinic in Washington DC.  Prior to serving as Executive Director, he oversaw its criminal defense clinic and supervised law students in all aspects of litigating criminal cases in Washington, DC.  In addition, he was faculty at Georgetown University Law Center and supervised a graduate LL.M teaching fellow, coached several mock trial teams for George Washington University and taught classes as an adjunct professor of law.  He has argued many cases at the appellate level and is barred in the U.S. Supreme Court and District Court for the District of Columbia.  He received his LL.M in Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center and his J.D. from Washington University School of Law.  Moses has extensive trial advocacy teaching experience both in the US and internationally having recently presented in Moscow; Yerevan, Armenia; and Chisinau, Moldova.  

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Cooke, Uliana

Uliana Cooke is a partner leading the International Arbitration Practice at PCB Byrne LLP based in London. She specialises in complex multi-jurisdictional matters, international commercial and investment treaty arbitrations where she represents both States and investors, and enforcement of arbitral awards often involving States and State-owned entities. Uliana has acted as counsel in major international arbitrations, including under ICSID, UNCITRAL, LCIA, ICC and SIAC Rules, as well as in ad hoc arbitrations emanating from the CIS region, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She has also advised Governments on investment treaty drafting and issues involving public international law. Uliana is admitted as a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and  is also a Russian qualified lawyer having worked for global law firms in Moscow and London.  She is currently a partner and the Head of International Arbitration in a dispute resolution-only firm PCB Byrne based in London. In addition to her practice, Uliana is a Teaching Fellow on the international arbitration LLM programme at Queen Mary University of London where she teaches international commercial arbitration. Uliana obtained an LL.M. in Comparative and International Dispute Resolution with Distinction at Queen Mary University in 2014, after receiving her Russian law degree from Moscow State University in 2009, and a Graduate Diploma in law from BPP University in England in 2012, where she also completed the Legal Practice Course in 2015. In addition, she was part of a cohort of students at the Arbitration Academy in Paris where she pursued advanced legal studies in both international commercial and investment treaty arbitration in 2012. Uliana is an advocate for diversity in international arbitration and is a member of ArbitralWomen and the Silicon Valley Mediation and Arbitration Centre.

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Courtney, Robert

Robert W. Courtney is an American lawyer and business executive with over 25 years’ experience as a principal in or advisor to the development and management of new ventures in Russia, the CIS, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, China, Taiwan, and Japan, together with 10 years’ experience as a practicing American lawyer.  His international business and legal experience includes franchising, cross-border joint ventures, retail, real estate, healthcare services, travel, and information technology.  Russia and franchise-specific experience includes: Retail Profile Russia, the first outsource provider of commercialization services to the retail industry in Russia, and licensee of LSE-listed Space and People PLC.  Founder, US Dental Care, market-leading operator of dental clinics in Russia.  Co-founder, Century 21 Real Estate, owner and developer of the Century 21 master franchise for Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.  Co-founder, Newbridge Group, a transaction advisory, partner search, and market entry consulting firm representing global brands and franshisors in establishing their businesses in Russia; representative clients included Burger King, Yum! Brands, Thomas Pink, Tally Weijl, Carls Jr., Lee Cooper, Le Pain Quotidien, Peek & Cloppenburg, Maredo, and Nuskin.  Advisory Board member, Le Pain Quotidien restaurants in Russia, master licensee and developer of the popular French café concept in the former Soviet Union.He has an international MBA from Thunderbird Global School of Management, a JD from Stetson University College of Law, and a BA in Economics from Vanderbilt University.  He is a Board and Executive Committee member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. He speaks fluent Russian and has elementary or working proficiencies in Spanish, French, and Chinese.  https://ru.linkedin.com/in/robertcourtney

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Danilov, Sergey

Sergey Danilov obtained his Juris Doctor degree from Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University (Arlington, Virginia). A native of St.Petersburg, Russia, he spent over 30 years in various parts of the world, including the United States, Europe, and Central America, and speaks several languages. Currently he lives in France where he consults international clientele on various aspects of commercial and corporate law. At Pericles he teaches Language of contracts, Contract Drafting, Business Organizations, Transactional Lawyering and International Asset Recovery.

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Dent, Marian

Marian Dent is the Dean of Pericles Center for International Legal Education, which runs an LLM program as well as legal skills programs for Russian practicing lawyers. Dean Dent teaches courses in legal writing, international business transactions, contract law and economic sanctions law. In addition to teaching law and directing the program, she also created Pericles’ texts on legal writing and legal English, helped develop materials for GMAT and TOEFL preparation, and occasionally teaches the logic section of the GMAT. Professor Dent obtained her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1988. After graduating Ms. Dent joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Kirkpatrick and Lockhart, and worked there for four years in the fields of East-West and international trade, securities and general business law. She moved to Moscow in 1992 to direct the Moscow office of the American Bar Association, CEELI Project. After leaving CEELI, she taught legal writing, and intro to American Law, at the Russian Law Academy of the Russian Ministry of Justice from 1995-1998, and started the first Russian Jessup International Moot Court competition.  She has also taught from time to time at Moscow University Touro, the American Institute of Business & Economics, and for ten years taught an introductory course in Russian Law for visiting students from the University of San Diego Law School.  She was one of the founders of Pericles, and became Dean in 2002.

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Donovan, Edward

Edward Donovan graduated with a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado and then received his J.D. from Southwestern University and in 1989, he began practicing with the Intellectual Property firm of Sheldon & Mak, before eventually forming his own firm with others. Mr. Donovan has spent many hours in U.S. Federal Courts litigating intellectual property claims for clients and representing their interests before the USPTO. Mr. Donovan has also represented various clients in general business affairs and U.S. Customs law, particularly in the international fashion and accessories industry. Mr. Donovan also teaches skiing and is a strong outdoor enthusiast. Mr. Donovan is teaching Intellectual Property Law, Entertainment Law at Pericles. He is a member of the Colorado Bar.

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DuVal, Richard

Richard DuVal received a Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University, worked as a systems engineer and software developer for the IBM Corporation and other computer technology companies, then went on to obtain his Juris Doctor from California Western School of Law. After gaining considerable trial experience as a criminal defense lawyer, he transitioned to civil litigation and represented a wide variety of individual and corporate clients in state and federal courts in both California and Hawaii. Mr. DuVal has litigated a full range of subjects, including personal injury and property damage cases; product liability; professional liability; construction defect claims; copyright infringement; unfair competition; fraud and negligent misrepresentation; breach of fiduciary duty; breach of contract; partnership disputes; and property, title, and boundary disputes. He has also served as a court-appointed arbitrator, as well as an arbitrator on the Commercial Panel of the American Arbitration Association. At Pericles Mr. DuVal teaches Professional Responsibility, Tort Law, and Property Law.

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Engelke, Paul Richard

Paul Richard Engelke is an advocate practicing at the Pretoria Bar in South Africa. He graduated from the University of Port Elizabeth in 1991 with a B-Juris and immediately started working as a Public Prosecutor.
In 1995 the Department of Justice relocated him to Pretoria. While in Pretoria he enrolled at the University of Pretoria where he graduated with a LLB.  He completed the Law School for attorneys in 2001 and practiced as an attorney for a year. In 2002 he was admitted as an Advocate to the High Court of SA. In 2003 he worked for the Special Investigation Unit of the National Prosecution Authority where he spent 12 years specializing in the investigation and prosecution of Fraud, Corruption and Serious Commercial Crimes. He also headed up the Anti-Money Laundering unit of the SIU, it was during his time at the SIU that he was invited and attended a Forensic Investigation Course at the Russian Federal Detectives Collage, in Moscow. From 2015 he shared his time between his advocate duties and giving lectures to students in Criminal law and Forensic Investigations in Pretoria. Mr Engelke also completed the CELTA course and teaches English as a foreign language.

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Floudas, Demetrius A. M.-Alexander

Demetrius Floudas obtained his LL.B. from National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, a Diploma in European Legal Practice from the University in Hannover and an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, where he is a Senior Associate in European and International Law at Hughes Hall College, delivering lectures on European Law and supervising Cambridge graduate students in International Law and International Relations. Professor Floudas has also taught at the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne). In addition to teaching, Demetrius is Senior Manager of IKRP Rokas & Partners Law Firm office. For three years he was the Team Leader for the EU Project assisting in Russia's entry into the WTO. He taught European Union Law and Legal English at Pericles on an adjunct Professor basis until moving back to Athens to take a position advising the government on privatisation issues. He has subsequently continued his International Legal Counsel role, with a number of appointments advising governments, public authorities and private clients in various countries. Prof. Floudas is a Visiting Professor at Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University & Deputy Director of the Annual Legal Skills Summer School in Kaliningrad. He also teaches the course on 'European Law of Finance' for the Masters in International Financial Law at MGIMO. He returns to Pericles to lecture a few times a year, including directing the Oral Skills & Advocacy section of the Jessup Summer School.

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Franczek, Art

Art Franczek is the president of the American Institute of Business & Economics (AIBEc), a top ranked Western style MBA program in Russia. He holds an MBA, a CPA and a Masters of Science in Taxation from DePaul University in Chicago, and worked as Corporate Tax Manager for seven years with a Fortune 1000 company dealing with federal and international tax issues involving 25 countries. He has several published articles on taxation issues, and has taught tax accounting, tax policy, comparative taxation and similar courses to business students for the past 20 years. He is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce Tax Committee, and Co-Chair of the Customs Committee, and in between teaching for AIBEc he is a frequently conference speaker on comparative taxation and tax accounting issues at various institutions and businesses around the world. He teaches Intro to U.S. Tax Law at Pericles.

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Hawkins, Robert

Robert ("Rob") Hawkins is a Senior Counsel in the Washington, DC office of Hunton & Williams, a multi-national law firm with over 800 lawyers in the U.S. and in London, Brussels, Bangkok, Beijing and Tokyo. Mr. Hawkins has devoted the bulk of his time over the past two decades to international arbitration proceedings in London, Paris, Washington, and Singapore, representing state-owned companies, private investors, and commercial entities from East Africa, the Balkans, China, and the United States in proceedings before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes ("ICSID"), the International Chamber of Commerce ("ICC"), and the Singapore International Arbitration Center ("SIAC"). He has also had extensive experience as a trial and appellate litigator in U.S. federal and state courts. Mr. Hawkins obtained his B.A. in American Studies from Amherst College (1971), an LLB from Cambridge University (1973), and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law (1976). He has taught International Commercial Arbitration at the University of Richmond (Virginia) School of Law and has also been a visiting lecturer at Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania (2012) and at FAMA College in Pristina, Kosovo. Mr. Hawkins is married to Rebecca Carr, a teacher of philosophy at George Washington University and at American University , both located in Washington, DC. They have three grown children and one grand-daughter. Hr. Hawkins is a full-time visiting Professor at Pericles in the Spring of 2014, where is teaching International Commercial Arbitration and other courses.

 

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Hiatt, Roger

Roger Hiatt is the Principal of Hiatt, LLC where he practices International Business and Trade. He has practiced in the area of international business since 1984 and assists clients in a variety of situations, including structuring international business transactions; drafting international agreements;  compliance with international trade laws, including U.S. import and export regulations; organizing international trade finance, including EXIM Bank financing,  letter of credit agreements and related matters; handling business-related immigration issues; and establishing and maintaining offshore financial entities. Roger is a frequent speaker and writer, and conducts seminars and presentations on international business and international law issues for other professional, business, and community groups.  He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law from 1996-2002, and an adjunct professor at the same university’s Bloch School of Business from 2003 through the present.  Additionally, he has been a visiting professor at the European Teaching University Law Faculty in Tbilisi, and at Sapientia University in Romania.   He has judged in the VIS and in both regional and international rounds of the Jessup.  He holds a J.D. from Washburn University, and LL.M. degrees from Columbia University and Boston University.

 

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Hines, Jonathan

Jon Hines has been practicing in Moscow for over 20 years, most recently as a partner at the Morgan Lewis firm -- representing US, European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Russian private and state-owned companies in large project development, joint venture, and M&A related transactions in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Jon focuses primarily on large-scale oil and gas projects, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals, mining and metals, and other industrial ventures. Since the onset of economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, Jon has been providing his clients with strategic advice in this area also.  He has become a noted expert in the field, having written numerous articles on the subject, and spoken on sanctions at high level meetings and international conferences.  He also serves on the Presidium of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry.  Jon is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, and Princeton University School of Public & International Affairs and Russian Studies.  He also was a one-year exchange scholar in civil law at Moscow State University. Jon is teaching Pericles’ Economic Sanctions course in fall 2021.

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Johnson, Eric

Eric Johnson is a veteran digital rights activist Eric Johnson has architected or managed projects supporting independent media and networks, uncensored internet access, pro-cyberliberty internet policy, and progressive national ICT regulatory frameworks on all continents—throughout the post-socialist space, the Balkans, Palestine, Nigeria, Zambia, Ethiopia, Syria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Nicaragua, and many others. He has taught cybersecurity workshops to hundreds of activists, journalists, and lawyers in over a dozen countries. He also works on developing and deploying online privacy-enhancing/security-preserving technologies, e.g. Tor, Ricochet, Lantern, GlobaLeaks, and CertainTLS. An American born in Africa, he has lived/worked in Australia, China, France, Russia, and Singapore. He studied at Grinnell College, Georgetown University, the Pushkin Institute, and the University of New South Wales / ADFA.

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Josefson, Jennifer

Jennifer Josefson is a member of King & Spalding's Global Transactions Practice Group. She specializes in Russian and international transactions in the energy and natural resources sector, regularly advising clients on M&A and joint venture arrangements, joint operating agreements (JOAs), concessions, PSAs, farm-ins, supply and service agreements and international arbitration in the subsoil and energy sectors. She is ranked as one of the top energy and natural resource lawyers in Russia by Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer, and the Who's Who of International Oil and Gas Lawyers. Ms. Josefson is a Vice President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and was the founding regional director of AIPN's CIS Chapter, from 2005 to 2008.

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Kafiabadi, Soroush

Soroush Kafiabadi graduated with an LL.B. from King's College London and LL.M. from University of London. He has since been practicing in a mediation-arbitration capacity at the Financial Ombudsman Service based in London, UK. The Financial Ombudsman Service is an entity established by parliament to mediate financial disputes between financial institutions and their clients. Mr. Kafiabadi's work involves seeking resolution to all financial disputes (from banking, investment and insurance sectors) without recourse to formal legal proceeding before the courts. In his spare time Mr. Kafiabadi coaches UK law students in international law and mooting skills for the Jessup, and has come to Russia several times to judge the Russian regional Jessup competition. Mr. Kafiabadi will be coming again to Russia in November 2011 to teach a short course in Mediation Skills at Pericles.

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Katsis, Demos

Demos Katsis is a Corporate Counsel, Partner and Managing Director of KATSIS LLC, Law Firm based in Cyprus. He was a partner at Christodoulos G. Vassiliades & Co. before establishing in Limassol the innovative law firm KATSIS LLC, consisted of experienced Greek and Russian persons. He specialises in contractual drafting and consulting on corporate and tax strategies. His main areas of practice are contractual and company matters, construction, trusts and estate planning, tax, and intellectual property matters. He holds an LLB degree from the University of Bristol, an LLM degree from the University of Bristol, a Diploma in Professional Legal Skills from City University and MA from the University of Malta. He was admitted to the Cyprus Bar in 2003 and is a member of the Cyprus Bar Association. He is the author of several articles and a regular speaker in tax conferences, intellectual property conferences and immovable property conferences organised by various organisations. Mr Katsis was assistant National Rapporteur for Cyprus for the EU Project on Unfair Commercial Practices in the new Member States for the year 2005-2006 undertaken by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and he was also assistant National Rapporteur for Cyprus for the EU Project on Legalization of Public Documents undertaken by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is a visiting professor at Pericles, engaged to teach Anglo Saxon and International Trust law, and also an occassional guest seminar presenter on issues related to offshore and Cyprus business planning.

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Kaufmann, Steffen

Steffen Kaufmann is a corporate partner at DLA Piper's Moscow office and has been working in the Russian legal market for over 20 years. Steffen studied in Freie Universität Berlin, University of Cape Town and BPP Law School in London. He is a German-qualified lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) and a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Steffen has extensive experience advising international and Russian clients on a wide range of M&A transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and group reorganisations. Steffen is recommended for corporate and real estate by the Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 guides. His client portfolio includes companies from various industry sectors including manufacturing, natural resources, banks, retail, transportation, pharmaceutics as well as real estate developers and investors. Steffen speaks German, English and Russian.

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Kosnitzky, Michael

Michael Kosnitzky is a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, in charge of its Tax and Middle Market Practice Group.   He is listed in Chambers USA as a leader in the field of tax law, in the publication the Best Lawyers in America in Tax Law and in the Florida and New York-Metro editions of Super Lawyers in Tax.  Mr. Kosnitzky's practice includes representation of both domestic and foreign high net worth individuals and companies.  He has represented many international clients in both taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, business combinations, equity and debt financing, corporate joint ventures and other strategic alliances.  He is not only a lawyer but a former practicing certified public accountant with a national accounting firm.  He is currently the Chair of the American Bar Association's National Conference of Lawyers and CPA's.  Mr. Kosnitzky has authored numerous articles in U.S. tax journals.  He has been a member of the Adjunct Tax Faculty at the University of Miami School of Law Graduate Tax Program, and is a frequent lecturer for the University of Miami, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and numerous other organizations.

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Kouznetsova, Amy

Amy Kouznetsova graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2006 and is a member of the New York State Bar Association. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Mississippi in 1995 and worked as a court reporter in North Carolina, Florida and Washington DC before entering law school. She has experience in litigation and corporate transactions. Currently, she is the business director of Sputnik Gallery and serves as Counsel for the Russian Chapter of Democrats Abroad. Amy taught Legal English and Legal Writing at Pericles when she first moved to Moscow and is enthusiastic about her return to the Center to teach Introduction to American Law.

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Lipkowitz, Eugene

Professor Eugene (Gene) Lipkowitz, is Of Counsel at Stevens & Lee’s New York office.   (Stevens & Lee is a large Pennsylvania based law firm.)  Gene consults on antitrust laws concerning exclusionary behavior, mergers and acquisitions and other horizontal activity, trade association conduct, price discrimination, creation and termination of distributorship and other vertical agreements and predatory pricing.  Prior to joining Stevens & Lee, Gene worked as in-house antitrust counsel to Du Pont and Western Union,  was a trial lawyer with the Special Trial Section of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, and was employed by the Federal Trade Commission where he focused on the competitive aspects of horizontal and vertical combinations in the health care industry. He also taught economics for several years at Baruch College of Business at the City University of New York.  Gene graduated from Harvard Law School and holds a M.Phil in Economics from Columbia University.

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Lissniak, Vladimir

Prof. Vladimir Lissniak, RF Honored Human Rights Defender, president of Pericles, has extensive experience in public, private and NGO sectors, diplomatic service, law practice, and academic activity. He has worked as a consultant in the Moscow Mayor’s Office, for the Administration the RF President. He has been practicing law privately for the last 30 years for Russian and foreign clients in courts of general and special jurisdiction in a number of countries and Strasbourg court of human rights. Mr. Lissniak has taught American Business Law, Banking Law, Negotiations and other courses in the Institute of International Law of the Russian Ministry of Justice, MGIMO, Higher School of Economics, University of San Diego (California), the American Institute of Business and Economics (AIBEC), Immanuel Kant Baltic State University. He was chief editor of the Russian edition of “The Banking Law” by prof. Gavalda and prof. Stoufflet (France).

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Livshits, Tanya

Tanya Livshits is the Research Manager for Southern California and Mexico at Holland and Knight LLP.  She earned a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Studies from the University of California Los Angeles, a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and an MLIS with a specialty in Law Librarianship from the University of Washington School of Information.  Prior to Holland and Knight, Tanya was the Director of Research and Information Services at Irell & Manella LLP, an intellectual litigation powerhouse based in Los Angeles, CA.  Tanya has an expertise in all aspects of legal research.  She regularly runs educational programs for the attorneys at her firm.  She has also presented on various topics in the field of legal information and research at the Annual Association of Law Libraries conferences, including a ground breaking study on the efficacy of legal analytics tools.  Prior to joining the law firm world, Tanya worked at the San Diego Public Law Library, University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library and the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library.  Before obtaining her MLIS, Tanya practiced law in San Diego, CA with a focus on land use.

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Loumber, Val

Val Loumber is a litigation attorney from California.  He is a partner with the litigation law firm of Gavrilov & Brooks, www.gavrilovlaw.com, located in Sacramento, California.  He practices in the areas of Bankruptcy, Business, and Appellate litigation, with emphasis on complex federal civil litigation, fraud, and other intentional torts.  Mr. Loumber was an administrsative law judge for a short period of time.  He also taught Bankruptcy Law and Practice for 10 years at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento, California.  For 16 years, he served as staff counsel to several federal judges, preparing over 25,000 written dispositions in cases before the court.  Mr. Loumber earned his J.D. with distinction from McGeorge Law School, University of the Pacific, in 2000.  Prior to that he earned university degrees in Human Biology and Chemistry.

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Mandel, James

James Mandel is a graduate of Yale Law School and has a Ph.D. in Russian history from Columbia University.  He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. For the last twenty years his practice has been devoted entirely to Russia.  In 1990 he opened the Moscow office of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae (now Dewey & LeBoeuf ) and was its managing partner during the period 1992-1994.  He advised foreign investors on all aspects of doing business in post-Soviet Russia, particularly in the areas of real estate and natural resources.  In 2003, shortly after leaving LeBoeuf, he joined Ernst & Young in Moscow, first as the head of EY Law’s M&A practice and then as general counsel to Ernst & Young in the CIS.   In January 2010, he retired from the position of general counsel and remains employed at Ernst & Young in a consulting capacity.

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Marshall, Christina M. Pan

Christina M. Pan Marshall has worked as a securities lawyer since 1998. She began her practice as a litigator for Sidley Austin LLP in New York where she represented large financial services companies in complex federal and state litigation and in connection with inquires by regulators. In 2005, she joined the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as a Senior Attorney in the Enforcement Division where she was responsible for investigating violations of the U.S. securities laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ms. Marshall was responsible for successfully investigating several high profile cases, including the Commission's action in 2011 against Fannie Mae in connection with its role in the financial crisis of 2008. Ms. Marshall received her B.A. from Skidmore College in 1994 and her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 1998. She teaches Securities Regulation Law at Pericles.

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Matchekhin, Victor

Victor Matchekhin heads the tax practice of Linklaters, in Moscow, and also teaches tax and financial law at Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy (MGUA).  He has extensive experience advising international investors on taxation issues relating to setting up and structuring of their operations in Russia, corporate reorganizations and restructurings, M&As, IPOs and other corporate and financial operations.  Professor Matchekhin also advises Western investors on the application of double tax treaties in Russia and on tax litigation.  He serves as the Executive Secretary of the Russian Branch of the International Fiscal Association, and is a frequent organizer and speaker at IFA events. Professor Matchekhin holds degrees from the Plehkanov Institute and from MGUA, and a Candidate degree from the Russian School of Private Law.  Professor Matchekhin is going to be co-teaching the International Tax Planning course at Pericles this Spring with his colleague, Stafford Smiley.

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McDonald, Thomas

Thomas McDonald is a recently retired partner from White & Case with over 30 years' experience in international financial transactions.  He has been with White & Case for many years, mainly in the Paris office, and with three years in the Moscow office from 2011 through 2013.  Mr. McDonald has been instrumental in organizing a legal ethics seminar for Russian law students in Moscow, co-sponsored by White &Case, DLA Piper, Moscow State University and PILnet.  It is now in its sixth year.  He also recently led the efforts of White & Case to set up a similar program in Ghana in conjunction with Fordham University and the judicial service of Ghana.  During his years in the practice of law, Mr. McDonald specialized in asset and equipment finance. He acted for commercial banks, lessors, lessees and equity participants in cross-border transactions with respect to aircraft, vessels and other equipment.  He is experienced in all aspects of structuring, negotiating and documenting such transactions.  He holds a J.D. from Tulane University in New Orleans and a BCL from Oxford University.  He is a member of the bar in Louisiana, New York and Paris.  Pericles is proud to have Mr. McDonald visiting for the fall of 2016 and teaching the Introduction to American Law course and the Professional Responsibility course.

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McNeely, Hugh E.

Hugh E. McNeely is an American lawyer with a wealth of business, legal and trial experience spanning more than 37 years. After graduating from Louisiana State University Law School in 1979, McNeely honed his legal writing skills with a one-year clerkship for a Louisiana appellate court judge before entering the private practice of law in south Louisiana in 1980. McNeely‘s practice included a wide array of legal fields: corporate, banking, finance, property and business transactions, as well as a robust civil trial and appellate practice in multiple state and federal jurisdictions. McNeely represented the State of Texas against the tobacco companies in the late 1990s that resulted in a multi-billion dollar settlement in favor of the state. McNeely has represented individuals and states in mass tort, class actions and complex litigation in many different venues and jurisdictions involving claims in numerous industries: construction, automotive manufacturing, medical malpractice, pharmaceutical pricing practices, product liability and contract litigation/arbitration. For the past five years, McNeely has been travelling and living abroad, teaching and researching differing cultures for a variety of writing projects. He is joining Pericles in 2017 as a full time professor, teaching various courses related to legal English, legal writing, contract drafting, litigation and arbitration. In his spare time, Hugh enjoys scuba diving and lives an active life, and last year he was even tapped as a food critique and American hamburger expert for Life News.

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Näf, Moritz

Moritz Näf is a partner of the Swiss law firm BodmerFischer AG (www.bodmerfischer.ch). His fields of expertise include contract and corporate law as well as commercial dispute resolution. Moritz’s clients are predominantly Swiss and foreign corporations and entrepreneurs as well as wealthy individuals. In particular, he has been advising Russian businesses and private clients in matters related to Swiss law or the structuring of their assets for succession planning or asset protection purposes for many years. Moritz acquired his law degree at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1999 and holds an LL.M. in European Law from the University of Lund, Sweden (2002). He was admitted to the Swiss bar in 2001 and is entitled to represent clients before all Swiss courts and administrative bodies. Before joining BodmerFischer AG in 2014, he worked as a lawyer for Swiss firms Bar & Karrer AG and Umbricht in Zurich as well as the leading Swiss Bank UBS AG. Moritz is a native German speaker and is fluent in English, French, Swedish and Norwegian. In addition, he has a solid command of Russian. In his free time, he enjoys alpine skiing, travelling, photography as well as spending time with his children.

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Nastas, Tom

Thomas D. Nastas is founder of Innovative Ventures, Inc., with offices in Lansing, Michigan and Moscow, Russia. With this company, he has helped to organize venture capital funds in the USA, Canada, Europe, Africa, and the CIS.  He is also currently an independent director on several boards of directors, including those of Sotsgorbank, the Independent Directors Association, and BPOcom (Moscow), and Suntyco, the Cyprus SPV investment of Tata Coffee (Mumbai) and the EBRD in Grand Tea & Coffee (Moscow).  Additionally, he is a member of the global advisory/investment committees of the Larta Institute (Los Angeles) and Softline Venture Partners (Moscow).  At Pericles, Mr. Nastas has been an MBA advisor since 2001, helping students gain admission to Berkeley, LSE, Michigan, Chicago, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, and INSEAD, among others.  He also teaches courses in Marketing, Sales Management, and Venture Capital at AIBEC.  Professor Nastas holds a B.A., cum laude and an M.B.A., cum laude, both from Michigan State University.  To learn more about him, please click on the following link:  www.InnovativeVenturesInc.com.  You can also see his biography and interview on Russia Today, or read a translated article in Vedomosti.

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Nielsen, Holly

Holly Nielsen is currently International Legal Counsel for Kaspi.kz, a Kazakh fintech company listed on the London Stock Exchange.  From 2006 through 2021, Ms. Nielsen held positions as General Counsel and Senior Funds Counsel for Baring Vostok Capital Partners, the leading private equity firm in Russia.  During that time, Baring Vostok Funds participated in the IPOs of portfolio companies including Yandex, CTC, Ozon and Kaspi.  Ms. Nielsen was the managing partner of the Moscow office for US law firm Baker Botts from 1992-94; the partner-in-charge of the Moscow office of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy from 1997-2000; the co-head of the Moscow office of Debevoise & Plimpton from 2001-2006.  During 1995-97 Ms. Nielsen was employed by Harvard University as a senior advisor to the first Chairman of the Russian Securities Commission on matters of policy, agency and market development and legislation.  She has been responsible for many high-profile M&A, securities and investment fund transactions in Russia over the past 30 years.

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Parenti, Antonio

Antonio Parenti is currently working with the WTO in Geneva. Previously he was a Senior Manager at Severstal and before that was First Secretary at the Delegation of the European Commission in Moscow where he followed the process of accession of Russia to the WTO as well as the macroeconomic and energy questions. He has also worked in the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, where he was the European negotiator for the accession of various countries to the WTO, including Ukraine, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, and responsible for WTO institutional matters. Mr. Parenti holds a MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington D.C. ( USA ), a LL.M in European Law and a Law Degree both from the University of Bologna ( Italy ). He regularly lectures and writes on WTO issues and he is lecturer of International Trade Law at the University of Bologna. He taught WTO Law and European Law at Pericles before leaving for Geneva in 2009. We hope that he will return from time-to-time to lecture.

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Petruzzi, Frank

Frank Petruzzi practiced law in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1994 and was chief of financial crimes investigation and head of the legal department for an Ohio State agency. Later in private practice, he focussed on business, tax and family law. In 1994, he moved to Russia with the Peace Corps. Since then, working in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg Mr. Petruzzi managed the establishment or reorganization of several complicated projects for clients including the U.S. Government and the UNDP. Now he works worldwide with several Russian and multinational private entities, and specializes in crisis management. He divides his time between Moscow, Madrid and London. At Pericles, Mr. Petruzzi taught Introduction to American Law, Contract Law and Drafting and Secured Transactions until late 2007, and he has returned in 2013 to teach M&A and possibly Legal English. He holds a J.D. from the University of Akron, Ohio.

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Polonsky, Marc

Marc Polonsky is a retired partner, of counsel with the international law firm White & Case. His practice focused on investment in the former Soviet Union, particularly in the natural resources and infrastructure sectors. Based principally in London, he also spent eleven years (1998 to 2008; 2017 to 2018) living and working in Moscow. In addition to teaching English law and legal professional ethics, he manages a philanthropic foundation that supports cultural heritage and humanities education and research. He has a B.A. in Modern Languages (Russian and French) from the University of Oxford and is a solicitor qualified in England and Wales.

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Porter, Karen

Karen Porter worked for over 20 years for the Insurance Institute of America (Malvern, PA), where she authored the textbook, The Legal Environment of Insurance, edited another text, Insurance Regulation; worked with a Swiss reinsurer on a special education project; and served as intellectual property and employment law counsel. She was also a Director of Legal Services at Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia. She taught legal writing at Villanova University School of Law (Villanova, PA), where she coauthored the textbook, Introduction to Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy. Founding editor of the weekly Pennsylvania Law Journal, she was also the Assistant Dean for Graduate Legal Studies and External Programs, Temple University School of Law (Philadelphia). She has taught law students at the Murom Institute and Srednerrusky University, Russian Federation, and taught visiting lawyers from several countries at the University of Delaware's English Language Institute and at Widener University. A member of the Pennsylvania bar, Ms. Porter obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA, and pursued post-J.D. Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (Philadelphia), focusing on health law and economics. Since 2012, Ms. Porter has become a permanent visiting at Pericles each fall semester, where she teaches Legal English, Legal Writing, Contract Drafting, Intro to U.S. Law, and Professional Responsibility. In September 2013 Professor Porter was an invited speaker at the European Legal English Teachers Association annual conference in The Netherlands, on Plain English in Legal Writing.”

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Repko, Daniel

Dan Repko started working with Pericles in 1999 as a Listening Comprehension professor. Soon after starting at Pericles he was promoted to Marketing and Sales Director and later to Vice-Dean where he stayed for 3 years. Since then he moved on to become an Independent Financial Advisor helping individuals save and invest money for their future. He worked as an investment advisor for some time until becoming our favorite D.J. on Moscow F.M. 105.2. Always a friend of Pericles, he frequently returns as a guest lecturer and substitute professor for GMAT grammar and TOEFL preparation. Dan holds a B.A. from Kudstown University in Pennsylvania, and undertook graduate studies in Russian language at the University of Maryland.

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Rochlin, Arlene

Arlene Rochlin has been an attorney for over thirty years, practicing civil law in both trial and appellate work, in private and corporate practice.  In 2008 Ms Rochlin moved to Italy where she acquired her TEFL certification and began teaching Legal English to Italian attorneys, judges, senators and law students, as well as preparing students to attend law schools in the USA, including LSAT preparation. Ms Rochlin has been a lead speaker throughout the EU on various business and law topics at seminars with professional audiences from all over the world.  She has been an assistant professor at Pericles, teaching Legal Writing to students competing in the Jessup Moot Court competition.  Ms Rochlin also translates legal documents from Italian to English.  Prior to entering the practice of law, she began her professional career in the insurance industry.  Ms Rochlin received her J.D. from Indiana University Law School in 1987, where she was a contributing author to William F. Harvey, Indiana Practice, 2d ed., Volumes 3 and 4.

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Rodriguez, Jackie

Jackie Rodriguez has taught Business English, Business Writing, and sections of the GMAT, GRE and TOEFL preparation courses at Pericles. Prior to moving to Moscow, Jackie was Director of Publications for Technomic, Inc., a consulting company based in Chicago, IL, USA. Jackie also worked as a senior editor at Restaurants and Institutions, a trade magazine covering the food industry. Jackie began her career at a Chicago newspaper, where she worked as a reporter, copy editor and as food and dining editor. She received her degree in Journalism and Political Science from Indiana University. Jackie left Moscow in 2008 to accompany her husband, an international correspondent, on his assignment in the Middle-East.

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Russo, Jack

Jack Russo is the managing partner of the Computer Law Group, located in Silicon Valley, California.  Jack is one of the pioneers of Cyberlaw,  a field in which he has practiced since graduating with honors from U.C.L.A. law school in 1980.    He started his career as a specialist in copyright protection of software, and he career developed and expanded along with the growth and sophistication of the internet and internet law in general.  Jack is a frequent speaker on computer law issues  and has given presentations to the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the Computer Law Association, and the San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, as well as a seminar on Intellectual Property and Creative Freedoms at Stanford University.  He has written numerous articles including a dozen on software copyright protection, and more recent articles entitled “Recent Developments in E-Commerce Law,” "Trade Secrets on the Internet and in Cyberspace" “Legal Basics for Software CEOs” and “The Law of Virtual Reality.” Mr. Russo also serves as an arbitrator, mediator, and early neutral evaluator for the U.S. District Court (N.D. California), the Santa Clara County Superior Court, and the American Arbitration Association, as well as a Judge Pro Tempore of the Santa Clara County Superior Court.  He is also the founder and Chairman of the non-profit Foundation for Creativity in Dispute Resolution (www.ffcdr.com) an organization which promotes resolution of national and international business disputes through voluntary mediation using advanced methods for finding common grounds and improved solutions.He holds a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles; an M.B.A. from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley and an L.L.M. with highest honors from Lazurski University and the Center for International Legal Studies (www.cils.org) where he is a Fellow and a Member of their Academy of International Legal Scholars.  He is teaching a one credit seminar in Cyberlaw at Pericles during early September 2016. 

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Schachter, Elena

Elena Schachter is a native New Yorker who graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University with a double major in English and French Literature and a minor in Russian Language and Literature. Ms. Schachter made her first trip to the Soviet Union in 1989 and permanently moved to Russia in 1993, after which she started working as Sales & Marketing Manager for the Americom Business and Office Center at the Radisson/Slavyanskaya Hotel. Later, Ms. Schachter worked for four years as the Administrative Coordinator and teacher of English at the Russian State University for the Humanities Center for Biblical and Judaic Studies. In 1994, Ms. Schachter joined the American Bar Association Central and East European Law as Administrative Coordinator and was later promoted to Field Financial Manager for all of the ABAs operations in the Russian Federation and Belarus. Ms. Schachter has been teaching the Reading Comprehension and Structure sections of the TOEFL and GMAT tests at Pericles on and off since 1999.

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Schäfer, Lawrence

Dr. Lawrence Schäfer holds B.A., LL.B. and LL.M. degrees from Rhodes University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He was called to the Bar in South Africa in1998 and has spent the past ten years lecturing in England. His research interests draw on the impact of international and international human rights law on domestic legal systems. Teaching specialisations include Land Law, Equity and Trusts and Public International Law. He is currently engaged in research on diplomatic protection and the extent to which human rights law might be used to compel a state to assist its citizens. His first book was published in 2006; a second, entitled Child Law in South Africa: Domestic and International Perspectives, is forthcoming in July 2011. Dr. Schäfer has been involved with the Russian National Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition for the past three years and has visited Moscow on many occasions. Dr. Schäfer is visiting Pericles in the summer of 2011 to teach the Introduction to English Law course and the international law portion of the Jessup summer school.

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Sen, Trina

Trina Sen is lead in-house international commercial dispute resolution counsel at the global headquarters of Kaspersky Lab, an international software security group with over 3,000 employees across over 30 countries and with sales operations in almost 200 countries and territories worldwide.  Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Ms. Sen worked in the international commercial dispute resolution practice group in the St. Petersburg office of Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, the leading law firm in Russia and the CIS.  Ms. Sen has represented companies and government agencies in international arbitration proceedings heard before the ICC (Paris), LCIA (London), SCC (Stockholm), ICAC (Moscow) as well as ad hoc proceedings in India, in a range of disputes, for example, involving an acquisition of manufacturing facilities in Turkey, a shareholder dispute between Russian and Indian partners in a joint venture on a metals manufacturing facility in India, and a complex vendor-distributor dispute spanning across five jurisdictions.  Ms. Sen obtained her B.A. in Political Science from The University of Chicago (2004) and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law - Newark (2007), and was admitted to the New York State bar as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  She knows four languages, including Russian.

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Shajahan, Ali

Ali Shajahan teaches the mathematics portion of Pericles' GMAT Preparation program. He holds an M.S. in Mathematics from Peoples' Friendship University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Computing Center, Academy of Sciences, Russia. Moreover, he is certified as a math teacher in Secondary and Higher Secondary schools. In addition to teaching mathematics, Mr. Ali has also edited books on topics such as Math, Physics, and Statistics that were translated from Russian into English. Mr. Ali is a fluent speaker of English, Russian and his native tongue, Bengali.

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Smiley, Stafford

Stafford Smiley is Senior Counsel in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C., office and Faculty Director and a Professor in the Graduate Tax LL.M. Program at Georgetown University Law Center.   He specializes in the taxation of corporate and noncorporate business entities, and international transactions.  Professor Smiley has extensive experience as tax counsel in international financing, leveraged lease, and other transactional settings.  He also represents a number of international finance organizations, for whom he does international tax planning work, primarily in the areas of international structured finance and transfer pricing matters, in particular advanced pricing agreements.   In his teaching career, he has been a visiting Professor in graduate tax law programs in Poland, Austria, Australia and Brazil.  On his visit to Russia this Spring he is going to be co-teaching the International Tax Planning course at Pericles with his colleague, Victor Matchenkhin, as well as teaching in MGIMO’s graduate tax program. He holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard.

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Spiegelberger, William

William Spiegelberger is Head of the International Practice Unit at Rusal Global Management B.V. in Moscow (since 2007), where he manages, among other things, the corporate group’s major litigations and arbitrations outside the CIS states.  He was formerly Counsel and Head of the Disputes Group at White & Case LLC in Moscow (2003-7); associate in the litigation department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York (1998-2003); and associate in the arbitration and litigation group of White & Case LLP in New York and Paris (1994-1997).  He received a B.A. from Columbia College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School.  He also received an M.A. and M. Phil. in Russian literature from Columbia University and Certificate from the Harriman Institute.

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Hilton H. Stothers

Hilton Stothers is a Senior Consultant in the Transfer Pricing department of OOO Pricewaterhouse Coopers Advisory, at whose Moscow office he has been working since 2016. Hilton earned his 2011 J.D. and 2013 LL.M. in Taxation from New York Law School and has worked in individual and corporate international tax planning and compliance for three years, in foreclosure defense litigation for two, and as an English Language Arts academic assessment editor for two. He also holds a 2006 B.A. in Philosophy and International Studies from Middlebury College, and has taught English as a foreign language part-time in addition to his regular work. Hilton teaches the Legal English course at Pericles.

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Striegel, Leanne

Leanne Striegel is a litigator from Iowa with 12 years of litigation experience in the Iowa District Court.  She also wrote many appellate briefs and has argued several cases in the Iowa Supreme Court.  She received her J.D., with Honors, from Chicago Kent Law School.  While in law school, Ms. Striegel participated in International Law Moot Court.  In addition to receiving a J.D. from Chicago-Kent Law School, she also received a certificate in International and Comparative Law.  Ms. Striegel was invited by the Iowa Supreme Court Commission to grade bar exam essays, which she did for several years, prior to leaving the U.S.  (Being asked to grade the bar exam is an honor usually reserved for the best bar exam scorers.)  She is still in contact with the Commission and is hoping that it will soon be possible to grade exams from Moscow.  Ms. Striegel was also involved in the National Moot Court Competition as an attorney-coach for two years and, thereafter, a judge.  Ms. Striegel began practicing law as a prosecutor and then went into private practice specializing in criminal, family, juvenile, and immigration law.  She developed a specialty protecting and defending battered women, which are some of the toughest cases to handle.  In addition, Ms. Striegel was quite successful in writing appeals to the Iowa Supreme Court.  She obtained reversals in a juvenile law and a mental health law case, which are almost never reversed.  Throughout her career, Ms. Striegel also taught legal writing and research and business law to paralegal students.  In 2013, she decided to take a sabbatical from full-time law practice and explore her love of Russia and of teaching.  First, she traveled to Ukraine to brush up on her Russian and then relocated to Thailand to teach English for six months. In the fall of 2014, she moved to Moscow to teach English.  In the fall of 2015, Ms. Striegel began teaching regular legal skills development courses as a full-time Pericles professor. Ms. Striegel is fluent in Russian, and formerly visited Pericles when it was first formed in 1998.  At that time, Ms. Striegel was a visiting student from the University of San Diego program in Moscow.  In addition to teaching legal skills classes at Pericles, Ms. Striegel also teaches corporate legal classes at companies and law firms.  Ms. Striegel also holds a certification as an English language teacher (TEFL).

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Strizh, Vasilisa

Vasilisa Strizh is a partner in business and finance practice of Morgan Lewis, in Moscow. Ms. Strizh has represented clients in cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, cross-border investments and joint ventures, and capital markets transactions, including public and private equity securities offerings. She also advises clients on related corporate, securities law, compliance, and reporting. Ms. Strizh advises in a variety of industries, including power, oil and gas, insurance and other financial services, and telecommunications. She has led complex cross-border corporate transactions, projects involving issuance and listing of securities, structured settlements, and various forms of financing. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Strizh was a partner in the corporate practice of Dewey & LeBoeuf, Moscow. Ms. Strizh earned her law degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1992. She is teaching Transactional Lawyering at Pericles.

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Syrbe, Torsten

Torsten Syrbe is Head of Corporate at the Moscow office of Clifford Chance. Torsten studied law at the universities of Erlangen and Jena in Germany and Nottingham in the UK. He is a German-qualified Rechtsanwalt, English-qualified solicitor and has an LL.M. in European competition and international business law from the University of Leuven, Belgium. Before moving to Moscow in 2002, Torsten worked in Brussels and Düsseldorf with Clifford Chance's EU competition department and in the German antitrust group. Torsten is the author of numerous articles on Russian corporate, competition and foreign investment law. He has also been the editor of many publications, including a series of five books on Russian Business Law. Torsten is regularly asked to speak at conferences on Russian and EU law. At Pericles he teaches the antitrust law course.

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Szymanski, Charles

Charles Szymanski is a professor of law and Vice-Dean of International Relations at the Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Law in Kaunas, Lithuania.  He also serves an adjunct professor of law at the Michigan State University College of Law.  Professor Szymanski received his Juris Doctor degree in law from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif.  Prior to coming to Europe, he practiced labor and employment law in Michigan and Philadelphia in the U.S. for more than 12 years, representing employees and labor organizations, and still is an active attorney in Michigan.   His main research interests are international and comparative labor law and discrimination law.  Professor Szymanski is a frequent speaker on labor law and other topics, having given presentations in the United States, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Croatia, Russia and Israel.  Professor Szymanski also serves as an arbitrator with the Vilnius Commercial Court of Arbitration.   He is teaching a special course in international aspects of labor and employment law at Pericles in fall 2012.

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Thomson, Terry

Terry Thomson obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.  He grew up on the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington), before completing his formal education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   He is an active member of the Washington State and New York Bars, and has been engaged in the private practice of law since graduating from law school. He is a founding partner of top rated boutique law firm in Seattle, Washington, where he practices to this day. His lengthy and diverse background in business, real estate, tort, employment, and Civil Rights law, as a trial attorney, appellate attorney, counselor for entrepreneurs and small businesses, mediator, and arbitrator, gives him some valuable insights into the American legal system.  He has litigated a variety of cases in federal and state courts, such as: successfully defending subcontractors in one of the largest construction lawsuits in the State of Washington's history (relating to defective welding of a nuclear containment vessel at Hanford, Washington); successfully representing 19 members of a Rom family in a Civil Rights suit based on an illegal search and seizure (one of the first Civil Rights lawsuits brought by the Rom against a law enforcement  agency in U.S.); and, obtaining a leading decision in the State of Washington recognizing the differential impact of a hostile work environment on women in the workplace.  He has visited Russia, principally Moscow, more than a dozen times, and greatly looks forward to each new visit."

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Webb, Philip

Philip Webb is an accomplished corporate lawyer, qualified in New York and New Jersey, with nearly three decades of experience in Russia.  He has worked at the Moscow offices of several prominent U.S. law firms, advising Russian and international corporate clients on high-profile M&A and other complex transactions.  Now in the greater New York area, Philip is Corporate Counsel at Axiom, where his engagements include Interim General Counsel for a leading independent investment bank; In-house Counsel at a leading global financial institution; and Lead M&A counsel for a North American technology company.  Throughout his legal career, Philip has been active in teaching various seminars, including on issues of corporate governance and professional responsibility for lawyers.  At Pericles, he has taught Professional Responsibility; Business Organizations; and Contract Drafting.  Philip received his J.D. and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and has a B.A. from Middlebury College.

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Walsh, John

John Walsh is a 23-year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He played a key role in creating the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), which administers examinations of U.S. registered securities entities. In 2009, he served as OCIE’s acting director and led a massive retraining of examination staff on antifraud techniques. He also worked as chief of a branch of the SEC Division of Enforcement and served as special counsel to a former SEC Chairman. In 2011, Professor Walsh left the SEC and joined Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, a top Washington, D.C., law firm, where he represents securities firms and other clients in compliance and regulatory issues, handling examinations and defending administrative enforcement proceedings. Professor Walsh is a frequent public speaker, lecturing at numerous professional conferences around the United States, and he has also lectured at Georgetown University Law Center, Michigan State University Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, so we are very proud to have him as a visiting professor at Pericles this summer.

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Welter, Leslie

Leslie Welter IV graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a Master of Liberal Arts degree.  He has taught English and Literature in the United States and has been teaching English in Moscow since 2013.  Besides teaching at Pericles, Professor Welter is the ESL Program Coordinator at the Cambridge International School and tutor for TOEFL, IELTS, and BEC examinations. He loves teaching and strives to make learning as interesting and engaging as possible.

 

 

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Zscheyge, Holger

Holger Zscheyge works as an executive in legal and tax publishing in Russia since 1996. First for the local subsidiaries of C.H. Beck (German legal publisher) and Wolters Kluwer (global provider of professional information, software solutions, and services), since 2009 for his own publishing company Infotropic Media.
In 2015, he started to branch out into legal technology as a speaker, event organizer, expert and mentor. Holger is the organizer of Moscow Legal Tech (first legal tech conference in Russia), Legal AI (first conference on AI in the legal domain in Russia), co-organizer of several ELTACons (annual conference of ELTA) and FutureLaw (legal innovation conference in the Baltics) and a frequent speaker on legal tech and innovation at conferences in Germany, UK, Spain, France, Israel, Turkey, Romania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In 2017, he co-founded Moscow Legal Hackers and joined the European Legal Technology Association (ELTA), where he currently serves as member of the board.
Holger works as a mentor for legaltech startups for the Founder Institute and serves as advisor to several legaltech companies.

 

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