A change of managing partner at a law firm is rarely just a personnel decision – more often, it is a test of the sustainability of the business model and the maturity of the partnership. Lidings partners Andrey Zelenin and his successor as managing partner, Boris Malakhov, argue that their transition was neither a crisis nor a reboot, but rather a confirmation of the viability of the chosen governance structure – one that maintains trust within the team and carefully adapts to a changing market.
A change of managing partner is an important stage in the development of any law firm. How would you describe this transition for Lidings: what does it represent in terms of continuity, and what in terms of new opportunities? Is this an evolution or rather a turning point? What management principles and approaches that were previously embedded in the firm's DNA will you preserve because you consider them key to its further development? And what additional changes are you planning over the next 3–5 years?
Andrey Zelenin: To be honest, we never saw the change of managing partner as some dramatic turning point – for us, it is rather a logical continuation of the model on which the firm was originally built.
From the very beginning, Lidings was not conceived as a firm that reflected a single strong leader, nor was it ever that. We have always been an open partnership – with shared responsibility, with different points of view, and with the sense that the business is built by several equal people, not by one person with a 'correct vision of the process'. And the current change in leadership, by and large, has become a continuation of this philosophy.
Moreover, we have already had a similar experience: in 2016, Sergey Aksenov handed over management of the firm to me – and even then, everything happened very naturally, without conflicts or internal upheavals. It simply became clear at some point: Sergey had achieved all the goals he had set for himself, and it would be logical for another partner to lead the company going forward. Years later, we looked back and realized that this model works – of course, with a certain cyclicality; not as a universal rule for everyone, but certainly as a good working scenario for us.
Boris Malakhov: The situation now is largely analogous, only the context has become more complex. I mean not only our internal dynamics but also external changes: the market has become different, clients have become different, and their changed generation makes decisions differently. And there comes a moment when you realize that the 'keys' that worked before no longer always open the right doors.
Andrey Zelenin: The transfer of leadership is also an honest conversation with yourself, when you come to the realization that the firm's further development should not depend solely on my ambitions or management style. Moreover, if you hold onto the role for too long, you can end up slowing down growth – simply because you are no longer as involved in certain processes or no longer read market changes as accurately.
The leadership change became for us a combination of answers to three questions: when, to whom, and how to hand it over. And the 'how' here is perhaps the key concept. You cannot simply hand over the reins and leave – it must be a careful, conscious transition, with the transfer of context, responsibility, and, no less importantly, trust within the partnership. I believe it has succeeded.
Boris Malakhov: We are preserving the basic things on which everything rests: the partnership model, openness, a focus on international standards of work, and at the same time the ability to find our place in the market. Some time ago, we quite seriously called ourselves 'neither international law firm nor national' – not a classic international, but also no longer just a local firm, but rather a state of being 'in between'. As time has shown, this sense of our own path has proven to be both sustainable and true.
Now we need to adapt to the next stage – one that involves more flexible work with clients, updating management approaches, and responding more quickly to market changes. Over the next 3–5 years, it will be less about radical reforms and more about fine-tuning: strengthening what already works and adding new tools where they are truly needed.
Andrey Zelenin: To sum up, our change of leadership is definitely not a turning point or a 'reboot from scratch'. It is a conscious and managed evolution. With an understanding of what we want to preserve and where it is time to move forward.
Is it true that Lidings primarily focuses on internal growth and 'growing' its own partners? To what extent does this model leave room for bringing in outside talent?
Andrey Zelenin: We do primarily grow from within, and for us, this is a priority. Almost all of our current partners have gone through this path inside the company, and it means a great deal: people don't just come to 'something ready-made'; they grow together with the business, sharing its approach and culture. At the same time, we are not closed off to the external market: it's clear that in the current reality, a law firm cannot develop relying only on existing practices – we need to constantly build competencies and enter new areas. So we look at development quite pragmatically: internal growth remains the foundation, but moving forward will certainly require new partners, including from outside. And one of the tasks we have set for ourselves with the change in leadership is to carefully expand the partnership while preserving the cultural and managerial model we have developed.
Boris Malakhov: On the one hand, Lidings has a strong focus on developing people internally. This is largely due to Andrey's role – he has, in my opinion, a rare ability to be a mentor, someone people look up to. Therefore, one of his areas of focus in the new configuration will be training, development, and working with the team.
On the other hand, I myself interact quite a lot with the market. For example, I am part of an informal community of young partners – there I communicate with colleagues I got to know when I first became a partner. This helps to discuss interesting and difficult tasks with your peers (both in the profession and in business management). A kind of peer mentoring.
Andrey Zelenin: Partnership is not limited to legal expertise alone. It is also the ability to work with people, understand them, and build relationships properly. This skill comes with time, but it should not become a barrier at the conventional level of 'until you turn 40, you are not ready for the role of partner'. Otherwise, there will simply be no generational change.
When it comes to hiring, we are probably not that different from the market. There is work with universities, from which we recruit junior lawyers. There are people who, for various reasons, didn't get into the firms they wanted but come to us – and often turn out to be strong lawyers who grow quickly in the profession.
Yes, some of them later leave, and that's a normal process. But due to this movement of personnel, we have formed a strong alumni community, which is an advantage in terms of business development. That is also why the topic of mentoring is now one of my main focuses: I want to devote time to things that previously I simply didn't have time for due to operational tasks. Of course, it's a separate challenge, but all the more interesting to try.
How would you describe the differences in leadership style between the partners? How does the new managing partner plan to complement the firm's strategy and what will he bring to its operational management? After all, Lidings' management model has so far been built on a certain market logic. Which elements of this model do you consider necessary to preserve, and which to rethink?
Boris Malakhov: We have clearly articulated the principle by which we are now moving: change through tradition. For me, the word 'tradition' carries enormous weight: Lidings' DNA is largely held together by traditions. Andrey remains at the firm as a partner, and my key task is to preserve the trust within the partnership that allows us to make effective management decisions and move forward without breaking what already works.
If we talk about differences in style, they are probably not about 'better or worse', but about different emphases. I have been working at the firm for almost 15 years, prior to that at international law firms. For me, Lidings has always been a place where freedom and responsibility are combined very successfully. Usually, people try to oppose them, but we have managed to combine them – and this is one of the strongest aspects of the model.
I became a partner quite early and almost immediately began to be involved in management. And one of the first things I managed to accomplish together with my colleagues was a transition to a new economic model. We moved away from a conditional 'monarchy' with a central distribution point to a business formula in which partners and teams are directly tied to results. It was a difficult decision – we had to convince the senior partners – but ultimately it gave us a significant increase in both economic and operational efficiency.
The next stage, I see a strengthening of this logic: we plan to pay even more attention to economic efficiency, team management, and the internal growth process. As mentioned above, an important part of Lidings' DNA is that people become partners here not by appointment but by growing within the firm. And the model itself is structured so that it is impossible to 'fake' – to reach the corresponding position, you really must have accumulated the competencies and client capital.
In terms of what is new that I can bring to the management style, I would mention a more dynamic rhythm – a greater willingness to test hypotheses, make quick decisions, and be somewhat more comfortable with risk, especially in new segments for us. We are also ready for an evolution in our client approach. We want less to remain in the role of classic legal consultants who deal with compliance or risk minimization, and increasingly act as business consultants: participating in shaping client strategy, sometimes even linking our own compensation to the project's outcome.
Will Lidings' market positioning change following the renewal of the management team? Do you plan to strengthen any specific industries or practices? And how is the client profile of Lidings changing along with the change in the team: is there a shift towards new industries or types of projects?
Andrey Zelenin: The same logic applies here – evolution, not revolution. We are preserving what we already have while actively developing new areas. Historically, we are most visible in the market through the lens of pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and this is indeed our strong suit, but at the same time, it is also a certain limitation in terms of perception. Internally, we understand that the firm has long been broader than this positioning: pharma is a significant part of the practice, but not even 50%. Therefore, our task is to carefully expand this framework, including by returning to competencies we had before. For instance, transport and logistics as an industry is not new to the firm, but at one point we looked at it afresh and saw client demand and strong potential. The last few years have shown that this was a very timely decision.
Boris Malakhov: Of course, new areas are emerging, and currently we have several key rapidly growing blocks. The first block is Lidings Global, which includes handling complex cross-border projects for Russian clients: corporate law, regulatory matters, and working across multiple jurisdictions – a response to the current reality where Russian businesses are actively restructuring their international ties. The second block includes the regulatory environment in a broader sense, related to supporting clients as they enter new businesses – when they start investing in new areas for themselves, and we help them 'assemble' the entire legal and GR framework for the process.
The third block covers everything related to disputes and asset structuring. The exit of foreign players, the redistribution of assets, new corporate conflicts – this is a huge amount of work that has naturally grown out of recent years. The IP practice is also growing actively, as intellectual property is an independent asset that is increasingly becoming part of complex structures and transactions. Of course, the pharmaceutical practice remains, but it too is changing, expanding towards biotech, bioeconomy, and related fields.
Can it be said that the development of new practices largely follows clients, and that they set the direction for your industry expansion?
Boris Malakhov: Exactly. We have worked for many years in Life Sciences, and it often happens that clients invite us into a new project, expecting us not only to minimize risks but also to suggest an atypical way out of a difficult situation. Often it looks like this: we sit down with the client in the meeting room and don't leave until we find a workable business solution.
Andrey Zelenin: It's important to understand how industrial practices generally emerge in law firms. Lawyers are trained to be experts; we work as experts – and at a certain point, we realize that we are not selling a service – 'drafting a power of attorney' or 'handling a dispute' – but a solution. The next step is selling not an abstract concept but a solution for a specific group of clients. That's how our pharmaceutical practice once formed, and other areas are now taking shape in a similar way, including agribusiness. We have always worked in this sector without highlighting it as a separate industry: there were foreign investors, projects in the Far East, supply chains, localization. Now the situation has changed: foreign players have left this sphere or reduced their presence, and the state has clearly prioritized the development of the domestic market. We see a full-fledged industry emerging here with its own demand for integrated solutions, and we are essentially doing the same thing we did earlier in pharma: taking accumulated experience from different practices and assembling it into an industry-specific product.
Boris Malakhov: The client profile is also changing, but not radically – rather, it is expanding. Due to understandable external processes, there is less foreign business and more Russian companies. And this is not about 'better or worse', it's just different conditions. We still work with those who do complex business, but increasingly these are companies that are in a state of transformation: entering new markets, restructuring business models, or localizing production. Standalone are projects with foreign participation, especially investors from Asia: we are actively developing an Indian Desk, working with Chinese partners, and trying to offer not only legal but also business expertise for entering the Russian market.
To put it simply, Lidings is about movement, about life in the broadest sense.
In which practices and areas do you currently see the greatest growth – and what does this say about the transformation of the market itself?
Andrey Zelenin: Through practices, you can clearly see how the market is changing: for example, employment law has become one of the obvious leaders in recent years. The pandemic, remote work, mobilization processes – all this gave a serious boost both to external demand for the practice and to the development of the team inside Lidings. There are also areas where regulatory pressure has increased – in particular, customs law. The state is growing its fiscal interest, sometimes quite creatively: with increased attention to the details of documents and huge volumes of requests that clients find difficult to handle on their own. At some point, they start bringing us in not only for complex cases but also to build systematic work with this flow.
Boris Malakhov: We are also seeing completely new growth areas that, in my opinion, will set the agenda for the coming years. First of all, everything related to the digital sphere, digital financial assets (DFAs), and cryptocurrencies; we see companies using these tools to enter new markets or reduce operational costs, and this story is ceasing to be niche and becoming part of everyday business in a wide range of industries. Moreover, we are experimenting with such tools internally at the firm, right down to issuing our own DFAs for Lidings' 20th anniversary. For us, this is not just PR but a way to better understand how these mechanisms work in practice.
Separately, we are looking at the development of the AI field; recently, together with a partner, we launched a separate AI practice. I hope that in one of the upcoming issues of Kommersant we will share the results :) In general, we see AI as a practical, handy tool, not as an independent 'lawyer' – frankly, we do not see prospects in the near future for replacing lawyers with AI in complex processes requiring complex decisions. But it is a powerful tool that can enhance legal expertise.
Andrey Zelenin: For example, we are currently working with the use of such tools in patent disputes – this is one of the most complex and 'heavy' areas, and through technology we are making it more understandable and manageable for the client.
In general, to summarize, the market is moving towards more complex tasks and at the same time towards a more applied, business-oriented approach. And law firms are forced to respond to this demand by expanding their role and toolkit.
You mentioned the development of AI and digital tools within the firm. Is it true that this is primarily about the internal loop – improving the quality of work – or do you also see this as a separate product for clients?
Boris Malakhov: So far, this is primarily an internal story. We are at the experimentation stage and are looking at how such tools can enhance the quality of work: for example, we are already thinking about explicitly stating in our service descriptions that certain tasks are performed and verified with the help of AI, which provides an additional level of quality and control. At the same time, we do not rule out that over time we will turn some solutions into a full-fledged client product, but this is not an end in itself or a new business model we are striving for – rather, it will look like creating small, targeted tools at the very cutting edge of expertise.
Andrey Zelenin: In parallel, we see other growth points, this time on the client-demand side. For example, the issue of localization is now noticeably intensifying, especially in the pharmaceutical field and related industries, which is directly linked to geopolitics: companies from friendly jurisdictions are actively entering the market, and they are not so much displacing previous players as coming with the idea of building something new together with Russian partners. And here Lidings has a serious advantage due to its accumulated regulatory experience – both in international pharma and in Russia. Hence the development of areas such as the Indian Desk, and partnerships with Chinese law firms within Lidings Global: we are building the infrastructure that helps these investments enter Russia more effectively. We are increasingly acting not just as lawyers but as a kind of navigators, helping to chart a route from partner selection to project launch, and we plan to continue doing so in the future.