This process was very labour intensive and time taking and lasted two years of first and appeal instance of London arbitration despite the fact that sum of our client claims was only 150.000 USD which is rather small to the arbitration measures. Our opponents was the group of English lawyers specialised in the international traade field.

Ivan Kasynyuk who dealt with this case, mentioned that: "The process was notable for its complexity and demanded the analysis of the vast array of the English courts precedent practice. Initially the respondents objected the jurisdiction aiming at recognizing the Gafta tribunal as the incompetent body regarding considering this claim in view of arbitration clause absence. But there were the arrangements of the parties on transfering any dispute to the concrete arbitration. Receiving the arbitration refusal, further the respondents tried to recognise the contract as invalid, requesting making the amendments (rectification of contract) to the sufficient contract provisions, which in fact could influence on the case outcome. Finally after more than two years of proceedings, appelation instance of Gafta confirmed lawfulness of our clients demands satisfying them in full".

The Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations (FOSFA) is a professional international contract issuing and arbitral body concerned exclusively with the world trade in oilseeds, oils and fats with 975 members in 79 countries. 

Internationally, 85% of the global trade in oils and fats is traded under FOSFA contracts.

On December 5, 2012 Irina Moroz, Senior lawyer of AGA Partners participated in the round table on the topic: Fathers and Children: Legal Aspects of divorce proceedings in Ukraine (the rights of all members of the family upon the divorce and division of property.) Surrogacy and adoption – what you need to know in order to become happy parents. Round table was held at the Press Center of the Information Agency LIGABusinessInform.

Senior lawyer of AGA Partners, Irina Moroz, took part in the round table as the speaker and shared her views with the experts on the legal aspects of surrogacy treatment involving foreigners in Ukraine. Also she offered her vision of possible changes to the law regarding the use of ART taking into consideration latest bill filed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

During the round table experts in family law and mediation discussed the most sensitive issues of children's rights protection in the processes of divorce, division of property, the return of illegally removed children, alimony, and the birth of a child through the surrogacy treatment.

Senior lawyer of AGA Partners Law Firm, Ivan Kasynyuk took part in the international conference "Fat-and-Oil Industry-2012", which was held on November 21-22, 2012 in Ukraine, Kiev (hotel "Intercontinental").

This is the largest annual meeting, which was attended by more than 300 representatives of the largest fat-and-oil Black Sea region companies. Being held annually in Ukraine in November, the conference became rather good tradition for the market participants to gather in the beginning of the season to discuss the perspectives and areas of cooperation.

The target audience of the conference participants: oilseed processing and trading companies, governmental organizations, industry organizations, leading domestic and international agrarian experts, key exporters and consumers of oilseeds and by-products, representatives of scientific organizations, etc.

The 10th annual global grain conference in Geneva, the world's premier trading event in the grain calendar, Global Grain Geneva was held on 13-15 November 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Managing Partner of AGA Partners Law Firm, Aminat Suleymanova took part in the forum along with the more than 900 delegates from 50 countries.

On November 2-3, 2012, Managing Partner of AGA Partners Law Firm, Aminat Suleymanova, and Senior lawyers of the company, Ivan Kasynyuk and Irina Moroz participated as speakers in the training: "Analysis of the physical and futures market, the pricing forecast and the choice of effective trading strategy to improve profitability of sales of agricultural products".

During training Aminat Suleymanova reported the audince on some aspects international business structuring, the order of non-resindent companies registration, bank accounts opening and also on pecularities of profit taxation of non-resident companies.

Irina Moroz and Ivan Kasynyuk gave their reports on the legal aspects of trade under contracts GAFTA and FOSFA and informed the audience about the risks and responsibilities on the basis of supply CPT, FOB, CIF; basic rules of negotiation and contracting. In their reports, they described the procedure for sending notices of appropriation, renewal of contracts, estimation of damages, as well as some of the nuances of dispute resolution under the GAFTA and FOSFA arbitration institutions.

AGA Partners performed debtor assets seizure, who refused to voluntarily enforce the GAFTA arbitration award issued in favor of our client

AGA Partners Law Firm successfully represented Client's interests (charterer) in the dispute that was considered by The London Maritime Arbitrators Association (the LMAA). Senior lawyer of the company, Irina Moroz pursued this claim, representing charterer's interests.

Irina Moroz, Senior lawyer AGA Partners Law Firm, commented on the case following: "This case was very interesting and challenging at the same time in terms of proving. The dispute was concerned the procedure for calculation of lay time, a period when the ship was waiting for the berthing. The vessel during up to 12 days could not dock at the port of loading due to the strong wind. The owners filed the claim against the charterer, AGA Partners Law Firm's Client , for compensation of the demurrage arising based on the fact that the wind speed of 17 - 35 m/s was not an obstacle for the loading operations. As the evidence shipowners relied on SOF of the other vessels that were loaded later in this port for quite similar weather conditions. However, the applicable port regulations prohibited loading operations at the port when the wind speed exceeds 17 m/s. "

Due to the hard work on the evidence base, AGA Partners Law Firm was able to develop a strong defensive position and make a counter-claim for the dispatch compensation. In the result of the case consideration the Tribunal issued an award in favor of the AGA Partners Law Firm's Client, covering the claimed amount of dispatch, as well as legal costs. It is important to note that recognizing the authority of the arbitration institute, the Owners immediately enforced an arbitration award and compensated the full amount of damages to the Client of AGA Partners Law Firm.

AGA Partner Law Firm once again succeeded in representing the interests of the applicant to the European Court of Human Rights (Strasbourg).

The court has delivered the decision in favor of our client recognizing a violation of Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 1 of Protocol № 1, committed by the state Ukraine. The case was conducted directly by managing partner - Aminat Suleymanova. In the result of the positive solution of the ECHR the justice towards Ukrainian legal entity has been restored and significant financial damage suffered by our client in connection with the violations, would be compensated in the near future.

Successful representation of the Client's interests at the FOSFA Arbitration has ended with the voluntarily award enforcement and compensation of the claimed damages with the accrued interests  in the amount exceeding 470 000 USD.

Irina Moroz, Senior associate of AGA Partners Law Firm, successfully represented client’s interests in dispute against major world trading German trade holding, which was considered in the institutional arbitration of the Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations (FOSFA), London.

The central issue was the failure by the buyer to execute the contract on FOB basis with delivery terms «as soon as possible». It should be noted that the delivery terms were agreed by the parties in the exchange of e-mails and only with reference to a previously signed contract. The demands of our clients, is that his buyer is relying on the growth of the market price and the previous contractual arrangements refused to nominate a vessel and to accept the goods, which in turn has led to substantial losses. In its defense, the buyer raised the question of time bar of claim and the issue of options of the parties in terms of delivery on FOB terms. As the result, the court fully supported position of AGA Partners Law Firm lawyers and satisfied all of the claimed losses.

It is important to mention that recognizing the authority of the Federation of Oils, Seeds and Fats Associations (FOSFA), as well as the possible consequences of non-executing the arbitration award that was issued, the defendants voluntarily enforced the award and compensated all the claimed damages together with accrued interest in the amount more than 470 000, 00 USD.

AGA Partners Law Firm has successfully ended the arbitration process, receiving an award in favor of the Client in the amount of more than 150,000 USD.

AGA Partners Law Firm has once again successfully represented clients in dispute at the international commercial arbitration GAFTA (London), which was accompanied by the senior lawyer, Irina Moroz.

The dispute concerning recovery of the damages arose in the result of default by the buyer regarding the contract on CIF terms. Claimed losses, among other things, included the demurrage  of more than 56,000 USD  incurred at the port of discharge, the difference in the market price of the goods, as well as expenses for reissued documents.

AGA Partners Law Firm victoriously brought to an end yet another "grain" case process at the ICAC of the CCI of Ukraine.

According to the Managing partner, Aminat Suleymanova: "This victory in arbitration court was the final point in protracted case related to the maintenance of quotas on the grain market in October 2010 for Ukrainian exporters of agricultural products. Market participants remember well the non-transparency of the quota allocation procedures, as well as all the difficulties associated with obtaining an export license. The victory was well-deserved result of hard work of our lawyers’ team during the last two years, which have collected extensive evidentiary foundation proving the rectitude of our client."

Ivan Kasynyuk, Senior lawyer, representing clients in arbitration, provided the following comments: "The demands that have been brought against our client, one of the largest Ukrainian exporters were simple enough - the client, being a seller on the contract, refused to supply agricultural production in the amount of 16,000,000 USD. In the negotiation process, the buyer, a global agricultural company, trading all over the world, refused to accept the arguments of the client associated with the existing at that time, export restrictions and filed the claim to recover $ 12 million USD. The unusual circumstance regarding this case was the fact that several arbitration clauses were specified in the contract at the same time, as well as the incorporation of the rules in two different jurisdictions, Ukraine and England. According to the results of the long debates, the tribunal dismissed the claim against our client, finding that the seller had all the legal grounds for exemption from liability for failure to supply agricultural products."

AGA Partners Law Firm has once again successfully presented the client's interests in the dispute at the international arbitration GAFTA, London.

The demands of our client, one of the major Russian grain traders, were based on the following: the buyer, having no legal grounds, held the chartered vessels under arrest in the territorial waters of Egypt, which in turn has led to the substantial losses.

Ivan Kasynyuk,  Senior lawyer, commented on this process as it follows: "The complexity of the case was not so much in proving the fact of violations, as in the justification of losses incurred for clients and establishing clear causal relationships. Awarded sum of 370,000 USD, was the natural result of the well-based claim being a reflection of the long and hard work. "

We are proud to announce the issuance of the “Family Law. Jurisdictional comparisons”, First edition 2011.

This is the first comparative edition of family law in 31 of the world’s principal jurisdictions. It provides as essential resourse to family law professionals around the globe for the purposes of dealing with international cases.

The Ukrainian jurisdiction was presented by Aminat Suleymanova, Managing Partner of AGA Partners Law Firm and Ivan Kasynyuk, Senior Associate of AGA Partners Law Firm.

On October 26–29, 2011 in Las Vegas, USA the Section of Family Law Fall 2011 CLE Conference was held.

This conference covered the most important family law issues regarding the American society.

Particularly, on October 29th, 2011 the seminar “I—Coming Home with Baby: How to Advise U.S.-Intended Parents Who Go Abroad to Have Children Through ART” was held. Aminat Suleymanova, Managing Partner of AGA Partners was invited to take part in the abovementioned event.

The seminar covered the issue of family law and was focused on the practical aspects of having children through ART. This seminar discussed risks and practical problems that these parents are facing, as Aminat Suleymanova presented a paper on family law of Ukraine regarding abovementioned issue that received very positive feedback from the seminar audience.