Morgan Lewis closing Russia office

Morgan Lewis & Bockius said it will close its Moscow office two weeks after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine, setting off waves of Western sanctions and triggering a mass exodus of global businesses from the country.

In a statement, Morgan Lewis said that ever since the Feb. 24 invasion that has resulted in hundreds of deaths and an estimated two million Ukrainian refugees, the firm has been focused on its lawyers and staff in Moscow, assisting in addressing the disruption in their lives, potential threats to their safety, and in implementing their personal plans, including relocating to other jurisdictions where they have made that choice.

“Having taken these steps, we are confirming our wind-down of all operations in Moscow," the firm said. “Many of our lawyers who have previously practiced in Moscow will continue practicing with us in other jurisdictions and will continue to assist our global clients.”

Morgan Lewis said it has and will remain “in full compliance” with the various government sanctions implemented across the free world, and have terminated or declined client engagements inconsistent with the letter or spirit of those sanctions.

“We join with others in condemning the Russian government’s aggression and violence that has caused unspeakable suffering to innocent people,” the firm said.

Morgan Lewis opened its Moscow location in summer 2012 when it added 42 lawyers from the now-defunct New York-based Dewey & LeBouef in Moscow and Almaty. In 2013, the firm added eight transactional lawyers in Moscow from Gide Loyrette Nouel and had roughly 35 Moscow attorneys when Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine via invasion in 2014. Since that time, the number of Moscow lawyers has dwindled to 21.

As for where those Moscow lawyers could wind up, Morgan Lewis has two offices in Kazakhstan as well as locations in London, Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt. The firm also has five offices in East Asia, two in Dubai and 17 in the U.S. — including its Philadelphia headquarters that is home to 300 of its nearly 2,000 lawyers and 1,000 of its 4,000 employees.

Morgan Lewis is one of about 20 international law firms that has Moscow offices. Firms such as Eversheds Sutherland, Norton Rose Fulbright and Linklaters of the U.K. and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Latham & Watkins; and Squire Patton Boggs have all announced plans to close their Russia operations. Cleary said it was closing operations temporarily but the rest indicated the decisions were more permanent in nature. Others are still pondering what to do.

The only other Philadelphia firm with an office in Russia is Dechert. The firm said that it was “currently reviewing our presence in Moscow.”

Dechert opened in Moscow in 2009 with a group of lawyers from Chadbourne & Parke led by office managing partner Laura Brank. The firm had 18 lawyers in Moscow when the Crimea invasion occurred in 2014 and now has just six, including Brank, according to its website.

Law firms with business in Russia had to adjust to sanctions against Russia that came in the aftermath of its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine. With the latest invasion, the sanctions have indeed become much more intense. Firms have scrambled to drop Russian clients and review Russian-related work to comply. Most firms have not said much about the client review process out of fear of reprisal against their Moscow employees from the regime of Vladimir Putin, who has cracked down on dissent by arresting protesters and signing a law that threatens journalists with up to 15 years in prison for spreading what the law euphemistically refers to as “false information” about that invasion.