UK Law Firms Profit from Feuding Russian Oligarchs

Russian oligarchs' taste for British justice helped London lawyers rake in a record-breaking £5bn of profits last year, the Guardian daily reports. Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich may have won his battle against $6.5bn of claims by exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, but the legal fees associated with the case are expected to top £100m. And Abramovich vs. Berezovsky is just one of a slew of oligarch battles making their way through London's legal system, and turning the lawyers involved into multi-millionaires. Mark McAteer, national editor of Legal Business magazine, said the Russian legal battles have helped push the profits at top 100 law firms in the capital to more than £5bn for the first time ever. "Litigation for Russian clients has been a massive source of revenue for a number of firms – both big firms and boutique firms," he said. McAteer said seven or eight of London's big law firms paid their partners more than £1m each last year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/sep/04/london-abramovich-v-berezovsky-court-case