Team

Oxana is one of the most prominent, internationally recognized M&A lawyers in the market. Oxana has accomplished more than 100 announced and completed M&A deals with a total transaction value exceeding 50bn USD. She acquired over 25 years of multi-jurisdictional experience at international law firms and received virtually every award one can obtain practicing in the legal field. The Best Lawyers Rankings 2021/22 named Oxana as Moscow, Russia's Lawyer of the Year in M&A.

Oxana graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University with honors. She completed post-graduate degrees and courses at the University of Regensburg (Ph.D.), Harvard Business School, Columbia Law School and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

What inspires Oxana:

Oxana is a proud Moscow-born Armenian. She supports and chairs the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. Oxana is a healthy lifestyle advocate. She is an amateur triathlete and completed three major marathons (PB: 3:34:08). She is a happy wife and proud mother of two sons.

Vyacheslav (Slava) Yugai is Corporate & Transactions partner and Head of Digital Transformation. Born to a Korean family in Russia, Slava brings a unique blend of strategic thinking, remarkable transactional experience, and Asian cultural values to the team. Slava is qualified to practice law in three major jurisdictions: New York, England & Wales, and Russia.

Slava focuses on complex corporate transactions such as mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. He has built an impressive M&A practice with considerable cross-border experience. Multi-national corporations, investment firms, and family offices regularly retain Slava to lead special situations’ projects and provide strategic legal advice. Prior to joining BALAYAN I GROUP, he acted as an associated partner and a co-head of Corporate and M&A practice at Noerr in Moscow and was counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners.

Throughout his career, Slava has been continually ranked as one of the best M&A lawyers in Russia by Chambers Europe, Legal500, The Best Lawyers, Pravo-300, Kommersant, and other directories.

Vyacheslav earned his law degree at the University of Southern California (Gould School of Law) and a bachelor’s degree from Far Eastern Federal University with honors.

What inspires Vyacheslav:

Vyacheslav is passionate about information technology and combat sports.

Anna Yakomaskina is a Senior Associate in the Corporate & Transactions practice. Before joining BALAYAN I GROUP, she was an associate at Linklaters (M&A/Corporate). Anna specializes in corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, and joint ventures. Anna has advised major Russian and international clients in several industries, including energy and utilities, chemicals, and financial institutions. Anna successfully graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

What inspires Anna:

Anna is a passionate runner and achiever in sports. She received the rank of a candidate for Master of Sports in running, was a member of the Russian National Track and Field Team, and won the National Youth Championship at the 800 and 1500m distances. Skydiving is also one of Anna's passions.

Born in 2021. Works 24/7 365 days a year. Expert in machine learning and AI-assisted legal text analysis. Can tokenize thousands of pages of text per hour. Fluent in 16 languages. Super-fast and fantastically efficient!

What inspires Xanna:

Xanna is a real foodie. To grow, she only consumes carefully structured data, but in extremely large amounts.

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Alexandra Sofronova is a Senior Associate at BALAYAN I GROUP.

Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, general corporate law matters and Russian counter-sanctions compliance.

Alexandra has bar admission in Russia. She graduated from the Moscow State University, Faculty of Law. Before joining BALAYAN I GROUP, she was an associate at a leading Russian law firm and worked in one of the largest Russian investment companies (M&A/Corporate).

What inspires Alexandra:

Alexandra is curious about Legal Tech and is encouraged by extreme sports and boxing.

Dmitry Simbirtsev is a highly skilled professional in IP, IT, and data protection, who leads our IP, Digital & Data Practice.

Dmitry's practice focuses on innovative and challenging projects for clients ranging from truly recognized trendsetters and industry leaders to emerging promising startups doing their business in information technology, cybersecurity, FinTech, media, digital platforms, communications, FMCG, e-commerce and other industries.

Having supported some pioneering projects for internationally and nationally active clients in 20+ countries of the CIS, Middle East and Africa regions, Dmitry uniquely combines the knowledge of international requirements in the IP/TMT sector, the understanding of the way business is done in Russia and the ability to speak the same language as business and technology teams. Being business-oriented and thinking strategically, he is always ready to become a sparring partner to a client and support the one throughout the entire lifecycle of the project.

Dmitry earned IT/IP Law degree in the Higher School of Economics, one of the top universities in Russia. He is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/E).

Prior to joining BALAYAN | GROUP Dmitry worked at a highly ranked Russian law firm and top-tier international law firm.

What inspires Dmitry:

Dmitry is interested in technology and especially its practical application. Likes playing chess and videogames. Being a dog-lover, he owns a corgi and supports an animal shelter.