Attorney Dmitri Dubograev is the architect behind the success of many Russian IT companies on the American market

Dmitri I. Dubograev is founder and managing partner of International Legal Counsels PLLC (Femida) in Washington, D.C. He focuses on representing U.S. and international clients in information technology, finance, energy, telecommunication, software, and biotechnology industries in mergers and acquisitions, cross-border transactions, technology transfers, and corporate structuring and financing.

– Mr. Dubograev, why did you choose to specialize in the field of law that you are working in today?

– Previously, when I was working with Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia and with Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P. in Washington, D.C., I was handling mergers and acquisitions. I was also working with securities. I was very interested in structuring companies and creating something of value that could be traded on public markets and enhance the effectiveness of the market.

My interest towards technology arose from my vision that technology is the future of society as a whole and of jurisprudence in particular. Today, technology in Russia is not commercialized.

Some time ago, Russian Academician Alferov received the Nobel Prize. I don’t remember how much it was, but close to a million dollars. If the technology he invented would have been patented timely, Mr. Alferov or the state budget of the Russian Federation would be getting money for every CD, DVD, player, and computer sold in the world. These revenues would far outweigh Russia’s entire oil-based budget. This negative example is typical of how Russia missed and continues to miss its opportunities on the global market. One of our chief tasks is to prevent these gaps.

– “Bridging the gaps” is in fact the motto of your firm. Do you mean the gaps between former U.S.S.R. countries and the United States?

– Not only between Russia and the United States. It is broader than just that. It also includes the gaps between the producer and the consumer. Or, it may be between Russian culture and American culture, between American law and Russian law.

One of our clients once said after we closed a deal that he would like to thank us, the attorneys, for translating from Russian to Russian and from English to English. This is a reflection of what we do.

– There are very many Russian IT companies among your clients. You helped all of them to enter the American market. How would their rights have been infringed without your help?

– There are different businesses approaches in Russia. There, contracts are needed for the most part to cover your back and show them to state and tax authorities. The state stands as the enemy, against whom these companies try to defend themselves with paperwork.

In the U.S., your rights are just what you could secure to yourself in the course of contract negotiation. It is not the state that will impinge upon your rights – it will be your competitors. They will employ any legal methods of fighting for patents, trademarks, copyrights, contract violations, and so on.

The greatest infringement of Russian business in the U.S. arises from the so called sauna-made contracts. Somewhere in Moscow, Russian businessmen sign a page-and-a-half document with an American partner while they bathe in the Russian banya. Those individuals do not suspect what consequences await them. Multimillion-dollar lawsuits can arise.

This is exactly what we do – we take the rose-lens glasses off our clients who say that everyone in Russia tried to trick them and that here in America everything will be fine. We show the actual distribution of risks in the United States and present to the clients the opportunities that they did not suspect existed in the past. We make their business more predictable and allow them to make an informed decision.

– In what cases must Russian companies register their brands in the U.S. and patent their inventions?      

– Practically every time that such a need may exist. A patent can be both a sword and a shield. If there are some unique inventions, it is imperative to patent them in order to preclude any unfair competition. In the absence of a patent, anyone can pressure you out of the marketplace. Moreover, it will not be considered unethical. In the U.S., the ethics of business are defined in terms of laws. If it is allowed by law, then it is perfectly permissible. Trademarks present the same case. A company usually spends a great amount of money to make its trademark recognizable. The sooner it protects the trademark through registration, the better.

– What were the most significant transactions that you facilitated?

– The technologies of one of our clients will be included in the solutions package for securing the radiation safety of the state of Illinois. Our client won a tender, competing with the greatest giants of the American industry. To me this says that the union of good lawyers, good consultants, and good technologies can give a result that is completely unpredictable in the positive sense of the term. In that case, the client frankly did not believe that he would be able to win simply out of political reasons. Today, this is one of the largest contracts of a company from the C.I.S. in the United States.

Our firm also is involved in almost all large internet-related deals. We were the first to create a VC-project (Venture Capital) on the Russian internet. That company is striving for a leadership role in devising new-generation combat systems. This example illustrates that when Western capital and Russian technologies merge, a very good result should be expected.

– As opinions polls show, people in America do not particularly like doctors and lawyers… Why the prejudice?

– The reason for the prejudice is understandable. Ordinary people have to deal with lawyers during a divorce, after car accidents, or in criminal prosecutions. There is no winner in these cases. Whatever happens, the lawyer is the one who wins.

What we are trying to do at our firm is to implement a new approach in our practice. For instance, I think that clients are often irritated by the fact that the lawyer cannot say for certain how much his services would cost. If you go to a car salon and you ask how much a car costs, they will tell you exactly its price. When you came to a lawyer, he will say that he needs to think how much his work will cost. We don’t use that approach; we don’t educate ourselves at the expense of our clients.

High prices for legal services are justified only when you know the job that you are asked to do. The ability to control and predict the process is critical, as is professionalism. The client should know what to fight for, and what minute details can be ignored.

Our work is to build the architecture of a business. People come to us not only when their house burns down, but also when their object is to build a palace. Create a design! Work on the architecture!

What I like about our practice is that everyone wins. We benefit because we provided legal services and received compensation. Investors benefit because they found a partner company, and the company benefits because it found investors. Our “cases” usually end with closing parties, where everyone shakes hands. There are legends going around about them too.       

Contact information:

International Legal Counsels PC

901 North Pitt Street, Suite 325

Alexandria, VA 22314

phone: 202.835.0966; 703.739.9111

fax: 202.318.0723

http://femida.us || info@legal-counsels.com