Olga Chirkova

About

Olga represents clients in State Commercial (Arbitrazh) courts and courts of general jurisdiction, participating in commercial and administrative disputes in different regions of Russia.

Olga’s practice also includes liaising with various state agencies, including Prosecutor’s Offices, the Federal Bailiffs Service, the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, Customs, the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service, EMERCOM, the Federal Service for the Surveillance of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, Federal Agencies subordinated to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, and others.

Having worked as an external consultant for over 11 years and as in-house lawyer for several companies throughout her career, Olga has extensive experience in real estate development, land law issues, buying out real estate owned by the Federal or regional governments, liaising with state agencies on the use of cultural heritage objects, as well as in the construction and operation of shopping malls and office centers, negotiating long-term lease deals and representing both landlords and tenants in various regions of Russia. In addition, Olga has also advised on the construction and operation of production facilities, including matters related to environmental compliance, health care and production safety matters.

Since the very beginning of her career, Olga has also intensively practiced within employment law. Besides representing clients in labor disputes in courts of all levels in various regions of Russia, Olga advises international and domestic clients on both contentious and non-contentious HR issues and any aspects of employment and labor law. Olga’s competence includes advising on executive severances/compromise agreements, change of management, planning and implementation of redundancy plans, and the employment aspects during corporate transactions, corporate restructuring and the relocation of production facilities. Olga’s experience in this sphere also includes advising on environment, health and safety matters and legal support during work accidents, assistance to clients in developing and implementing Human Resources policies and procedures as well as environment, health and safety management systems, collective negotiations with unions on bargaining agreements, and advising during strikes.

Olga has also participated in developing a number of regulatory acts for St Petersburg as a parliamentary assistant to an MP in the St Petersburg Legislative Assembly.

Experience

• drafting a salary and bonus policy and internal labor regulations for the Russian subsidiary of a global leader within filtration, separation and purification

• advising a multinational chemical company on the dismissal of an ineffective company director and top managers

• assisting one of the global leaders in manufacturing labels and packaging materials in a complex personnel restructuring project including transferring employees to remote work, downsizing, and introducing reduced working hours and salary cuts

• advising an international industrial company during Rosprirodnadzor’s inspection during the restrictive period imposed due to the coronavirus infection

• advising a chemical producing company on offsetting and refunding overpaid payments for negative environmental impact, as well as on obtaining a comprehensive environmental permit which is a recent innovation in the Russian environmental legislation and also minimizing the liability to which the client could be held

• advising a global glass manufacturer on the reproduction of fish resources in transboundary territories, as well as on the establishment of a common sanitary protection zone with another production facility

Education

Languages

• English
• Russian

Career