2018 Corporate Excellence Awards Supplement

48 CORPORATE VISION / Corporate Excellence Awards 2018 February 2018 , KMPartners/WTSConsulting LLC is amultispecialty consulting lawfirmwith 18 years of experience on theUkrainianmarket, and amember ofWTSGlobal network.We spoke to AlexanderMinin aswe go behind the scenes tofind outmore about theMost Outstanding Partner inWhite Collar CrimewithinUkraine in our Corporate Excellence Awards. Solving the Issue at Source Operating under the trademark KM Partners, the firm enjoys the status of being a constantly recognised leader in the fields of tax, transfer pricing and tax disputes resolution in Ukraine. Also, KM Partners and its specialists are highly recommended by the domestic and foreign rating editions in categories of real estate and construction and labour law. Additionally, the team and the partners of KM Partners take an active part in a number of significant public projects and legislative initiatives related to tax reform in Ukraine, like drafting the laws on E-Cabinet of the taxpayer and on the exit capital tax. Despite operating in a competitive and ever evolving industry, KM Partners is able to stand out amongst its peers in the market, thanks to its heavy involvement in analytical work, along with the transparency it provides on this matter. The firm creates a view on the problem and builds arguments for respective approaches. Alexander provides us with a bit more detail on this aspect of the business. “Differentiating ourselves from our competitors, we made a rather comprehensive analysis on implementation practice on Article 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on tax avoidance on certain types of procedural agreements as a part of criminal proceedings, elaborations on the grounds for certain qualifications and lack of proper grounds for certain practices. We try to build awareness and a proper understanding of respective issues, creating the ‘wind of change’. Plus, we managed to implement some changes of regulatory environment and introduce certain regulations on a number of important issues. I hope that we are commonly recognised as certain kind of rule makers in our field. What is also important is that we do possess a vast amount of knowledge and courage in this field, with our attorneys at law being brilliant on the matter and all working with the same vision. We are the best possible option for our clients, because from a legal perspective we do much more than normally is expected on the market in the like situations. Also, we explore every legal opportunity even not known/experienced on the market, including going beyond the common practice.” Fundamental to its success is the firm’s approach to undertaking a new project, and Alexander describes what steps and techniques are implemented in order to ensure the client receives the desired outcome on both sides. “Regarding our approach to new projects and clients, the main step is to make a rather comprehensive analysis, beyond the specific issue or case, of all aspects of respective problems. Is it specific issue or is it rather common? What are the factors causing the problem? At which level it may be solved, and whether the issue originates due to legal uncertainty or merely at implementation level. Furthermore, we examine whether it is caused by specific circumstances. Only after that we try to define what may be the best way to resolve the issue”. Concerning the firm’s overall mission, staff is not just content with helping its clients, although this is its main aim, but try to find the root cause of the client’s issue in order to stop it happening again. This is an important objective of KM Partners, something which Alexander alludes to. “Looking forward, we tend not just to resolve specific issues of specific clients and situations, but work on the whole respective clusters of problems and try to develop approaches and take steps that may be considered as universal keys to respective situations, or eliminate the factors that cause such problems. Moreover, that includes active work on changing regulatory landscape with lawmakers, work through various public organizations on building 1802CV19 and promoting respective approaches, real establishment of new approaches to the known problems. Such an approach of pioneering and changing landscape really pays back and allows achieving great efficiency in resolving practical issues.” In his concluding comments, Alexander discusses the future plans of KM Partners, with the ultimate aim of being a pioneer in the industry, aiming to solve the problem before it becomes an issue. “Moving forward, we consider ourselves as a ‘think-tank’, trying to pioneer, develop novelties and take the most challenging projects or high-profile projects that require close attention to every detail. For this reason, we do not expect exponential increase in numbers/ figures, yet we expect an increase in our role/influence on the overall development of our industry. Lastly, at the same time, we pay close attention to the development of certain IT tools, such as our analytical site, which will allow us to use our elaborations on mass, and to multiply respectively the results of our efforts.” Contact: Kateryna Debreniuk Address: 5, Pankivska St., 5th Floor, Kyiv, 01033, Ukraine Phone: +38 044 490 71 97