Moscow: +7 495 234 4959 Saint Petersburg: +7 812 740 5823 London: +44 (0) 7384 418877

Vadim Klyuvgant, Ph.D. in Historical Sciences

Advocate. Partner. Co-Head of the Criminal Law Practice.

v.klyuvgant@pen-paper.com | vCard

Vadim’s core expertise encompasses: criminal law and criminal proceedings: legal regulation of entrepreneurial and other economic activity; constitutional and state law; protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms; legislation on advocacy and the bar, and attorney professional ethics. He handles very complex and high-profile cases, and cases with a significant foreign component. Ensures criminal law compliance. Vadim participates proactively in drafting legislative as a member of  different working groups and in the expert analysis of regulations, including on the federal level.

Stands as Russian Law expert in foreign courts.

Since 2015 - Member of the Council of the Moscow Bar Association. In 2017, Vadim was elected Vice President of the Moscow Bar Association and Deputy Chairman of the Commission of the Council of the RFBA for the Protection of the Rights of Lawyers. Since 2021 - Member of the Council, Vice-President of the RFBA. 

May 2020 – present: a member of the Public Press Complaints Collegium (the Chamber of Media Audience).

Vadim has been an attorney since 2005. In this capacity he participated in a number of high-profile cases, in particular:

- For seven years (2007-2014) he headed the Russian defence team of the former head of YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

- Representing the victims, he won a case concerning an attack on worshippers at the Moscow synagogue on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street in January 2006.

- He is defending Y.S. Pivovarov, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

- Pro bono, he successfully represented defendants in a case concerning riots on Bolotnaya Square and a case concerning an accident on the Moscow metro.

- Led for the defence of Israeli and US citizen N. Issachar released by the President of Russia pursuant to a Decree of Pardon.

- Was the defence counsel for civil activists, the leaders of civil protest in Ingushetia.

From 1979 to 1990 he held various positions with the internal affairs agencies, rising from investigator to head of the investigative department. From 1990 to 1993 he was a people’s deputy of the RFSFR (Russian Federation), a member of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation, a member of the Constitutional Commission of the Russian Federation, and a participant in the Constitutional Assembly of the Russian Federation.

In 1991-1995 he was mayor of the city of Magnitogorsk.

In addition, in different years he has been a pro bono advisor to the Minister of the Russian Federation for Taxes and Duties, the Head of the State Tax Service of the Russian Federation, and the editor-in-chief of the Russian Presidential Administration’s newspaper, Rossiiskiye Vesti.

In 1999 he was elected managing director of Nosta Metallhandels GmbH (Germany), which supplied raw materials and sold the products of NOSTA OJSC (Orsk-Khalikovo Iron and Steel Works).

From 1995 to 2000 he was vice president and deputy CEO of the Stiltex Group. His responsibilities included legal support, PR/GR, security and HR.

From 2000 to 2002 Vadim was vice president of Tyumen Oil Company OJSC. He was in charge of work on major projects aimed at developing the company’s resource base (a project for the development of the Uvat group of fields, the Kovytka field, etc.)

From 2002 to 2003 he was a member of the Management Board and senior vice president for Internal Affairs at SIDANKO Oil Company OJSC.

Using global best practices, he successfully established and managed the corporate security system of a major holding company with foreign investment managed by an international management team.

From 2003 to 2004 Vadim was member of the Management Board and first vice president of Nobel Oil CJSC, assuming responsibility for asset and business management.

Vadim is the author of numerous publications on legal and related issues in trade publications and the general media. He is a member of the international team of authors of the monograph “Supremacy of the Law and Problems Ensuring it in Law Enforcement Practice”. He is also a member of the editorial board of the journal Moscow Advocacy and oversees the Bulletin, a publication of the Moscow Bar Association.

Candidate of Historical Sciences. He is proficient in English.

Vadim Klyuvgant, Ph.D. in Historical Sciences

Education

Sverdlovsk Law Institute (now the Ural State Law University)

The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Candidate of Historical Sciences)

Membership of Professional Bodies

Vice President of the Moscow Bar Association and Member of the Board of the Moscow Bar Association 

Deputy Chairman of the Council for the Protection of Lawyers’ Rights of the Russian Federal Chamber of Lawyers

Specialist areas

  • Criminal law and criminal proceedings.
  • Legal regulation of entrepreneurial and other economic activity.
  • Constitutional and state law.
  • Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
  • Legislation on advocacy and the bar, and attorney professional ethics.