Senior partner Denis Aleinikov made a report on «Privatization in the Republic of Belarus: opportunities for investors and advisors» in the course of the fifth CIS Local Counsel Forum which is being held in Minsk. The Forum meetings bring together leading business lawyers from the CIS economic region and from around the world, with an approximately equal split between representatives of the international legal community and of the CIS legal community. The Delegates share the Mission of the Forum - "Bringing together the CIS and international legal communities with the aim of creating joint business opportunities and long-term cooperation".

Minsk was chosen by the Delegates as the venue for the fifth Forum at the fourth Forum, which was successfully held in Kiev on 24-26 June 2009. The choice of Minsk proved to be forward-looking and exciting. Belarus is engaged in fundamental reforms, and serious privatization efforts are expected in the near future, which will attract international investors to this up-and-coming European country. IFC reports that Belarus has instituted the fourth most numerous reforms in the world, and the World Bank has raised Belarus ranking in its index on ease of doing business. The Belarusian economy was least affected by the economic crisis and in fact showed modest GDP growth in 2009.

The inaugural CIS Local Counsel Forum was held in Kiev on 28-30 June 2006, hosted by RULG-Ukrainian Legal Group, and was the first ever wide-scale meeting of the international legal community with the best Local Counsel law firms from the CIS economic region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan). Since then, the CIS Forum has evolved into an informal network of managing and senior partners of CIS and international law firms, meeting annually in different venues chosen by the Delegates. The second Forum was held in Baku on 20-22 June 2007 hosted by Fina LLP, the third - in St. Petersburg on 25-27 June 2008 hosted by Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, and the fourth -- in Kiev on 24-26 June 2009 hosted again by RULG-Ukrainian Legal Group.