Chadbourne partner rejoins Dechert after just four months away

Konstantin Konstantinov, a corporate and finance partner who joined Dechert earlier this year as part of the firm's Moscow launch, has rejoined his former firm Chadbourne & Parke after just four months.

Dechert originally announced on 8 May that five partners, including Konstantinov, would be joining from its US rival, only to see two of them - finance partner Jennifer Handz and Russian litigator Mikhail Rozenberg - decide to remain at Chadbourne.

After Konstantinov's decision to rejoin his old colleagues, Dechert is now left with just two of the original five: Laura Brank, the former managing partner of Chadbourne's Moscow and St Petersburg offices, and corporate partner Shane DeBeer. Both split their time between Dechert's Moscow and London offices.

"Konstantin had been with us for 11 years, and a lot of the friendships and business relationships he had were very special to him, and he wanted to come back," said Chadbourne managing partner Charles O'Neill.

Asked if Chadbourne had offered Konstantin more money than Dechert, O'Neill said that Konstantinov's decision to rejoin Chadbourne was "not about economics."

Konstantinov has advised on a broad range of corporate and finance matters for clients such as Russian telecom company Vimpel-Communications, Daimler and PepsiCo.

One of the first international law firms to open in Moscow in 1990, Chadbourne has developed a practice in the CIS that has long been seen as one of the firm's strengths. In addition to offices in Moscow and St Petersburg, the firm has outposts in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Dechert's original move to recruit the quintet promised to give it a team that was ready-made to thrive in the Moscow market. In a statement announcing the group's arrival back in May, Dechert chairman Barton Winokur described the lawyers as being, "intrepid, entrepreneurial, and trusted to chart the way in challenging terrain."

This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on americanlawyer.com.

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