Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for participating in the fifth Anniversary CIS Local Counsel Forum, which was held in Minsk on 23-25 June 2010, and was hosted by a leading law firm in Belarus Vlasova Mikhel & Partners. We would like to congratulate all the Delegates, the Host Firm, the Organizing Committee, and the Welcome Team with the tremendous success of the fifth Forum! Special thanks to the Forum Delegates who courageously played in the LEGAL alternative to the 2010 FIFA World Cup: the 5^th Anniversary Forum Cup! And great thanks to all Delegates who enthusiastically cheered for their teams!

The inaugural CIS Local Counsel Forum was held in Kiev in 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 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". This Mission reflects the 21st century reality, in which global investors view the CIS countries as a broad and dynamic economic region with intertwined business connections and comparable legal systems. The motto of the Forum is "Know Your Local Counsel - Recognize an Opportunity".

The Forum allows the Delegates to share, in an open and friendly spirit, the latest legal and economic news from their jurisdictions, and to establish important business contacts. The Forum meetings - first in Kiev in 2006, second in Baku in 2007, third in St. Petersburg in 2008, fourth in Kiev in 2009 and now fifth in Minsk - demonstrated the huge demand among CIS law firms for on-going communication and business cooperation, as well as the international legal community's serious interest in the CIS region. Although the economic crisis has affected the CIS region as much as the rest of the world, we have to withstand the crisis as a community - our best efforts will be rewarded with new contacts, ideas, projects and alliances, just as at all previous Forums.

The Forum's success is explained by the outstanding value it gives to the Delegates, in equal measures for both law firms and corporate counsel. Corporate counsel, representing major CIS and multinational companies, have a separate panel at the Forum, and their participation became possible to a large extent due to the kind support of the Russian Corporate Counsel Association and its President, Ms. Alexandra Nesterenko.

The Forum's website http://www.rulg.com/cisforum provides you with detailed information about the Forum, its Mission and Concept, a valuable database of the best CIS Local Counsel Firms (CIS Local Counsel Questionnaires), media coverage and comments from the Delegates, as well as comprehensive information about every Forum, including the Programs, Lists of Delegates and Guests, Bios and Presentations of Moderators and Panelists and wonderful pictures, which reflect the open and exciting spirit of the Forum.

The pictures and additional materials from the fifth Forum will be posted at this site in the near future.

Thank you for your attention, and we hope to see you at the next Forum in Almaty hosted by the prominent local law firm in Kazakhstan - Aequitas!

Co-Chairs of the CIS Local Counsel Forum:

Irina Paliashvili
RULG-Ukrainian Legal Group, P.A.

John Whittaker
Clyde & Co LLP

Dimitry Afanasiev
Chairman of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners