History
History of the company began in Moscow in 1992 when future partners Robert Schulze and Sergey Brutyan came on the same day to the Commercial Department of the Embassy of the German Federative Republic in Moscow in order to find a partner to establish a law firm. Mr. Schulze searched for a Russian lawyer versed in the Russian legal system and Mr. Brutyan looked for a German colleague with practice in Moscow. On the evening of the same day, partners reached agreements on all key issues. This way, Law Office Schulze was founded, which at a later time, in 2008 was renamed into Law Office Schulze, Brutyan and Partners. This way cooperation and friendship were born which have been lasting for more than 17 years.
Since the first day of its operations, the company developed rapidly due to numerous clientele and active participation in international projects.
In 1994, the CWU Housing Building Consortium tasked Law Office Schulze to secure exemption from taxes for the Housing Construction Program for Russian military men withdrawn from Germany. Although such exemption from taxes was promised by the ex-USSR as part of the bilateral agreement signed in 1990 between the Soviet Union and the German Federal Republic which allocated funds as humanitarian aid to build housing stock, this provision was not vested in the Russian law. As a result of cooperation with CWU, bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau AG, the Ministry Defense of the Russian Federation and the State Duma, our company fulfilled this task in 1995. The developed draft amendments to some provisions of the tax legislation were adopted by the State Duma and became effective. As a result, the Housing Construction Program for military men was fully exempted from taxes.
In 1996, a law on new enforcement proceedings was adopted in Russia which however lacked provisions on how precisely enforcement proceedings shall be implemented in relation to bonds. Lawyers of Law Office Schulze were the first to successfully enforce a recovery ruling in relation to bonds.
In 1998, Mr. Robert Schulze worked for the Eurocommisison TACIS project "Technical assistance Commission overseen by the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation for International Technical and Humanitarian Cooperation to strengthen legislation which put into effect better facilities and environment for foreign aid providers and Russian recipients" as European expert. This project was successfully implemented along with representatives of the Federation Council in the second half of 1998.
In the same 1998, Law Office Schulze represented interests of a German company versus a Russian state enterprise. On the basis of this case, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for the first time formulated the definition of the notion of “ordre publique” (“public order”) which had been implemented in the Russian law for a long time but had had no definition.
From 1999 until the end of 2001, Mr. Robert Schulze worked for the EU TACIS project "Reorganisation of the transport sector in Azerbaijan” within a consortium with Dornier System Consult Ltd./Germany, Gibb/UK and Rotterdam Maritime Group/Netherlands with a view to structure and set up the Ministry of Transport in Azerbaijan. This project related to reorganization and streamlining of the Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan.
From 2000 to 2001, Mr. Robert Schulze worked for the project “Road rehabilitation in Georgia”, financed by Kuwait Fund, along with Pan Arab Consult Ltd.
In 2000, Law Office Schulze for the first time in the Russian law track records managed to realize not only principal debt, but also all interest thereon for a large international concern. The court ruling contained all interests due to the client and, what’s more important, they were all paid in full.
Renamed into Schulze, Brutyan and Partners in 2008, the company offered and offers the entire array of legal services to many large Russian, German and international concerns and firms including Daimler AG, Chrysler LLC, Siemens AG, Fresenius AG, Wintershall AG, Dresdner Bank AG, Berliner Wasser Betriebe, ABB, EvoBus GmbH, Nestle Food, die Vermeer Steinbrück Export GmbH, Emch & Berger, Schenck Process GmbH, Creditreform Deutschland, Air Berlin, Dürr AG, Bomag AG and others. In addition, both partners take active parts in various projects of the European Union (TACIS, Bistro, etc.), represent draft laws to the State Duma of the Russian Federation, work under orders from government of a number of CIS countries, engage in scientific and educational activities.
Law office Schulze, Brutyan and Partners is member of such organizations as the Russian-German Forum, the Russian-German Export and Import Chamber, the Association of European Business, United Cities International Association, etc.