Jon Hines has been practicing in Moscow for over 20 years, most recently as a partner at the Morgan Lewis firm -- representing US, European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Russian private and state-owned companies in large project development, joint venture, and M&A related transactions in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Jon focuses primarily on large-scale oil and gas projects, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals, mining and metals, and other industrial ventures. Since the onset of economic sanctions against Russia in 2014, Jon has been providing his clients with strategic advice in this area also. He has become a noted expert in the field, having written numerous articles on the subject, and spoken on sanctions at high level meetings and international conferences. He also serves on the Presidium of the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the RF Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Jon is a member of the New York Bar and a graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, and Princeton University School of Public & International Affairs and Russian Studies. He also was a one-year exchange scholar in civil law at Moscow State University. Jon is teaching Pericles’ Economic Sanctions course in fall 2021.

Eric Johnson is a veteran digital rights activist Eric Johnson has architected or managed projects supporting independent media and networks, uncensored internet access, pro-cyberliberty internet policy, and progressive national ICT regulatory frameworks on all continents—throughout the post-socialist space, the Balkans, Palestine, Nigeria, Zambia, Ethiopia, Syria, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Nicaragua, and many others. He has taught cybersecurity workshops to hundreds of activists, journalists, and lawyers in over a dozen countries. He also works on developing and deploying online privacy-enhancing/security-preserving technologies, e.g. Tor, Ricochet, Lantern, GlobaLeaks, and CertainTLS. An American born in Africa, he has lived/worked in Australia, China, France, Russia, and Singapore. He studied at Grinnell College, Georgetown University, the Pushkin Institute, and the University of New South Wales / ADFA.

Jennifer Josefson is a member of King & Spalding's Global Transactions Practice Group. She specializes in Russian and international transactions in the energy and natural resources sector, regularly advising clients on M&A and joint venture arrangements, joint operating agreements (JOAs), concessions, PSAs, farm-ins, supply and service agreements and international arbitration in the subsoil and energy sectors. She is ranked as one of the top energy and natural resource lawyers in Russia by Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer, and the Who's Who of International Oil and Gas Lawyers. Ms. Josefson is a Vice President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and was the founding regional director of AIPN's CIS Chapter, from 2005 to 2008.

Soroush Kafiabadi graduated with an LL.B. from King's College London and LL.M. from University of London. He has since been practicing in a mediation-arbitration capacity at the Financial Ombudsman Service based in London, UK. The Financial Ombudsman Service is an entity established by parliament to mediate financial disputes between financial institutions and their clients. Mr. Kafiabadi's work involves seeking resolution to all financial disputes (from banking, investment and insurance sectors) without recourse to formal legal proceeding before the courts. In his spare time Mr. Kafiabadi coaches UK law students in international law and mooting skills for the Jessup, and has come to Russia several times to judge the Russian regional Jessup competition. Mr. Kafiabadi will be coming again to Russia in November 2011 to teach a short course in Mediation Skills at Pericles.

Demos Katsis is a Corporate Counsel, Partner and Managing Director of KATSIS LLC, Law Firm based in Cyprus. He was a partner at Christodoulos G. Vassiliades & Co. before establishing in Limassol the innovative law firm KATSIS LLC, consisted of experienced Greek and Russian persons. He specialises in contractual drafting and consulting on corporate and tax strategies. His main areas of practice are contractual and company matters, construction, trusts and estate planning, tax, and intellectual property matters. He holds an LLB degree from the University of Bristol, an LLM degree from the University of Bristol, a Diploma in Professional Legal Skills from City University and MA from the University of Malta. He was admitted to the Cyprus Bar in 2003 and is a member of the Cyprus Bar Association. He is the author of several articles and a regular speaker in tax conferences, intellectual property conferences and immovable property conferences organised by various organisations. Mr Katsis was assistant National Rapporteur for Cyprus for the EU Project on Unfair Commercial Practices in the new Member States for the year 2005-2006 undertaken by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and he was also assistant National Rapporteur for Cyprus for the EU Project on Legalization of Public Documents undertaken by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is a visiting professor at Pericles, engaged to teach Anglo Saxon and International Trust law, and also an occassional guest seminar presenter on issues related to offshore and Cyprus business planning.

Steffen Kaufmann is a corporate partner at DLA Piper's Moscow office and has been working in the Russian legal market for over 20 years. Steffen studied in Freie Universität Berlin, University of Cape Town and BPP Law School in London. He is a German-qualified lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) and a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Steffen has extensive experience advising international and Russian clients on a wide range of M&A transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures and group reorganisations. Steffen is recommended for corporate and real estate by the Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 guides. His client portfolio includes companies from various industry sectors including manufacturing, natural resources, banks, retail, transportation, pharmaceutics as well as real estate developers and investors. Steffen speaks German, English and Russian.

Michael Kosnitzky is a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner, in charge of its Tax and Middle Market Practice Group. He is listed in Chambers USA as a leader in the field of tax law, in the publication the Best Lawyers in America in Tax Law and in the Florida and New York-Metro editions of Super Lawyers in Tax. Mr. Kosnitzky's practice includes representation of both domestic and foreign high net worth individuals and companies. He has represented many international clients in both taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions, business combinations, equity and debt financing, corporate joint ventures and other strategic alliances. He is not only a lawyer but a former practicing certified public accountant with a national accounting firm. He is currently the Chair of the American Bar Association's National Conference of Lawyers and CPA's. Mr. Kosnitzky has authored numerous articles in U.S. tax journals. He has been a member of the Adjunct Tax Faculty at the University of Miami School of Law Graduate Tax Program, and is a frequent lecturer for the University of Miami, the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and numerous other organizations.

Amy Kouznetsova graduated from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2006 and is a member of the New York State Bar Association. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Mississippi in 1995 and worked as a court reporter in North Carolina, Florida and Washington DC before entering law school. She has experience in litigation and corporate transactions. Currently, she is the business director of Sputnik Gallery and serves as Counsel for the Russian Chapter of Democrats Abroad. Amy taught Legal English and Legal Writing at Pericles when she first moved to Moscow and is enthusiastic about her return to the Center to teach Introduction to American Law.

Professor Eugene (Gene) Lipkowitz, is Of Counsel at Stevens & Lee’s New York office. (Stevens & Lee is a large Pennsylvania based law firm.) Gene consults on antitrust laws concerning exclusionary behavior, mergers and acquisitions and other horizontal activity, trade association conduct, price discrimination, creation and termination of distributorship and other vertical agreements and predatory pricing. Prior to joining Stevens & Lee, Gene worked as in-house antitrust counsel to Du Pont and Western Union, was a trial lawyer with the Special Trial Section of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, and was employed by the Federal Trade Commission where he focused on the competitive aspects of horizontal and vertical combinations in the health care industry. He also taught economics for several years at Baruch College of Business at the City University of New York. Gene graduated from Harvard Law School and holds a M.Phil in Economics from Columbia University.

Prof. Vladimir Lissniak, RF Honored Human Rights Defender, president of Pericles, has extensive experience in public, private and NGO sectors, diplomatic service, law practice, and academic activity. He has worked as a consultant in the Moscow Mayor’s Office, for the Administration the RF President. He has been practicing law privately for the last 30 years for Russian and foreign clients in courts of general and special jurisdiction in a number of countries and Strasbourg court of human rights. Mr. Lissniak has taught American Business Law, Banking Law, Negotiations and other courses in the Institute of International Law of the Russian Ministry of Justice, MGIMO, Higher School of Economics, University of San Diego (California), the American Institute of Business and Economics (AIBEC), Immanuel Kant Baltic State University. He was chief editor of the Russian edition of “The Banking Law” by prof. Gavalda and prof. Stoufflet (France).

Tanya Livshits is the Research Manager for Southern California and Mexico at Holland and Knight LLP. She earned a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Studies from the University of California Los Angeles, a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and an MLIS with a specialty in Law Librarianship from the University of Washington School of Information. Prior to Holland and Knight, Tanya was the Director of Research and Information Services at Irell & Manella LLP, an intellectual litigation powerhouse based in Los Angeles, CA. Tanya has an expertise in all aspects of legal research. She regularly runs educational programs for the attorneys at her firm. She has also presented on various topics in the field of legal information and research at the Annual Association of Law Libraries conferences, including a ground breaking study on the efficacy of legal analytics tools. Prior to joining the law firm world, Tanya worked at the San Diego Public Law Library, University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library and the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Library. Before obtaining her MLIS, Tanya practiced law in San Diego, CA with a focus on land use.

Val Loumber is a litigation attorney from California. He is a partner with the litigation law firm of Gavrilov & Brooks, www.gavrilovlaw.com, located in Sacramento, California. He practices in the areas of Bankruptcy, Business, and Appellate litigation, with emphasis on complex federal civil litigation, fraud, and other intentional torts. Mr. Loumber was an administrsative law judge for a short period of time. He also taught Bankruptcy Law and Practice for 10 years at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento, California. For 16 years, he served as staff counsel to several federal judges, preparing over 25,000 written dispositions in cases before the court. Mr. Loumber earned his J.D. with distinction from McGeorge Law School, University of the Pacific, in 2000. Prior to that he earned university degrees in Human Biology and Chemistry.

James Mandel is a graduate of Yale Law School and has a Ph.D. in Russian history from Columbia University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. For the last twenty years his practice has been devoted entirely to Russia. In 1990 he opened the Moscow office of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae (now Dewey & LeBoeuf ) and was its managing partner during the period 1992-1994. He advised foreign investors on all aspects of doing business in post-Soviet Russia, particularly in the areas of real estate and natural resources. In 2003, shortly after leaving LeBoeuf, he joined Ernst & Young in Moscow, first as the head of EY Law’s M&A practice and then as general counsel to Ernst & Young in the CIS. In January 2010, he retired from the position of general counsel and remains employed at Ernst & Young in a consulting capacity.

Christina M. Pan Marshall has worked as a securities lawyer since 1998. She began her practice as a litigator for Sidley Austin LLP in New York where she represented large financial services companies in complex federal and state litigation and in connection with inquires by regulators. In 2005, she joined the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as a Senior Attorney in the Enforcement Division where she was responsible for investigating violations of the U.S. securities laws, including the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ms. Marshall was responsible for successfully investigating several high profile cases, including the Commission's action in 2011 against Fannie Mae in connection with its role in the financial crisis of 2008. Ms. Marshall received her B.A. from Skidmore College in 1994 and her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law in 1998. She teaches Securities Regulation Law at Pericles.

Victor Matchekhin heads the tax practice of Linklaters, in Moscow, and also teaches tax and financial law at Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy (MGUA). He has extensive experience advising international investors on taxation issues relating to setting up and structuring of their operations in Russia, corporate reorganizations and restructurings, M&As, IPOs and other corporate and financial operations. Professor Matchekhin also advises Western investors on the application of double tax treaties in Russia and on tax litigation. He serves as the Executive Secretary of the Russian Branch of the International Fiscal Association, and is a frequent organizer and speaker at IFA events. Professor Matchekhin holds degrees from the Plehkanov Institute and from MGUA, and a Candidate degree from the Russian School of Private Law. Professor Matchekhin is going to be co-teaching the International Tax Planning course at Pericles this Spring with his colleague, Stafford Smiley.

Thomas McDonald is a recently retired partner from White & Case with over 30 years' experience in international financial transactions. He has been with White & Case for many years, mainly in the Paris office, and with three years in the Moscow office from 2011 through 2013. Mr. McDonald has been instrumental in organizing a legal ethics seminar for Russian law students in Moscow, co-sponsored by White &Case, DLA Piper, Moscow State University and PILnet. It is now in its sixth year. He also recently led the efforts of White & Case to set up a similar program in Ghana in conjunction with Fordham University and the judicial service of Ghana. During his years in the practice of law, Mr. McDonald specialized in asset and equipment finance. He acted for commercial banks, lessors, lessees and equity participants in cross-border transactions with respect to aircraft, vessels and other equipment. He is experienced in all aspects of structuring, negotiating and documenting such transactions. He holds a J.D. from Tulane University in New Orleans and a BCL from Oxford University. He is a member of the bar in Louisiana, New York and Paris. Pericles is proud to have Mr. McDonald visiting for the fall of 2016 and teaching the Introduction to American Law course and the Professional Responsibility course.

Hugh E. McNeely is an American lawyer with a wealth of business, legal and trial experience spanning more than 37 years. After graduating from Louisiana State University Law School in 1979, McNeely honed his legal writing skills with a one-year clerkship for a Louisiana appellate court judge before entering the private practice of law in south Louisiana in 1980. McNeely‘s practice included a wide array of legal fields: corporate, banking, finance, property and business transactions, as well as a robust civil trial and appellate practice in multiple state and federal jurisdictions. McNeely represented the State of Texas against the tobacco companies in the late 1990s that resulted in a multi-billion dollar settlement in favor of the state. McNeely has represented individuals and states in mass tort, class actions and complex litigation in many different venues and jurisdictions involving claims in numerous industries: construction, automotive manufacturing, medical malpractice, pharmaceutical pricing practices, product liability and contract litigation/arbitration. For the past five years, McNeely has been travelling and living abroad, teaching and researching differing cultures for a variety of writing projects. He is joining Pericles in 2017 as a full time professor, teaching various courses related to legal English, legal writing, contract drafting, litigation and arbitration. In his spare time, Hugh enjoys scuba diving and lives an active life, and last year he was even tapped as a food critique and American hamburger expert for Life News.

Moritz Näf is the founding partner of the Swiss law firm Apex Legal. His fields of expertise include contract and corporate law as well as commercial dispute resolution. Moritz’s clients are predominantly Swiss and foreign corporations and entrepreneurs as well as wealthy individuals. Moritz acquired his law degree at the University of Basel, Switzerland, in 1999 and holds an LL.M. in European Law from the University of Lund, Sweden (2002). He was admitted to the Swiss bar in 2001 and is entitled to represent clients before all Swiss courts and administrative bodies. Before founding Apex Legal in 2024, he worked for several leading law firms in Zurich as well as the largest Swiss Bank UBS AG. Moritz is a native German speaker and is fluent in English, French, Swedish and Norwegian. In addition, he has a solid command of Russian. In his free time, he enjoys alpine skiing, travelling, photography as well as spending time with his children.

Thomas D. Nastas is founder of Innovative Ventures, Inc., with offices in Lansing, Michigan and Moscow, Russia. With this company, he has helped to organize venture capital funds in the USA, Canada, Europe, Africa, and the CIS. He is also currently an independent director on several boards of directors, including those of Sotsgorbank, the Independent Directors Association, and BPOcom (Moscow), and Suntyco, the Cyprus SPV investment of Tata Coffee (Mumbai) and the EBRD in Grand Tea & Coffee (Moscow). Additionally, he is a member of the global advisory/investment committees of the Larta Institute (Los Angeles) and Softline Venture Partners (Moscow). At Pericles, Mr. Nastas has been an MBA advisor since 2001, helping students gain admission to Berkeley, LSE, Michigan, Chicago, Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, and INSEAD, among others. He also teaches courses in Marketing, Sales Management, and Venture Capital at AIBEC. Professor Nastas holds a B.A., cum laude and an M.B.A., cum laude, both from Michigan State University. To learn more about him, please click on the following link: www.InnovativeVenturesInc.com. You can also see his biography and interview on Russia Today, or read a translated article in Vedomosti.

Holly Nielsen is currently International Legal Counsel for Kaspi.kz, a Kazakh fintech company listed on the London Stock Exchange. From 2006 through 2021, Ms. Nielsen held positions as General Counsel and Senior Funds Counsel for Baring Vostok Capital Partners, the leading private equity firm in Russia. During that time, Baring Vostok Funds participated in the IPOs of portfolio companies including Yandex, CTC, Ozon and Kaspi. Ms. Nielsen was the managing partner of the Moscow office for US law firm Baker Botts from 1992-94; the partner-in-charge of the Moscow office of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy from 1997-2000; the co-head of the Moscow office of Debevoise & Plimpton from 2001-2006. During 1995-97 Ms. Nielsen was employed by Harvard University as a senior advisor to the first Chairman of the Russian Securities Commission on matters of policy, agency and market development and legislation. She has been responsible for many high-profile M&A, securities and investment fund transactions in Russia over the past 30 years.

Antonio Parenti is currently working with the WTO in Geneva. Previously he was a Senior Manager at Severstal and before that was First Secretary at the Delegation of the European Commission in Moscow where he followed the process of accession of Russia to the WTO as well as the macroeconomic and energy questions. He has also worked in the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission, where he was the European negotiator for the accession of various countries to the WTO, including Ukraine, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, and responsible for WTO institutional matters. Mr. Parenti holds a MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington D.C. ( USA ), a LL.M in European Law and a Law Degree both from the University of Bologna ( Italy ). He regularly lectures and writes on WTO issues and he is lecturer of International Trade Law at the University of Bologna. He taught WTO Law and European Law at Pericles before leaving for Geneva in 2009. We hope that he will return from time-to-time to lecture.

Frank Petruzzi practiced law in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1994 and was chief of financial crimes investigation and head of the legal department for an Ohio State agency. Later in private practice, he focussed on business, tax and family law. In 1994, he moved to Russia with the Peace Corps. Since then, working in the cities of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg Mr. Petruzzi managed the establishment or reorganization of several complicated projects for clients including the U.S. Government and the UNDP. Now he works worldwide with several Russian and multinational private entities, and specializes in crisis management. He divides his time between Moscow, Madrid and London. At Pericles, Mr. Petruzzi taught Introduction to American Law, Contract Law and Drafting and Secured Transactions until late 2007, and he has returned in 2013 to teach M&A and possibly Legal English. He holds a J.D. from the University of Akron, Ohio.

Marc Polonsky is a retired partner of the international law firm White & Case. His practice focused mainly on investment into and out of Russia, particularly in the natural resources and infrastructure sectors. Based principally in London, he also spent eleven years (1998 to 2008; 2017 to 2018) living and working in Moscow. He manages a philanthropic foundation that supports cultural heritage and humanities education and research, and is a non-executive director of an insurance company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He has a B.A. in Modern Languages (Russian and French) from the University of Oxford and is a solicitor qualified in England and Wales.

Karen Porter worked for over 20 years for the Insurance Institute of America (Malvern, PA), where she authored the textbook, The Legal Environment of Insurance, edited another text, Insurance Regulation; worked with a Swiss reinsurer on a special education project; and served as intellectual property and employment law counsel. She was also a Director of Legal Services at Blue Cross of Greater Philadelphia. She taught legal writing at Villanova University School of Law (Villanova, PA), where she coauthored the textbook, Introduction to Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy. Founding editor of the weekly Pennsylvania Law Journal, she was also the Assistant Dean for Graduate Legal Studies and External Programs, Temple University School of Law (Philadelphia). She has taught law students at the Murom Institute and Srednerrusky University, Russian Federation, and taught visiting lawyers from several countries at the University of Delaware's English Language Institute and at Widener University. A member of the Pennsylvania bar, Ms. Porter obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA, and pursued post-J.D. Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law (Philadelphia), focusing on health law and economics. Since 2012, Ms. Porter has become a permanent visiting at Pericles each fall semester, where she teaches Legal English, Legal Writing, Contract Drafting, Intro to U.S. Law, and Professional Responsibility. In September 2013 Professor Porter was an invited speaker at the European Legal English Teachers Association annual conference in The Netherlands, on Plain English in Legal Writing.”

Dan Repko started working with Pericles in 1999 as a Listening Comprehension professor. Soon after starting at Pericles he was promoted to Marketing and Sales Director and later to Vice-Dean where he stayed for 3 years. Since then he moved on to become an Independent Financial Advisor helping individuals save and invest money for their future. He worked as an investment advisor for some time until becoming our favorite D.J. on Moscow F.M. 105.2. Always a friend of Pericles, he frequently returns as a guest lecturer and substitute professor for GMAT grammar and TOEFL preparation. Dan holds a B.A. from Kudstown University in Pennsylvania, and undertook graduate studies in Russian language at the University of Maryland.

Arlene Rochlin has been an attorney for over thirty years, practicing civil law in both trial and appellate work, in private and corporate practice. In 2008 Ms Rochlin moved to Italy where she acquired her TEFL certification and began teaching Legal English to Italian attorneys, judges, senators and law students, as well as preparing students to attend law schools in the USA, including LSAT preparation. Ms Rochlin has been a lead speaker throughout the EU on various business and law topics at seminars with professional audiences from all over the world. She has been an assistant professor at Pericles, teaching Legal Writing to students competing in the Jessup Moot Court competition. Ms Rochlin also translates legal documents from Italian to English. Prior to entering the practice of law, she began her professional career in the insurance industry. Ms Rochlin received her J.D. from Indiana University Law School in 1987, where she was a contributing author to William F. Harvey, Indiana Practice, 2d ed., Volumes 3 and 4.

Jackie Rodriguez has taught Business English, Business Writing, and sections of the GMAT, GRE and TOEFL preparation courses at Pericles. Prior to moving to Moscow, Jackie was Director of Publications for Technomic, Inc., a consulting company based in Chicago, IL, USA. Jackie also worked as a senior editor at Restaurants and Institutions, a trade magazine covering the food industry. Jackie began her career at a Chicago newspaper, where she worked as a reporter, copy editor and as food and dining editor. She received her degree in Journalism and Political Science from Indiana University. Jackie left Moscow in 2008 to accompany her husband, an international correspondent, on his assignment in the Middle-East.

Jack Russo is the managing partner of the Computer Law Group, located in Silicon Valley, California. Jack is one of the pioneers of Cyberlaw, a field in which he has practiced since graduating with honors from U.C.L.A. law school in 1980. He started his career as a specialist in copyright protection of software, and he career developed and expanded along with the growth and sophistication of the internet and internet law in general. Jack is a frequent speaker on computer law issues and has given presentations to the American Bar Association, the Practicing Law Institute, the Computer Law Association, and the San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, as well as a seminar on Intellectual Property and Creative Freedoms at Stanford University. He has written numerous articles including a dozen on software copyright protection, and more recent articles entitled “Recent Developments in E-Commerce Law,” "Trade Secrets on the Internet and in Cyberspace" “Legal Basics for Software CEOs” and “The Law of Virtual Reality.” Mr. Russo also serves as an arbitrator, mediator, and early neutral evaluator for the U.S. District Court (N.D. California), the Santa Clara County Superior Court, and the American Arbitration Association, as well as a Judge Pro Tempore of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. He is also the founder and Chairman of the non-profit Foundation for Creativity in Dispute Resolution (www.ffcdr.com) an organization which promotes resolution of national and international business disputes through voluntary mediation using advanced methods for finding common grounds and improved solutions.He holds a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles; an M.B.A. from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley and an L.L.M. with highest honors from Lazurski University and the Center for International Legal Studies (www.cils.org) where he is a Fellow and a Member of their Academy of International Legal Scholars. He is teaching a one credit seminar in Cyberlaw at Pericles during early September 2016.

Elena Schachter is a native New Yorker who graduated magna cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University with a double major in English and French Literature and a minor in Russian Language and Literature. Ms. Schachter made her first trip to the Soviet Union in 1989 and permanently moved to Russia in 1993, after which she started working as Sales & Marketing Manager for the Americom Business and Office Center at the Radisson/Slavyanskaya Hotel. Later, Ms. Schachter worked for four years as the Administrative Coordinator and teacher of English at the Russian State University for the Humanities Center for Biblical and Judaic Studies. In 1994, Ms. Schachter joined the American Bar Association Central and East European Law as Administrative Coordinator and was later promoted to Field Financial Manager for all of the ABAs operations in the Russian Federation and Belarus. Ms. Schachter has been teaching the Reading Comprehension and Structure sections of the TOEFL and GMAT tests at Pericles on and off since 1999.

Dr. Lawrence Schäfer holds B.A., LL.B. and LL.M. degrees from Rhodes University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He was called to the Bar in South Africa in1998 and has spent the past ten years lecturing in England. His research interests draw on the impact of international and international human rights law on domestic legal systems. Teaching specialisations include Land Law, Equity and Trusts and Public International Law. He is currently engaged in research on diplomatic protection and the extent to which human rights law might be used to compel a state to assist its citizens. His first book was published in 2006; a second, entitled Child Law in South Africa: Domestic and International Perspectives, is forthcoming in July 2011. Dr. Schäfer has been involved with the Russian National Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition for the past three years and has visited Moscow on many occasions. Dr. Schäfer is visiting Pericles in the summer of 2011 to teach the Introduction to English Law course and the international law portion of the Jessup summer school.

Trina Sen is lead in-house international commercial dispute resolution counsel at the global headquarters of Kaspersky Lab, an international software security group with over 3,000 employees across over 30 countries and with sales operations in almost 200 countries and territories worldwide. Prior to joining Kaspersky Lab, Ms. Sen worked in the international commercial dispute resolution practice group in the St. Petersburg office of Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, the leading law firm in Russia and the CIS. Ms. Sen has represented companies and government agencies in international arbitration proceedings heard before the ICC (Paris), LCIA (London), SCC (Stockholm), ICAC (Moscow) as well as ad hoc proceedings in India, in a range of disputes, for example, involving an acquisition of manufacturing facilities in Turkey, a shareholder dispute between Russian and Indian partners in a joint venture on a metals manufacturing facility in India, and a complex vendor-distributor dispute spanning across five jurisdictions. Ms. Sen obtained her B.A. in Political Science from The University of Chicago (2004) and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law - Newark (2007), and was admitted to the New York State bar as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She knows four languages, including Russian.

Ali Shajahan teaches the mathematics portion of Pericles' GMAT Preparation program. He holds an M.S. in Mathematics from Peoples' Friendship University and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Computing Center, Academy of Sciences, Russia. Moreover, he is certified as a math teacher in Secondary and Higher Secondary schools. In addition to teaching mathematics, Mr. Ali has also edited books on topics such as Math, Physics, and Statistics that were translated from Russian into English. Mr. Ali is a fluent speaker of English, Russian and his native tongue, Bengali.

Stafford Smiley is Senior Counsel in Caplin & Drysdale's Washington, D.C., office and Faculty Director and a Professor in the Graduate Tax LL.M. Program at Georgetown University Law Center. He specializes in the taxation of corporate and noncorporate business entities, and international transactions. Professor Smiley has extensive experience as tax counsel in international financing, leveraged lease, and other transactional settings. He also represents a number of international finance organizations, for whom he does international tax planning work, primarily in the areas of international structured finance and transfer pricing matters, in particular advanced pricing agreements. In his teaching career, he has been a visiting Professor in graduate tax law programs in Poland, Austria, Australia and Brazil. On his visit to Russia this Spring he is going to be co-teaching the International Tax Planning course at Pericles with his colleague, Victor Matchenkhin, as well as teaching in MGIMO’s graduate tax program. He holds a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale, and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard.

Ekaterina Smirnova is a partner at D&A Partners, renowned for her expertise in competition law and digital market strategies. She holds an MA in EU Competition Law with distinction from King's College London, where she completed her thesis on “Market Power and Criteria of Dominance in Digital Markets.” Ekaterina studied at several Ivy League and prestigious institutions, including the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she focused on Digital Business Strategy, and the Wharton Institute of Executive Education at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in Business in the Metaverse Economy. She has also completed advanced courses in European Union Competition Law at Cambridge University and the Academy of European Law (ERA). Ekaterina is a respected member of the Association of Antimonopoly Experts and has participated in meetings of the Competition Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Practicing since 2006 and being admitted to the bar in 2009, she brings a wealth of experience and insight to her work. Recognized for her expertise, Ekaterina was named "Lawyer of the Year" in Government Relations Practice by The Best Lawyers in 2020. Her accomplishments are acknowledged in "Law-300" as a recommended lawyer in the field of Digital Economy for 2024. She has also been recognized in the areas of Competition/Antitrust Law (2019, 2021), Government Relations Practice (2021), and Litigation (2019–2021). She was awarded the PRO Charity Prize for Russia's first-ever charity NFT drop in 2024. In addition to her professional achievements, Ekaterina teaches courses on competition law, digital platforms, and business in the Web3 era, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of these critical and rapidly evolving fields.

William Spiegelberger is Head of the International Practice Unit at Rusal Global Management B.V. in Moscow (since 2007), where he manages, among other things, the corporate group’s major litigations and arbitrations outside the CIS states. He was formerly Counsel and Head of the Disputes Group at White & Case LLC in Moscow (2003-7); associate in the litigation department of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York (1998-2003); and associate in the arbitration and litigation group of White & Case LLP in New York and Paris (1994-1997). He received a B.A. from Columbia College and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. He also received an M.A. and M. Phil. in Russian literature from Columbia University and Certificate from the Harriman Institute.

Hilton Stothers is a Senior Consultant in the Transfer Pricing department of OOO Pricewaterhouse Coopers Advisory, at whose Moscow office he has been working since 2016. Hilton earned his 2011 J.D. and 2013 LL.M. in Taxation from New York Law School and has worked in individual and corporate international tax planning and compliance for three years, in foreclosure defense litigation for two, and as an English Language Arts academic assessment editor for two. He also holds a 2006 B.A. in Philosophy and International Studies from Middlebury College, and has taught English as a foreign language part-time in addition to his regular work. Hilton teaches the Legal English course at Pericles.

Leanne Striegel is a litigator from Iowa with 12 years of litigation experience in the Iowa District Court. She also wrote many appellate briefs and has argued several cases in the Iowa Supreme Court. She received her J.D., with Honors, from Chicago Kent Law School. While in law school, Ms. Striegel participated in International Law Moot Court. In addition to receiving a J.D. from Chicago-Kent Law School, she also received a certificate in International and Comparative Law. Ms. Striegel was invited by the Iowa Supreme Court Commission to grade bar exam essays, which she did for several years, prior to leaving the U.S. (Being asked to grade the bar exam is an honor usually reserved for the best bar exam scorers.) She is still in contact with the Commission and is hoping that it will soon be possible to grade exams from Moscow. Ms. Striegel was also involved in the National Moot Court Competition as an attorney-coach for two years and, thereafter, a judge. Ms. Striegel began practicing law as a prosecutor and then went into private practice specializing in criminal, family, juvenile, and immigration law. She developed a specialty protecting and defending battered women, which are some of the toughest cases to handle. In addition, Ms. Striegel was quite successful in writing appeals to the Iowa Supreme Court. She obtained reversals in a juvenile law and a mental health law case, which are almost never reversed. Throughout her career, Ms. Striegel also taught legal writing and research and business law to paralegal students. In 2013, she decided to take a sabbatical from full-time law practice and explore her love of Russia and of teaching. First, she traveled to Ukraine to brush up on her Russian and then relocated to Thailand to teach English for six months. In the fall of 2014, she moved to Moscow to teach English. In the fall of 2015, Ms. Striegel began teaching regular legal skills development courses as a full-time Pericles professor. Ms. Striegel is fluent in Russian, and formerly visited Pericles when it was first formed in 1998. At that time, Ms. Striegel was a visiting student from the University of San Diego program in Moscow. In addition to teaching legal skills classes at Pericles, Ms. Striegel also teaches corporate legal classes at companies and law firms. Ms. Striegel also holds a certification as an English language teacher (TEFL).

Vasilisa Strizh is a partner in business and finance practice of Morgan Lewis, in Moscow. Ms. Strizh has represented clients in cross-border and domestic mergers and acquisitions, cross-border investments and joint ventures, and capital markets transactions, including public and private equity securities offerings. She also advises clients on related corporate, securities law, compliance, and reporting. Ms. Strizh advises in a variety of industries, including power, oil and gas, insurance and other financial services, and telecommunications. She has led complex cross-border corporate transactions, projects involving issuance and listing of securities, structured settlements, and various forms of financing. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Ms. Strizh was a partner in the corporate practice of Dewey & LeBoeuf, Moscow. Ms. Strizh earned her law degree from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1992. She is teaching Transactional Lawyering at Pericles.

Torsten Syrbe is Head of Corporate at the Moscow office of Clifford Chance. Torsten studied law at the universities of Erlangen and Jena in Germany and Nottingham in the UK. He is a German-qualified Rechtsanwalt, English-qualified solicitor and has an LL.M. in European competition and international business law from the University of Leuven, Belgium. Before moving to Moscow in 2002, Torsten worked in Brussels and Düsseldorf with Clifford Chance's EU competition department and in the German antitrust group. Torsten is the author of numerous articles on Russian corporate, competition and foreign investment law. He has also been the editor of many publications, including a series of five books on Russian Business Law. Torsten is regularly asked to speak at conferences on Russian and EU law. At Pericles he teaches the antitrust law course.

Charles Szymanski is a professor of law and Vice-Dean of International Relations at the Vytautas Magnus University, Faculty of Law in Kaunas, Lithuania. He also serves an adjunct professor of law at the Michigan State University College of Law. Professor Szymanski received his Juris Doctor degree in law from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif. Prior to coming to Europe, he practiced labor and employment law in Michigan and Philadelphia in the U.S. for more than 12 years, representing employees and labor organizations, and still is an active attorney in Michigan. His main research interests are international and comparative labor law and discrimination law. Professor Szymanski is a frequent speaker on labor law and other topics, having given presentations in the United States, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Croatia, Russia and Israel. Professor Szymanski also serves as an arbitrator with the Vilnius Commercial Court of Arbitration. He is teaching a special course in international aspects of labor and employment law at Pericles in fall 2012.

Terry Thomson obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington and Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School. He grew up on the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington), before completing his formal education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is an active member of the Washington State and New York Bars, and has been engaged in the private practice of law since graduating from law school. He is a founding partner of top rated boutique law firm in Seattle, Washington, where he practices to this day. His lengthy and diverse background in business, real estate, tort, employment, and Civil Rights law, as a trial attorney, appellate attorney, counselor for entrepreneurs and small businesses, mediator, and arbitrator, gives him some valuable insights into the American legal system. He has litigated a variety of cases in federal and state courts, such as: successfully defending subcontractors in one of the largest construction lawsuits in the State of Washington's history (relating to defective welding of a nuclear containment vessel at Hanford, Washington); successfully representing 19 members of a Rom family in a Civil Rights suit based on an illegal search and seizure (one of the first Civil Rights lawsuits brought by the Rom against a law enforcement agency in U.S.); and, obtaining a leading decision in the State of Washington recognizing the differential impact of a hostile work environment on women in the workplace. He has visited Russia, principally Moscow, more than a dozen times, and greatly looks forward to each new visit."

Philip Webb is an accomplished corporate lawyer, qualified in New York and New Jersey, with nearly three decades of experience in Russia. He has worked at the Moscow offices of several prominent U.S. law firms, advising Russian and international corporate clients on high-profile M&A and other complex transactions. Now in the greater New York area, Philip is Corporate Counsel at Axiom, where his engagements include Interim General Counsel for a leading independent investment bank; In-house Counsel at a leading global financial institution; and Lead M&A counsel for a North American technology company. Throughout his legal career, Philip has been active in teaching various seminars, including on issues of corporate governance and professional responsibility for lawyers. At Pericles, he has taught Professional Responsibility; Business Organizations; and Contract Drafting. Philip received his J.D. and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and has a B.A. from Middlebury College.

John Walsh is a 23-year veteran of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He played a key role in creating the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE), which administers examinations of U.S. registered securities entities. In 2009, he served as OCIE’s acting director and led a massive retraining of examination staff on antifraud techniques. He also worked as chief of a branch of the SEC Division of Enforcement and served as special counsel to a former SEC Chairman. In 2011, Professor Walsh left the SEC and joined Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, a top Washington, D.C., law firm, where he represents securities firms and other clients in compliance and regulatory issues, handling examinations and defending administrative enforcement proceedings. Professor Walsh is a frequent public speaker, lecturing at numerous professional conferences around the United States, and he has also lectured at Georgetown University Law Center, Michigan State University Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, so we are very proud to have him as a visiting professor at Pericles this summer.

Leslie Welter IV graduated from Harvard University in 2003 with a Master of Liberal Arts degree. He has taught English and Literature in the United States and has been teaching English in Moscow since 2013. Besides teaching at Pericles, Professor Welter is the ESL Program Coordinator at the Cambridge International School and tutor for TOEFL, IELTS, and BEC examinations. He loves teaching and strives to make learning as interesting and engaging as possible.

Holger Zscheyge works as an executive in legal and tax publishing in Russia since 1996. First for the local subsidiaries of C.H. Beck (German legal publisher) and Wolters Kluwer (global provider of professional information, software solutions, and services), since 2009 for his own publishing company Infotropic Media.
In 2015, he started to branch out into legal technology as a speaker, event organizer, expert and mentor. Holger is the organizer of Moscow Legal Tech (first legal tech conference in Russia), Legal AI (first conference on AI in the legal domain in Russia), co-organizer of several ELTACons (annual conference of ELTA) and FutureLaw (legal innovation conference in the Baltics) and a frequent speaker on legal tech and innovation at conferences in Germany, UK, Spain, France, Israel, Turkey, Romania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In 2017, he co-founded Moscow Legal Hackers and joined the European Legal Technology Association (ELTA), where he currently serves as member of the board.
Holger works as a mentor for legaltech startups for the Founder Institute and serves as advisor to several legaltech companies.