“GIVE US YOUR PROBLEMS:” this is the motto which “AM” Law Firm is guided by. The managing partner of the company Grigor Minasyan believes that the firm distinguishes from other firms in the market by rendering services in all fields of law.
Iravaban.net continues to present to the readers the law firms operating in Armenia. The next guest of the «Armenian law firms» series is the managing partner of “AM” Law Firm Grigor Minasyan.
-Why have you decided to name the firm “AM”?
-We tried to choose such a name which would directly be associated with Armenia. Thus, AM is the official abbreviated name of Armenia.
-Your company was founded in 2012. Therefore it is a short period of operation, whereas the existing law firms are rather numerous. How do you try to distinguish from other existing firms?
-First, I would to like to mention that “AM” exists as a separate company since 2012. Actually, it is a result of a merge of the teams of “Defense” and “Lex Partners” Law Firms which had been operating in this field for more than ten years. The distinguishing feature of our firm is that we render services in all branches of law. Since 2013 we have started rendering accounting services as well. Thus, clients address us since we do our best to solve the problem completely.
-How was the idea of the merger of two teams created?
-Such mergers often take place in worldwide practice as a result of which the quality of rendered services essentially improves. Such happened in our case as well. This merger helped to enhance the quality of services rendered by us and to have a more specialized staff. The merge somehow was the desire of our clients as well.
-Based on your website we can say that you have quite a big team. How do you choose your employees? What are the main criteria which are prerequisites for working in “AM” Law Firm?
-We choose the staff through a rather long procedures established by the labor rules. That is, the filtration of the candidates is rather complex. While choosing, we firstly pay attention to the high level of specialization and also how the given person studied at a higher educational institution. Afterwards the person shall pass the probation period and is evaluated by a superior employee. Moreover, we also have a corresponding board where all our chief legal advisers are involved in. They decide by voting whether the given employee corresponds to the requirements of the firm or not.
-How do you carry out the trainings of the employees?
-The new employees pass their tarinings in a form of probation. In case of old employees, we try to organize the work in a way which allows them to visit our partner organizations in European countries and get acquainted with local practices.
-The firm separates two types of service rendering: Corporate offer and Business consulting. Please present each of those in more details.
-Corporate offer is applied when the company addresses us and fully entrusts its legal issues to us. In this case, while not having a position of a lawyer, the company may still effectively perform all of its functions in regard to law via our firm.
We have started conducting business consulting serves since 2013. The company which has procedural issues, namely from the moment of accepting the client till rendering the services thereto, applies to us for the purposes of discovering, evaluating and consulting on their problems. We offer the best model which raises both the profitability and the quality of the services of the company.
-You also execute Pro Bono works. How do you organize those?
-Pro Bono is the work carried out on public grounds. The board of the company chooses a certain number of cases for the citizens unable to pay and renders services for free. From approximately ten cases the board chooses those cases of the individuals that must be rendered on pro bono basis. I believe that the profession of a lawyer is obliging morally as well. People who apply to our firm shall be aware that they can get high-quality legal consultation not only by paying us.
-Do you cooperate with foreign law firms?
-There are many law firms both in Russia and European countries that we cooperate with. We also cooperate with famous American law firm “Baker & McKenzie” which is a leading firm in the field of legal services.
– In your opinion what are the perspectives of the development of advocacy in the Republic of Armenia?
-The obstacles are quite objective. People are used to applying to an attorney instead of applying to a firm. And this is the first problem. However changes are noticeable over the time. People gradually understand that it is more beneficial and literate to apply to a firm and get more professional services. I believe the problems will be solved once firms try to raise their ranking by rendering high-quality legal services.
-What success stories have you had during your practice?
-The most successful stories for us are those when the clients apply to us after having applied once or advise their relatives and friends to receive our services. It is also pleasant when the clients apply to us not at the very last stage of a serious problem but in the cases when our work shall be of preventive nature, i.e. we help to avoid problems in the future.
-What are the company’s future plans?
-To maintain what we have reached so far. We want to open an office in the region in 2015. We are currently carrying out preparative works for understanding which of the regions is in need of our services the most. We also aim to expand our foreign partners. We will try to raise the ranking of Armenia by our professional activities so that Armenia is also associated with a country rendering high-quality legal services.
The company has had a vacancy of an attorney for almost a month. Our guest states with a surprise that the applications received are few: “We are surprised why the lawyers with the license of an attorney prefer to work alone. The worldwide experience shows that the services rendered by individual lawyers are less qualitative than those rendered by a team of lawyers”.
Arev Avagyan
