We represent a network of fundamentally independent companies focusing on support and establishment of business relations between Western Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union. As far as reasonable, all companies use a common technological infrastructure and are guided by common operating principles.
Staff
It’s our absolutely conscious decision to have as permanent staff only a small number of employees: today consulting business is so specialized that one would have to hire tens of specialists for provision of legal advice only. However, it’s unlikely that they would work at full capacity all the time. As a result, the unjustified costs would pass on to our clients.
In all countries where the offices of our companies are located, we have a wide network of non-payroll employees. Our regular staff gives instructions to contractors, inspects their work and, if desirable or required, gives them a possibility to contact the client directly.
Using our own resources, we solve only standard tasks in which we have 100% competence (e.g., setting up of companies or labour law; in Russia it is also bookkeeping and tax consulting).
In any case we take full responsibility towards the client, including financial liability.
All regular staff closely cooperates within our group of companies. This means that our employees do not work solely in one place. Mutual support is carried out primarily through Internet and videoconferences. In particular, they have the possibility to work remotely provided that their physical presence in a certain place is not required.
Invoicing
Our pricing is generally based on hourly rates. Each employee registers the time spent for a project. The work of an employee is paid according to an hourly rate corresponding to his/her qualification.
We make offers with a fix price only for standard works where we can estimate the costs, for instance, in case of setting up a company, based on the existing experience.
We ask our new clients to make an advance payment in the amount of the estimated costs for the next 2 months. By the time of exhaustion of the paid advance the client will receive a detailed account of the expenses. If the client decides to continue cooperation with us, we will proceed further with fulfilment of works and upon completion of the next stage will issue an invoice also containing a detailed list of expenses.
If the client cancels the order prior to exhaustion of the advance, of course the remaining amount will be transferred back.
Uzbekistan – a new market with great growth potential
Uzbekistan refers to the Asian states with arguably maximum development potential. It is inhabited with industrious, laborious people committed to order.
There are enough arguments for companies to invest, produce and establish sales organizations in Uzbekistan:
Coming into being of this group of companies is related to the activity of Professor, Doctor of law Karl Eckstein, attorney-at-law and notary.
After graduating from the faculty of law of the Basel University (doctor of law, attorney-at-law and notary) and 2 years of work in the Federal Energy Directorate, in 1982 he moved to Moscow as the head of the Swiss Industrial Consortium. The Consortium was set up within the Swiss Federation of Commerce and Industry “Vorort” (at present “Economesuisse”) and comprised almost all major Swiss conglomerate corporations, such as Nestlé, Sulzer, Bühler Uzwil, Hilti Liechtenstein, etc.
His appointment to the head of consortium was first of all attributed to his good command of the Russian language already at that time (He did his military service in Switzerland as the interpreter of the Russian language).
When M. Gorbachev came to power in 1986 and the Soviet Union saw the revival of a private sector of the economy, many members of the consortium realized that the floodgates to the Russian market would now be open.
They made a decision to work in Russia as independent companies and asked Dr. Eckstein to open for them own representative offices.
In this connection in 1986 Dr. Eckstein left the post of the consortium’s head and founded in Moscow his own company “Eckstein and Partners” which essentially dealt with the issues related to the activity of western companies in the Soviet Union. In 1995, with a view to coordinate actions he founded in Switzerland the company “Dr. Eckstein & Partner AG”. If at first the clients came primarily from the German speaking part of Switzerland, in a short time the clients from Germany and Austria joined in.
For this reason Dr. Eckstein and his friend, colleague, close associate and attorney-at-law Frank Schmieder, who perfectly spoke Russian, founded in 2004 the company Schmieder – Eckstein in Berlin (www.schmieder-eckstein.de).
And when in 2017 the son of his friend Alen Eglon, having a perfect command of English and French, opened in Nice, France, his own law firm, it was also integrated into our group of companies. Since 2022 Alen Eglon is also admitted to the bar in Luxembourg.
In March 2022, we founded another company in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is also called “Eckstein und Partner”. This country was selected not only because the wife of Karl Eckstein, Tumar Uteeva, was born and grew up in Uzbekistan, but chiefly because Uzbekistan has enormous potential for economic growth.
The purpose of activity of this company is the same as 40 years ago in the Soviet Union: support of foreign companies in this huge growing market when concluding contracts and setting up own subsidiaries, opening of representative offices and branches.
Along with the work as the company’s head, Karl Eckstein devoted himself to the development of law in Russia. So, he worked as lecturer at the University of MGIMO
where from 1995 he taught constitutional law and guarantees of fundamental rights and freedoms in administrative procedures. He wrote the first textbook on the guarantees of fundamental rights and freedoms under the Constitution of the RF and the European Convention of Human Rights, which was recognized by the Ministry of Education as an official textbook for teaching in higher educational institutions. In 2001, in recognition of this and other legal publications he was awarded the title of professor.
Since 2005 he delivers guest lectures on a regular basis at various Russian universities.
