Overview
Law360 covered Steptoe’s New York appellate court success for Russian businessman Leonid Lebedev in an article titled “NY Court Won’t Ax Suit Over Stake in $55B Russian Oil Deal.” On October 4, an appellate court in New York cleared the path for Mr. Lebedev to proceed with his litigation against Leonard Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Lebedev seeks to enforce his contractual rights to receive $2 billion of the proceeds from TNK-BP’s 2013 sale to Rosneft of oil and gas assets in Russia. Mr. Lebedev alleges that Messrs. Blavatnik and Vekselberg received his share of the sale’s proceeds and failed to pay that sum to Mr. Lebedev. The three men were partners in a joint venture that participated in the ownership of TNK-BP. In early 2015, Messrs. Blavatnik and Vekselberg filed a motion seeking dismissal of the New York litigation. The defendants argued without success that the litigation should be dismissed because, they alleged, the key events in this dispute occurred more than 13 years ago.
Michael Miller, a partner in Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s New York office, leads the representation of Mr. Lebedev in this matter, assisted by Tom Dewey of Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky.
Along with Mr. Miller, the Steptoe team includes Evan Glassman, Charles Michael, Leah Quadrino, Jeremy Glen, and Johanna Dennehy.
The full article can be read at Law360 (subscription required).
