Real estate and construction practice of Sayenko Kharenko has been very busy lately and its success lured two prominent experts from the market: Svitlana Gurieieva joins as partner and Olena Denisova as senior associate, both from Auchan Retail Ukraine.

Svitlana Gurieieva is an extremely skilled practitioner, with over 20 years of experience both with Ukrainian and international companies. She offers high-end advice on all aspects of commercial real estate matters, ranging from handling complex litigation and high-value M&A projects to compliance, commercial law, and IP issues.

Olena Denisova has vast expertise across the full spectrum of commercial real estate matters, including preparing all types of documents and arrangements, as well as overseeing their implementation, negotiating on landlord’s or tenant’s side, developing risk maps and mitigation techniques, and is well versed across dispute resolution and mortgage matters. Olena has been a part of Svitlana’s team for over 10 years.

Svitlana’s invaluable experience as the Director of Legal Affairs at one of the largest retailers in Ukraine is also expected to bring to the firm the necessary business perspective and understanding of the retail industry. We will help our clients to enter the market, expand their business, and foresee any challenges they may face in the process of doing business in Ukraine. We see the great potential in the Ukrainian land market and any real estate asset-rich business in the coming years.

The recruitment of the team follows a wave of recent significant lateral hires across different practices. Earlier this year, Sayenko Kharenko hired Oleg Samus as partner of GR practice and Peter Teluk, U.S. qualified attorney, as partner specialising in cross-border corporate and compliance matters.

CEO Nazar Chernyavsky comments: “We worked with Svitlana and Olena on various projects and got to know them as brilliant experts with the deep knowledge and understanding of the field. Having them on board will set Sayenko Kharenko apart from other law firms by creating one of the strongest and most business-minded real estate teams in Ukraine. This is why I am absolutely delighted to welcome Svitlana and Olena as the new members of our team.”