Pericles ABLE Project - Pericles LL.M. Program

Mission Statement

For the past 10 years Pericles ABLE Project has dedicated itself to giving university students, businesspeople and lawyers, the best possible training and education in Moscow. During this time Pericles decided to look into offering an LL.M. taught in Moscow. Due to business practices becoming more global, lawyers need to have an excellent grasp of not only Russian law but also of Western law. Pericles ABLE Project has, therefore, introduced its two year Master of Laws program. This program took many years to build and a lot of it can be attributed to Pericles’ staff and to representatives of the many of the Western Law firms working here in Russia. These people have enabled Pericles to take the American standard of legal education, bring it to Russia and offer a degree that gives great rewards to our students.

We especially want to thank the law firms of White & Case, and Lebeuf, Lamb, Green & McRae for their generous scholarship support, and Clifford Chance Punder for the use of its facilities and the donation of Professor Bean’s time.

The LL.M. is a second degree in law and is designed to help future lawyers increase their job perspectives upon graduation. Only those lawyers who have already graduated from law school, or those students in their fifth year, are eligible for an LL.M. at Pericles. The Pericles LL.M. program is a two year program with courses offered mostly at nights and on weekends.

In order for to receive an LL.M. degree, you must complete 36 units of courses over a two-to-three year period. These courses are broken down into core courses and elective courses. Core courses are those courses that students have to take in order to graduate, whereas elective courses are those courses that you can choose based on the area of law in which you want to work after graduating.

In setting the LL.M. curriculum, Pericles has worked closely with American and West European law firms and companies operating in Russia. The curriculum is designed to teach the skills and knowledge that those law firms want to see in their associates and which those companies want to see in their in-house counsel and in the law firms they retain. Thus, the main aim of the program is to make Pericles LL.M. graduates competitive for the top legal jobs in Russia. Many graduates might also be able to qualify to practice law in the United States after this degree, but we advise that those whose main aim is to practice in the U.S. should consider studying in the U.S. rather than studying abroad. If you intend to practice law in the United States, please also read carefully the section at the end of this booklet entitled Information on Bar Examinations.

The Pericles LL.M. program is mandated to provide practical legal education. As such, most of our law professors have experience working in the international legal arena, in Russia and elsewhere.

You will need to submit the application package to be admitted into the LL.M. program. The following is a list of items necessary to be submitted before you will be considered:

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Academic Calendar Spring 2008

If Applying for Spring 2008: Below you will find the timetable for applying, registering and other important information regarding our program deadlines.

Nov. 10, 2008: Deadline for submission of online application and 1000 ruble application fee. Applications that are submitted without complete information should be accompanied by a written request for extra time, and the student should submit the completed version of the application by Nov. 19, 2007.

Nov. 14 , 2008: Deadline for continuing students to select courses and pay a 3000 ruble non-refundable deposit on coures selected.

Nov. 19 , 2008: New applicants should take an admissions test.

Nov. 21, 2008: Deadline for completion of applications that were submitted without all necessary information.

Dec. 05 , 2008: Deadline for completion of financial aid.

Dec. 15, 2008: Deadline for new students to select courses and pay the 3000 ruble non-refundable deposit on courses selected. (Balance of payment is due one week before the start date of the course unless a financial aid agreement specifies otherwise).

Dec. 19, 2008: Deadline for application of students sponsored by participating law firms and companies.

Jan. 15-16, 2009: Orientation days (meetings and study sessions).

Jan 19 , 2009: First day of classes.

March 2-8, 2009: Spring semester mid-term break

April 18, 2009: Last day of classes.

April 23-30, 2009: Examination days for all full semester courses.

If Applying for Fall 2008: Below you will find the timetable for applying, registering and other important information regarding our program deadlines.

July 14, 2009: Deadline for submission of online application and 1000 ruble application fee. Applications that are submitted without complete information should be accompanied by a written request for extra time, and the student should submit the completed version of the application by July 23, 2008.

July 22, 2009: Deadline for completion of applications that were submitted without all necessary information.

July 31, 2009: Deadline for continuing students to select courses and pay a 3000 ruble non-refundable deposit on coures selected.

August 14, 2009: Deadline for new students to select courses and pay the 3000 ruble non-refundable deposit on courses selected. (Balance of payment is due one week before the start date of the course unless a financial aid agreement specifies otherwise).

August 21, 2009: Deadline for enrolment of students sponsored by participating law firms and companies.

Once you have officially received an acceptance letter from Pericles, you may register for the courses that are being offered for that given semester. The average number of courses that you can take during any one semester is three. But you may take more or less depending on your working schedule and graduation timetable. After deciding which course(s) you want to take, you then need to pay a 3000 ruble deposit per course to reserve a seat for that course. Due to the demand on certain courses it is highly recommended that you apply as early as possible for each course in order to guarantee yourself a place. There is a 1000 ruble discount for each course that is fully paid on or before the deadline date for course selection.

You must complete 36 units of courses over a two to three year period, with a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 or above (on a scale of 0-4) in order to earn the degree. All Core Courses must be completed with a grade of 2.0 or above. Most of you will finish core courses within the first year of the program. Sixteen units of elective courses must be chosen from among the courses listed below. Elective courses may be taken at Pericles or at approved American law school programs. Although not all these courses will be available each year, best efforts will be made to provide those courses which you find most interesting. Below you will find a list of Core Courses and Elective Courses that you can take at Pericles, as well as Elective Courses that you can take at other participating universities.

Core Courses: you are required to take these seven courses in order to graduate and receive an LL.M. degree from Pericles. You are required to take Legal Writing I and Intro to American Law in your first semester. You are required to take Legal Writing II in your second semester.

Elective Courses Offered By Pericles: You may choose from among these courses, and such additional special courses as may be offered from time-to-time.

Elective Courses Through the University of San Diego: Every year, around April, the University of San Diego, in cooperation with Pericles, offers roughly 15 scholarships to Russian lawyers and law students to study in Europe and Russia. The scholarship will pay all except $500 of your tuition bill. The cities that you can study at are Barcelona, Spain; Dublin, Ireland; Oxford, England; London, England; Florence, Italy; Paris, France; and Moscow/St. Petersburg, Russia. The USD Summer Scholarship application form, is available on our website www.pericles.ru/able. This is a competitive scholarship, therefore, points are awarded based on exam results, financial need, previous awarding of scholarship, and employment. Non-LL.M. students are also invited to apply. Most courses taken in the University of San Diego program can be used towards your Pericles LL.M. degree, and we highly recommend that our LL.M. students take advantage of this opportunity to study alongside American and European law students. Below you will find some of the courses offered by the University of San Diego in the previous years:

Legal English- This course is designed to enhance speaking and writing abilities of law students, practicing lawyers, and other legal professionals. The focus of this course is on Anglo-Saxon legal terminology and principles. However, there is a heavy concentration on business law topics. You can expect to cover topics such as Sources of Law, Torts and Crimes, Contract Law, and Commercial Paper. If you wish to take this course your English should be upper intermediate, as this course is also used to help give you the necessary English practice to allow you to study in advanced level courses. The results of your Pericles LL.M. entrance exam, as well as your personal statement will decide whether or not you have to take Legal English before taking courses in Pericles LL.M. Program. Many students take Legal English before applying to the LL.M. program in order to be better prepared for the entrance exam.

Accounting for Lawyers-In this course you will study the financial reporting and accounting rules and concepts that a savvy lawyer needs to address legal questions in a business environment; but we will do this without the extensive number crunching practice that you might find in a B-school accounting class. We will also analyze several important accounting issues that have legal implications, including: accurate presentation of financial statements; detecting financial fraud; auditors' responsibility and liability; and the extent of accountant-client privilege.

American Constitutional Law–This course is designed for foreign lawyers studying the American constitution. It is a shortened version of courses taken by American law students. The focus will be on constitutional law issues affecting business, and as such the “Commerce Clause” of the US constitution will be studied in detail. The course will also touch on issues of human rights: right to privacy, equal protection and discrimination, and free speech. To the extent possible, comparitive constitutional law issues will be brought into the discussion, including comparisons with the developing Russian constitutional law.

Business Organizations- Ever wonder what Enron & Worldcom did wrong? In this course you will become familiar with the organization and operation of modern business forms. Sole proprietorships, general partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and closed and open corporations will all be explored, but the emphasis will be on American corporations and their principles of corporate governance. We will examine the roles of directors and officers in a corporation and will look at corporate charters, by-laws and annual reports. At the same time we will touch on issues such as capitalization, takeovers, and regulation of securities.

Commercial Law–Intensive concentration on the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code. Students will study UCC sales of goods contracts, leases and finance leases, and also the more complex aspects of the UCC–specifically Article 3, negotiable instruments, and Article 9, secured transactions. Students will learn negotiable instruments concepts of negotiation and transfer, holder in due course, and warranties of transfer and presentment. In secured transactions students will examine security agreements, purchase money security interests, perfection of interests and rules of priority. The course will also touch on bulk sales, documents of title, and letters of credit.

Contract Drafting– Contract Drafting takes the skills learned in Contract Law and puts them to practical application. How do you avoid drafting an offer when you don’t want the counter party to accept with a simple “yes”? How do you handle “battles of the forms”? What is the distinction between drafting a condition and drafting a warranty? How do you write an effective force majeure clause? You will answer these and other questions in this class. At the same time you will improve your use of operative language. Those subtle distinctions between “and” and “or” or “shall” and “will” can make a world of difference to your client. Last but not least, you will practice the advanced word processing skills that make contract drafting more efficient–creating form contracts, cross referencing, commenting, etc. There is no final exam in this course, instead you write a final “form contract” which you will then exchange with other students to give every class participant an initial library of contracts for the future.

Contract Law- This course has a heavy concentration on American common-law of contracts. You can expect to study formation and enforceability, as well as remedies for non-performance and breach. Since common-law jurisdictions such as the United States, Canada and Great Britain develop rules governing contract law on a case-by-case basis, we will study how these rules are formed and shaped, and their relationship to the Uniform Commercial Code.

Evidence & Civil Procedure–This course combines two of the most important U.S. law school courses into a shortened version designed for foreign students. The concentration will be on protection of an international client in the U.S. litigation system rather than on the detailed rules of litigating a case yourself. To this end students will study the relevance of evidence, the hearsay rule, the admissibility of business records, and the discovery process. At the civil procedure end, the course will focus on jurisdiction over litigants, choice of forum and on tracing complex business litigation through the trial process. In some semesters the professor may use the materials from the Civil Action case–the complex environmental tort litigation which was turned into the popular movie.

Intellectual Property Law–This course focuses on American intellectual property law, but with comparative attention to international law. There are four sections: 1) trademark and unfair competition law, including extra-territorial protection of marks, protection of personality interests of celebrities, parallel importation, dilution, trade dress and industrial designs and design patents; 2) copyright and neighboring rights, including, compilations and databases, computer program and multimedia products, moral rights, neighboring rights and the balance between copyright and user interests; 3) intellectual property issues of the internet and information technologies; and, 4) patent and trade secret protection, including corporate compliance, misuse theories, non-competition and non-disclosure agreements, and patenting innovations in biotechnology and other new frontiers.

International Business Transactions–This course treats the term “business transactions” in the broad sense, to also include some study of what many experts more narrowly term “trade.” The course will trace international transactions from the simplest international sale and transport of goods, up through licensing and franchising, and into foreign direct investment. While the course will touch on standard private international law issues such as choice of law and forum, the concentration will be on business and legal areas less studied in Russian law schools: U.S. national laws such as the foreign agents registration, foreign corrupt practices acts, and the Jackson Vanick amendment; international and regional organizations assisting trade and investment such as the EU, NAFTA, Bretton Woods and the WTO systems; export and import regimes; the CISG and various international transport regimes; the use of documentary credits in international trade; and the international trading environments of selected foreign countries.

Intro to the American Legal System & American Business Law- This course is designed to fill the gap that you might experience by attempting to study American law in Moscow. You will start by examining the American court system, American system of legal education and American private law practice. From there you will progress to studying the constitutional environment of business, and to overviewing business law in the United States. Depending on the interests of the class , the course may examine–contracts, torts, negotiable instruments, secured transactions, bankruptcy, property, agency and partnership, and corporations. To the extent possible, we will include guest speakers from among American government officials, American judges and private lawyers. Mock trials and other demonstrations may also be included. As a survey course, this material is also appropriate for students who are not yet ready to enter the full LL.M. program.

Intro to European Union Law– This course surveys the framework of the European Union, its lawmaking and policy making institutions, and its basic treaties–it’s “Constitutional Law” so to speak. From the political point of view, you will examine European expansion and integration and their effects on economic and political relations with Russia and the rest of the world. From the legal viewpoint the class will discuss substantive law provisions regarding the free movement of goods, services and people, and issues of competition. You will also investigate the process of obtaining remedies within the European court system.

Legal Ethics- The purpose of this course is to analyze provisions controlling attorneys’ behavior within private legal practice. In many cases these provisions are not clearly defined; in which case we will undertake in-depth discussions in order to decide the best way to understand these provisions. Some of the topics we will discuss are Lawyer-Client Relationship, Confidentiality, Competence, Diligence and Unauthorized Practice, and Conflicts of Interest.

Legal Writing I- This course is designed to teach practicing lawyers, advanced law students and other legal professionals to organize and write law office memoranda and client letters. We will explore differences in writing for common law versus civil law environments, will learn the parts of a legal memorandum, will practice the basic “IRAC” technique of legal writing, will study and practice logical organization in legal writing, and will improve sentence and paragraph structure in your legal writing.

Legal Writing II- This course continues building upon the skills that you learned in Legal Writing I, but this time the emphasis is on foreign legal research. While there are very few reading assignments for the class, you can expect considerable research and writing practice. You will learn Lexis & Westlaw research techniques and will examine sources of law in the U.S., England and Canada. You will prepare legal memoranda on closed and open universe problems in American law. This course also builds oral skills with presentation practice and discussion.

Negotiations–Concentrating mainly on business, rather than diplomatic, negotiations, this course provides thorough and professional practice in business negotiations. It is designed to introduce you to negotiation tactics and strategy. It teaches how to prepare, how to identify acceptable negotiated solutions and best alternatives, and how to deal with difficult negotiators. The concentration here is on practice and experience rather than just on theory. As successful negotiation is partly psychology, students will be psychologically profiled and teamed with and against people of varying personality types in numerous hypothetical negotiations that take place throughout the course. This course is very useful both for those involved in negotiations on a daily basis and for recent graduates planning their careers in business law. In some semesters foreign students and business students will be invited, and then the course will emphasize International Negotiations for Lawyers.

Securities Regulation–While this course covers mainly U.S. regulation of the securities market, attention is given particularly to international securities transactions, and the course may touch on regulation of the other major securities markets–the EU and Japan. The course will cover the regulation of the U.S. market, through the Securities Act of 1933, Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Investment Company Act of 1940, and various acts updating these two main statutes. Issues such as registration and issuance of securities, periodic reporting, insider trading and market manipulation will be addressed. In addition, we will examine ADRs, Regulation S, Eurobonds, and issues such as stock market competition, international asset securitization, and offshore mutual funds.

Taxation (US Domestic & International )- This course surveys U.S. federal income taxation of individuals and corporations. You will acquire a basic knowledge of federal income tax law and learn their way around the Internal Revenue Code, the longest and most complicated statute humanity has ever devised. The course considers when and to whom income is taxable, exclusions from the tax base, deductions, credits, and the tax consequences of property ownership. On the corporate side, we look at the tax consequences of corporate organization, corporate capital structures, distributions to shareholders, redemptions of stock, corporate liquidations and dispositions. Towards the end of the course we will expand on these principles by addressing U.S. and international tax aspects of the cross-border flow of capital and labor. You will learn about the taxation of foreign persons and entities operating within the United States and the taxation of U.S. citizens, and corporations on income derived outside the United States. In addition, tax treaties, the operation of tax havens, foreign tax credits and other special tax regimes and cutting edge issues in taxation will be examined. Russian taxation issues may also be explored to the extent time allows.

Torts–A major consideration for any foreign investor planning to enter the U.S. business environment is that infamous U.S. tort law! Learn the fundamentals of this important area of business law–intentional, negligent and strict liability torts. While all these types of torts will be covered, primary attention will be given to tort problems that commonly affect business, such as defamation torts, intentional interference with contractual or business relationships, respondent superior, malpractice liability, strict products liability, strict liability for ultra-hazardous activities, and industry wide liability concepts. Students will also examine defenses to torts and damages (including the infamous U.S. concepts of pain and suffering and punitive damages). Social and political aspects of tort reform will also be discussed.

Trial Advocacy–Trial Advocacy is a “skills” course, intended to teach students the techniques of effective oral advocacy, that can be used in U.S., international, or Russian tribunals. Students will learn how to uncover and use evidence effectively, how to examine witnesses, how to cross-examine, how to write pleadings, and other persuasive or argumentative documents, and how to present a case effectively before a judge or jury. The concentration is on practice rather than theory. Students will work with hypothetical cases and argue against each other to groups of jurors or judges that are brought in for the course.

WTO Law–This course is often labeled as “International Trade Law” in U.S. law schools, but here we stress the WTO aspect in anticipation of Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization in the near future. Students will examine WTO and GATT rules restraining national trade restrictions, such as tariff and non-tariff barriers, anti-dumping, countervailing duties and safeguard measures, trade in intellectual property (TRIPS), and trade related investment measures (TRIMS). The course will cover the WTO dispute resolution process and will examine actual trade disputes that are making their way through the process. Social issues related to globalization, such as the Doha Development Agenda and how the system manages the relationship between trade and environmental protection, health standards, and human rights will also be addressed.

Gabrielle Akimova obtained her J.D. from the University of Michigan law school in 1996. Prior to that she earned her bachelors in international relations and economics from Brown University in 1993, and studied for one year at the London School of Economics. After obtaining her J.D., Gabrielle worked for four years as the Project Director for the Russian Women Lawyers' Advocacy Project, which works to develop a system of legal advocacy for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault throughout the Russian Federation. Now Gabrielle consults for UNICEF and other organizations on human rights and the rights of women. Gabrielle teaches Legal English, Legal Ethics and other courses in the Pericles LL.M. program.

Elizabeth Ballard graduated with a B.S. degree in journalism (emphasis in News Editorial) with honors from Oklahoma State University and then received her J.D. from the University of Oklahoma . Upon passing the Oklahoma bar in 1994, she began her private practice in civil defense litigation, focusing her practice in the areas of insurance, including bad faith, products liability, automotive litigation, health law, including medical malpractice, and commercial law. Ms. Ballard is also trained in mediation. She most recently worked for the firm of Barkley, Titus, Hills and Reynolds in Tulsa , Oklahoma , before moving to Moscow this Semester. She teaches Legal English, as well as Evidence and Civil Procedure.

Bruce Bean is a well known figure in the Moscow business community. He has a B.A. in international relations from Brown University and his J.D. from Columbia. Bruce practiced law for over 20 years in New York and California before moving to Moscow in 1995 to be managing partner of Coudert Brothers’ Moscow office. He specializes in inbound direct investments, and also handles international transactions for major Russian companies, including equity offerings in the U.S. and U.S.-oriented litigation. Bruce is currently Of Counsel to Clifford Chance and is a Director of the Institute of Corporate Law and Governance. This summer he is a visiting Professor at Columbia University. Bruce taught Business Organizations “The Enron Course” in the Spring of 2003, and upon his return to Moscow he has promised to offer this course once again.

Marian Dent is the Dean of Pericles ABLE Project, and directs the LL.M. program. She graduated from the University of California Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) in 1988. After graduation Marian worked as an associate with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, where she counseled Western businesses trying to operate in Eastern Europe. She then directed the American bar Association Central & East European Law Initiatives office in Moscow for four years before becoming Dean of Pericles. Marian is also an adjunct professor with the University of San Diego law school and teaches International Business Transactions and Legal Writing courses in Pericles LL.M. program. She is a member of the California and Washington D.C. Bars.

Genoveva Gilbert graduated Summa cum laude with a B.A. degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and then went on to complete a Masters in International Management at Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany in 1996. She began a career as a marketing manager for Quality Products in Moscow from 1996 to 1999 before deciding to change paths and go into law. She pursed her legal studies at the University of Arkansas Little Rock Law School where, on a Bowen Scholarship, she completed her Juris Doctor with Honors in 2002. Genoveva is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association and the American Bar Association. She currently teaches Legal Writing II and does style editing for the Pericles Russian Law Letter.

Vladimir Lissniak is the President of ANO Pericles. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute for International Relations School of Law in 1975. In 1991, after years of administrative and diplomatic experience, he started practicing law independently, and, with French backing, founded Pericles, which helped in the creation of a number of companies in Russia and France, participated in the publishing of law books and trained Russian jurists abroad. Vladimir has been advisor to the Moscow Mayor’s office, as well as to the Moscow Regional Government. For the past 8 years, Vladimir has been teaching courses in Banking Law, Law of Non-Profit Organizations and Business and Legal Negotiations at the International Law Institute of the Ministry of Justice. He teaches the Legal Negotiations course at Pericles.

Chris Moore completed a B.S. at California State University Long Beach and worked in accounting before going on to complete his Juris Doctor at the University of California , Davis in 1988. Professor Moore began practicing law with Hoffman, Sabban & Watenmaker before going on to work as a Senior Tax Manager at Ernest & Young in Moscow, and then on to Courdert Brothers in Moscow where he currently works as a Senior Associate. Professor Moore is recognized as a leading authority on international taxation, and has spoken about the topic throughout Russia and Europe . He is a member for the California State Bar. Professor Moore teaches Contracts Law and Tax Law at Pericles.

Antonio Parenti is currently First Secretary at the Delegation of the European Commission in Moscow where he follows the process of accession of Russia to the WTO as well as the macroeconomic and energy questions. Previously he 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 , and teaches WTO Law at Pericles.

Susan Rockwell Hastings College of the Law, University of California, J.D. 1981; The College of William and Mary in Virginia, B.A. 1973; Member of the Pennsylvania Bar and the California Bar (inactive). After graduating from Hastings , Ms Rockwell moved to Pittsburg , Pennsylvania where she worked for the United States Steel Corporation (now USX). There she worked on issues involving transportation and energy matters. She represented US Steel in numerous Public Utility Hearings in many different states as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington D.C. She then worked for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in San Francisco , California . There she focused on governmental affairs, consumer fraud and discovery. Professor Rockwell teaches Introduction to American Law at Pericles.

Bill Roof obtained his B.S. from Florida State University and his J.D. from Emory University “too long ago to be remembered.” In addition to his J.D., Bill also has a CPA and is admitted to the Georgia Bar. Bill has worked for Arthur Young & Co. and Arthur Andersen. However, for the past 12 years he has been in private practice running his own small-business legal and tax consultation in Atlanta, Georgia. A true “internet-age” practitioner, Bill has been commuting between his practice in Atlanta and his second home in St. Petersburg for the past three years. When he is in Moscow he will be teaching Accounting for Lawyers and other courses at Pericles.

Celia Verrier obtained her LL.B. (Canada's equivalent of a J.D.) from the University of Ottawa, graduating cum laude in 1981. She has over three years of experience teaching law at Carleton University and at the University of Windsor, and another five years of experience as a research attorney in commercial litigation at the firm of Genest, Murray, Desbrisay, Lamek. In 1992, Celia moved to Ankara, Turkey, where she worked as a legal officer with the U.N. High Commission for Refugees and with the U.S. Air Force legal unit. She moved with her family to Moscow in 1998, where she has been active in community affairs and where in 2001, she was awarded an LL.M. in Russian Law from the Institute of State & Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with her dissertation on domain name law. Last year Celia obtained an international IP certification from Oxford. She is a member of the Ontario Bar. She teaches Intellectual Property in Pericles’ LL.M. program.

Matthew Roazen received his J.D. cum laude in 1993 from the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where he was an editor of the Temple Law Review and where he clerked for his third-year clinicals in the chambers of a United States District Judge in New Jersey. Prior to his law degree, Mr. Roazen earned a bachelor's and master's degree in Russian. After admission to the bar in 1993, Mr. Roazen was in private practice in the United States and Russia for seven years, most recently with the Moscow office of Salans, and since 2000 has been General Counsel of SUN Group. Although his initial experience was concentrated primarily in commercial litigation and structured lending, Mr. Roazen's practice is now focused on corporate and investment transactions. Mr. Roazen teaches Contract Drafting and Mergers & Acquisitions at Pericles.

Each course in the LL.M. program has a unit value based on the difficulty and number of hours of study. (The unit value of each course in the LL.M. program is listed next to the name of the course on the curriculum list.) As mentioned above, you must study for a total of 36 units, to complete the degree. The price of courses is 10,000 rubles per unit for students who are admitted to the Pericles LL.M. program, and 15,000 rubles per unit for external students. This makes the total cost of the LL.M. degree 360,000, or approximately 90,000 rubles per semester for the average student. Discounts are available for early payment, and some courses are offered at lesser prices, meaning that your cost could be less.

Please note that you can take up to three years to complete the degree, and therefore can take a smaller number of courses at a time if your budget is tight.

Regular Advance Payment - This is when you or your company agree to pay for your LL.M. courses. You should pay a deposit of 3000 rubles per course at the time of registration, with the outstanding balance paid one week before the start of classes. If you decide to pay the entire amount at the time of registration, then you will save 1000 rubles per course.

Student Loan: If you do not have enough money to pay for your courses at the time they start, then you may apply for a student loan through a program offered by Bank Societe Generale Vostok (BSGV).

Deferred Payment: If you are unable to qualify for a student loan you might be able to choose a deferred payment option which splits your payment into thirds. You are required to pay 1/3 a week before classes start, 1/3 at the end of the first month of classes, and 1/3 at the end of the second month. A fee of $50 per unit will be charged for this option. This option is only open for courses that take 12 weeks or longer to complete.

Scholarship - If you do not have enough money to pay for your courses then one way Pericles and our law firm sponsors can help is by offering you a scholarship. Scholarships are available on a competitive basis, considering your needs and academic qualifications, and the total amount of scholarship money that we have available. If you are interested in receiving a scholarship then you are expected to fill out a financial aid form disclosing any source of income as well as any financial obligations you have. At the moment, approximately 50% of our students are receiving full or partial tuition scholarships. No more than 50% of tuition will be covered by scholarships for any students who are working.

Work Study - You may choose this form of financial aid if you are not granted a full scholarship and cannot afford the cost of the course. You are required to fill out a financial aid form for work study as well as for scholarships. If you are awarded work study you will be given the opportunity to pay for your courses by working for Pericles or for non-profit organizations. In rare cases, particularly for students from outside of Moscow, work study may be offered to help you cover living expenses as well as tuition costs.

Currently approximately 1/4 of all U.S. states allow LL.M. graduates to take the bar (professional qualification exam) if you have completed a U.S. based LL.M. program. A few states (including New York and California) will also allow graduates of LL.M. programs in foreign countries to take the bar after an individual evaluation of qualifications. Therefore, after receiving your LL.M. degree from Pericles ABLE many of you should be able to qualify to take the bar and practice law in some U.S. states.

However, we advise you that it will not be as easy to qualify to take the bar exam with a foreign based LL.M. degree as it would be with a U.S. based LL.M. degree. At the time of this writing, the Pericles LL.M. program is only one year old and has not yet graduated a class of students. Therefore no Pericles student has as yet gone through the process of individual evaluation and we have yet to know precisely what will be required from Pericles students from states offering the individual evaluation process. We further advise that the American job market for lawyers is tight and if you want to obtain a job in the U.S. you will be more competitive on the market if you obtain a U.S. based juris-doctorate degree. Finally, states’ admissions rules are constantly changing, and while it is unlikely, there is always a chance that in the future the state in which you want to practice will no longer allow LL.M. graduates to take the bar.

Due to the above, Pericles cannot guarantee ability to take a bar exam to any of its LL.M. graduates. Those of you hoping to take the bar in the United States are advised to check with the particular state in which you want to practice law before beginning the program.