Paul Melling

Background

Paul Melling was born in England. Admission as a solicitor placed him within the English legal profession, a branch of the law in which practitioners are formally admitted by the courts before practising.

Education

Melling studied at Worcester College, Oxford, and received a Master of Arts from Oxford University in 1982. Worcester was founded in 1714 through a bequest from Sir Thomas Cookes, on the site of Gloucester College, a Benedictine institution that had existed from the late thirteenth century until the dissolution of the monasteries. The college had become coeducational in 1979, a few years before Melling completed his degree.

Career

Melling was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England in 1982. He worked as a partner of TETHER before turning to the former Soviet Union, where his career developed.

In January 1989 he opened the Moscow office of Baker McKenzie, a firm founded in Chicago in 1949. Baker McKenzie was among the first Western law firms to operate in Moscow and was reportedly the first to obtain accreditation from Soviet authorities. The Moscow opening took place as the Soviet Union became more open to Western business, and in 1993 the firm's partners set up a subsidiary to handle work in former Soviet republics under the name Baker & McKenzie CIS.

In 1995 he opened the firm's Almaty office in Kazakhstan, and he is described as a founding partner of the Moscow and Almaty offices. He later founded and led the firm's compliance and investigations group in Moscow. He also served as honorary legal adviser to the British Ambassador to Russia, and his practice centred on multinational companies in pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

In 2022 Baker McKenzie's Russian operations became the independent firm Melling, Voitishkin & Partners, which the international firm described as its preferred law firm in Russia. The firm credits Melling as the founder of its Moscow office. He later announced his last working day in the legal profession.

Achievements

• Opened the Moscow office of Baker McKenzie in January 1989, a firm that presents itself as the first international law firm to open an official representative office in the USSR.

• Opened Baker McKenzie's Almaty office in 1995, extending the firm's practice across the former Soviet republics.

• Founded and led the compliance and investigations group of Baker McKenzie in Moscow.

Membership

Melling is a member of the Advisory Council of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, a bilateral business body that promotes commercial links between the United Kingdom and Russia.

• Member of the Advisory Council

  Russo-British Chamber of Commerce , Russia

Connections

Collegue :

Sergei Voitishkin

Managing partner of Melling, Voitishkin & Partners, the Moscow law firm whose name includes both partners' surnames.

References

• Global Investigations Review, Paul Melling author profile Author profile describing Melling as an English solicitor who has spent his entire professional career working in the countries of the former USSR, including the opening of Baker McKenzie's Moscow office in 1989.
• Melling, Voitishkin & Partners, About Us The firm's history page identifies Melling as the British lawyer who founded the Moscow office of Baker McKenzie and describes the firm's origins in 1989 and its 2022 independence.