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The key trend affecting every aspect of business and commercial legal practice in Belarus is the liberalisation of its economy and the accompanying, rapid overhaul of the legislative framework. "We are seeing changes made every single day, including changes in the legislation that we could only dream of before – you can now establish a company in one day," says a local partner....

The key trend affecting every aspect of business and commercial legal practice in Belarus is the liberalisation of its economy and the accompanying, rapid overhaul of the legislative framework. "We are seeing changes made every single day, including changes in the legislation that we could only dream of before – you can now establish a company in one day," says a local partner.

This puts the legal market on new ground, both for foreign firms that have seen opportunities in the last market in the region to be opened up, and for local firms that will be forced to reconsider their positions in the market.

Foreign players Sorainen, Magisters, Glimstedt and Cerha Hempel have now all formally set up offices, putting pressure on the traditional leaders Borovtsov & Salei and Vlasova Mikhel & Partners. "It was easy for traditionally strong local firms to dominate the market when there was no international competition ... we would be very surprised if we saw these two firms still dominating," says a foreign partner.

As one local partner affiliated to a foreign firm says, local firms "do not feel confident enough to raise prices and do some proper marketing". A local partner of another foreign firm agrees: "They are trying to keep their place, but looking at the legal fees it is not looking so good ... some of the bills are not being paid by clients and this is not good to develop business."

On the other hand, local expertise is a valuable advantage given the complexities of the country's legal framework. As one client puts it: "The market is complicated because of the multiplicity of regulations and legislation. It is not stable; politically it is stable but not in law – the legislation is changing, there are a lot of regulations, government decrees, resolutions, and the state is very strict in following their rules." These complexities are exacerbated by the speed of recent changes. "Someone plans to invest something in the country and six months later the laws have changed," says one partner. "It is hard to keep up with them."

Although partners across the board acknowledge that the global financial slowdown has stemmed the flow of work coming in, especially in M&A transactions and syndicated loans, the political stability, anticipated privatisations, combined with the removal of restrictive laws such as the state golden share rule, are seeing Belarus develop into an attractive prospect for emerging market investors.