Laura M. Brank, the head of Dechert's Russia Practice, has been acting for domestic and multinational clients on matters throughout Russia and the CIS since 1995, supervising major local and cross-border M&A, joint venture, and syndicated, corporate, and project finance transactions. She is listed as a leading lawyer in Russia for corporate/M&A, banking and finance, and mining by Chambers.

Fluent in Russian, "lauded for her strategic thinking and astute business acumen," and "a skilled manager of deals and resources" (Chambers Global(2009)), Ms. Brank formerly headed the Russia & CIS Practice of another international law firm and was managing partner of its Moscow office for 11 years. She has been recognized by Russia Journal Almanac as one of the top 75 foreign executives in Russia and by Who's Who for her work in energy, banking and finance, and corporate and commercial law. She is highly recommended by PLC Which Lawyer? for project finance, corporate/M&A, and banking: lenders and borrowers. She is listed as a leading lawyer in Russia for corporate and M&A in The Legal 500 EMEA (2010), which noted the client citation that "Laura Brank provides 'excellent service as always'", and also inBest Lawyers (2009). She has been listed in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Project Finance Lawyers (1999-2009) and its Guide to the World's Leading Energy & Natural Resources Lawyers since 2003. Along with just eight other lawyers, she was also listed in the corporate section of The Lawyer's Hot 100 survey, 2010, a list of 100 lawyers to have excelled in their field during 2009. The survey described her as "one of the best-known ... and best-connected lawyers in the [Russian] market."