Sometimes temporary challenges and tough times have the opposite or rather positive effect on our lives, provide an opportunity for gaining valuable experience and motivate us to keep moving forward! This is what happened on a professional development path of Nino Keinashvili, when the director of NNLE “My Lawyer” dismissed her from her job on the ground of an illegal order. At that time, Nino held the position of the head of one of the district offices in Tbilisi. It is probably natural that the defender of other people’s rights would not tolerate unlawfulness in her personal case either, that is why she initiated a labor dispute and successfully concluded it. And this whole story became an inspiration for Nino to found her own law firm – and this is how the “Legal Advisors Bureau” was established in 2017.
Nino Keinashvili has already 12 years of experience in the legal field, she is a general specialization lawyer. When choosing a profession, personal qualities played a decisive role. The ability to voice her opinion boldly and confidently, the desire to properly know her own and others’ rights always pushed Nino towards the profession of lawyer.
“Constitution of Georgia and human rights studied as subjects during school was one of the inspirations for me to learn how to correctly interpret the law and apply it in practice. In the end, my goal was to protect human rights with the knowledge I gained.”
Nino’s first steps in the labor market starts with her practicum and internship experiences in various private and public institutions, including Tbilisi City Hall, where her primary task was working on procedural documents and providing consultations to the citizens on various legal issues. Simultaneously and a while later, our respondent provided private legal services to individuals and legal entities, worked in the notary office and in a court, too. In 2014, Nino started working in the Business Register of the National Agency of Public Registry (NAPR).
“Two years spent in this administrative body and working in different departments gave me an opportunity to gain vast experience in studying the legal needs of companies.”
As I mentioned at the beginning of the interview, after the successful completion of the personal labor dispute, Nino founded her own legal company, which has been successfully operating in the labor market of Tbilisi and Batumi for the seventh year. “Legal Advisors Bureau” already has offices in both cities and the company employs both civil-administrative and criminal attorneys and lawyers.
“The main direction of the company is delivering corporate client services. Currently, our office provides corporate legal services to successful companies in the local market, as well as to several international companies. The field of activity of our clients is diverse, beginning with the construction and development business, continuing with the information-technological field, pharmacy business, hotel and restaurant chain, retail trade and many others. Corporate clients are served by lawyers assigned to them on ongoing cases, although cases are considered as a team, therefore, not only individual lawyers work for the client, but the entire bureau. The company’s activities also include individual litigation in various legal fields. In this direction, our clients are both natural persons and legal entities”.
Nino’s main task is to take care of the company’s development. This includes planning and supervising the implementation of administrative matters, as well as ensuring the acquisition of new clients. As the clients of Nino Keinashvili’s “Legal Advisory Bureau” include international companies, the founder of the legal bureau often has to make work visits to different cities of Georgia and abroad.
“Many years of work experience have equipped me with the relevant skills and expertise necessary to successfully deal with professional challenges. These are, for example, hard work and teamwork skills, being detail-oriented and demanding the same from employees, constant communication with both clients and my team. Also, a proper system of reporting and evaluation of the past period in our office ensures that any professional obstacle is effectively handled. In accordance with the specifics of our team’s activities, daily monitoring of legislative updates and court practice keeps us ready for all challenges. In this way, clients have information in advance about the legislative changes that are still in progress and expected, as well as about the potential impact and expected risks of these amendments.”
Nino Keinashvili runs a legal company together with her husband, Davit Msakhuradze. David holds the position of the company’s director, so his duty is to lead the employees on a daily basis, distribute cases, communicate with clients and conduct the current administrative affairs of the company. Davit and Nino, as practicing lawyers, have the appropriate licence and therefore provide representation in cases of certain categories and complexity up to now, both in court and in other institutions.
“As for all other cases, running a joint business by spouses has both advantages and some minor disadvantages. At the same time, we both agree that the benefits far outweigh any difficulties. At such a time, maintaining a balance between business and personal relationships is crucial, therefore as spouses we have pre-set the rules to ensure that balance is maintained – it is important to separate business and personal relationships, they should be mutually reinforcing and not hindering factors, which I think we are successfully managing. We do not have clearly defined roles in business relationship. We try to always support each other in any matter and help each other with advice and active involvement. Furthermore, there is certain subordination and teamwork in the workplace, which helps us to make a decision if there are different opinions on the matter, so that the work process becomes more flexible. Among the advantages, I would highlight the fact that, like all people, we also have our strengths and weaknesses, and knowing the areas of expertise of each other helps us to better define an action strategy and choose the best option for action. Nino’s legal profession is complemented by a master’s degree in business administration, so along with legal activities and office management, she participates in determining the strategy and future directions of our company“, – Davit Msakhuradze.
The Georgian marketplace is quite saturated with the companies delivering legal services, for that reason we are interested in by which means Nino’s Legal Bureau gains a competitive advantage in such a crowded business environment. In response to the question, our respondent offers several arguments – protecting the client’s interests as a priority and offering qualified legal advice quickly and efficiently.
“Our law firm itself creates a legal department for corporate clients, also provides appropriate assistance to clients with ongoing cases, and ensures that they have a lawyer or lawyers assigned to them. We have another direction as well; in particular, we provide respective legal supervision to the lawyers already employed by the clients. Our approach is to adapt as much as possible to the specifics of the company’s activities and needs in order to provide fast, efficient and continuous legal support to clients. The long-term and diverse experience of our law firm and its employees gives us the opportunity to meet the highest standards of service existing in the legal labor market. All the above mentioned creates our company’s identity necessary to establish itself in the market and gain a competitive advantage.”
You will probably agree that providing such a level of service requires high qualifications, and the competitive environment needs constant qualification upgrading. Therefore, Nino’s main task is to maintain a consistently high level of performance. For that purpose she participates in relevant activities, trainings and meetings. In addition, Nino Keinashvili is a member of the Administrative Law Committee of the Georgian Bar Association. Actively participates in the work of the committee, one of the goals of which is to identify existing gaps in practice and develop proposals for improving the legislation.
“As a new step of career development, I also decided to add a new profession and get a master’s degree in business administration. With this aim, I was studying in England, at the University of York and in France, at the University of Strasbourg. The Master of Business Administration helped me to understand issues that are very close to the legal profession and are a daily part of companies’ activities. During my studies, I focused on subjects such as the art of negotiation in business, corporate financial management, financial reporting and accounting, information and especially big data management, leadership and management, strategy formulation and business decision-making, open collaboration tools for European business and sustainable society, operational and supply chain management, understanding organizational behavior, developing market presence. Working in the research direction on all these subjects helped me a lot in conducting financial disputes, as well as in identifying and finding ways to solve legal problems in relevant companies.”
From the very beginning, Nino has defined the priority of the client’s interests as the main task of her personal professional and company’s activity, which implies conscientious, timely and perfect legal support for clients. All lawyers of the bureau know that their duty is to clearly follow the code of ethics and, first of all, provide the client with detailed and written consultation about their rights.
“Only after going through this stage in detail, we start cooperating with the client, and as a result, the client always trusts us.”
Hard work and the desire for constant development are Nino Keinashvili’s formula for professional success. A detailed study of the case, processing of the arguments and evidence that the opposing party can present helps our respondent to best protect the interests of the client, because as a result of this approach, she is ready for any anticipated objection.
“At the very beginning of my legal career, I was focused on honest and complete consultations with clients; As a result, in several cases the client solved the legal problem on their own. Such approaches have gathered a group of clients around me. With their recommendations new clients have been contacting me for years and putting their trust in me.”
The nearest plans of the “Legal Advisors Bureau” include the opening of a new office in Tbilisi. The company plans to add auditory services to its services soon. Along with the expansion of the range of services, the company plans to hire new personnel, and in accordance with the increased demand in the Batumi market, the expansion of the Batumi office is also planned.
“Considering various factors, the near future will bring innovation and growth for our bureau. We have planned large-scale events in the company and we expect that there will be a high interest in our bureau in the market.”