In July 2012, a long litigation over a labor dispute with an employee whose position (head of representative office) was displaced in the process of a large foreign company management structure reorganization and who claimed reinstatement in the position and recovery of a significant amount of money from the employer.  The employer's interests were represented by AEQUITAS and Goltsblat BLP team of associates led by Ms. Violetta Kim, AEQUITAS Senior Advisor.

The courts of all levels, including Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan, ruled in favor of the employer. The litigation involved review of many complex theoretical issues: lawfulness of displacing the head of representative office position; entrusting management over representative office with a foreign citizen, whose permanent place of work is a company outside Kazakhstan, in addition to his other duties in the position held at the time of appointment; interpretation of various provisions of civil and labor codes; application of foreign law by Kazakh court when challenging the foreign employer company bodies' decisions; whether engagement of a third person under a civil contract is a sign of putative displacement of position, and other issues of key practical importance.

Upon review of the case in a supervisory procedure, the Supreme Court agreed with the findings of the lower courts that the employee dismissal was lawful, and stated in its resolution that: "Vesting the head of representative office with certain powers and establishing his competence and the scope, form and type of representation are the exclusive rights of a legal entity as an independent subject of legal relations.  Accordingly, defining the form of management, structure of governance and number or personnel and determining the functional duties of the representative office management are the powers of employer in the person of the legal entity not financed by the state."