Zaira Sarsenova, Partner, GRATA International

The first thing that comes to mind is that we’re a Kazakhstani born company. That makes us different, because in Kazakhstan there’s no other brand, whether in oil and gas, infrastructure, or construction, that has made it internationally the way we have. Most firms here stay limited to the CIS countries or to a handful of markets. GRATA is different because we’re in 27 countries after 34 years, and we’re still expanding, because there’s a clear idea behind that growth. Beyond that, and this may be less unique since the legal world is generally divided into similar categories, what really sets us apart is that we do business together with our clients. Our main idea is to support our clients and grow together with them. That’s the mindset behind every partner, whether we’re consulting, preparing memorandums, drafting contracts, or providing any kind of legal help. It’s what we try to spread everywhere we operate: we’re here to support your business, and we want to grow together with you.

What I’m personally proud of are the multi-jurisdictional projects I get to manage. As a lawyer, you’re normally tied to one country. I have a law degree from Kazakhstan National University and a master’s from a university in the Netherlands, but I can only consult under Kazakh law myself. Having offices across many countries means I sometimes manage projects that span jurisdictions. A client might come to me needing support across several countries at once, and as one person, I give them one reply, but behind that single memorandum there are five, seven, ten offices working simultaneously, each consulting only under their own jurisdiction. They provide their answers, and I consolidate everything to make sure it actually reflects what the client needs, since those offices don’t know the client directly and could easily go in a different direction than expected. When you submit a project like that, you feel satisfied that, as one person based in Kazakhstan, you were able to manage something so large and give a client the full picture across multiple countries, all at the same level of quality. I really love that part of the work.

A lot of it comes down to security. How secure is it to use AI? How much of your data can you safely provide? People agree to terms and conditions in an app without really reading them, and we don’t always know how far that access can go. In practice, though, what we’re seeing is clients sending us requests that have already been analyzed by AI. They’ll send a memorandum AI has prepared and ask us to confirm whether all the references to legal acts are correct. It’s an interesting shift, and of course we use AI in our own work too. Legal services are often described as one of the sectors AI will affect most, and while I don’t think it will destroy the business, we are affected quite significantly by how fast AI is changing. It’s changing every day, every minute, so it’s hard to predict what any industry will look like even a year from now.

I can’t speak for the whole group, but we’re expanding. GRATA International supports clients across essentially any business sector. We started in oil and gas, since that’s Kazakhstan’s core industry, but quickly realized the businesses supporting oil and gas, construction, drilling services, materials, even catering and healthcare, needed support too. That led us to build out expertise across the full range of industries. We now have around 12 business directions: construction, infrastructure, telecom, industry, trade, energy including renewables, mining, and more. For each one, we make sure we have lawyers who specialize specifically in that area, whether that’s knowing which drugs are permitted for a healthcare client or understanding the tax rules specific to that sector. We started by expanding through the CIS countries, then brought on representatives in the UK and US, since those are two of the most legally developed markets, so we could act as a bridge for American and English law firms trying to understand and operate in our region. Twenty five years ago, having a reliable law firm partner in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, or Azerbaijan was a genuinely big deal. From there we expanded into parts of Eastern Europe, and now we’re expanding into Asia, into Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, markets with largely untapped potential in areas like real estate and oil and gas, and with enormous populations compared to Kazakhstan’s twenty million people. Our main goal now is to have a reliable partner, not necessarily an office, but a trusted partner, in every country in the world. Our clients are essentially our extended family at this point. When a client calls and says they need support in a country we don’t have direct experience in, I can’t just find someone quickly and vouch for them. Choosing a lawyer is a lot like choosing a doctor: you can’t afford to get it wrong, because it’s something people treasure, whether that’s their health or their business. So what we’re focused on, and will likely keep focusing on for the long term, is finding reliable partners who have already proven their quality and their principles everywhere in the world, so we can genuinely be helpful to clients no matter where they are. I think it will happen sooner than people expect, maybe within the next five years, given how fast AI and globalization are moving. And once we have those reliable partners in place, it opens the door to working on more projects together, and potentially formalizing that partnership further under the GRATA name. Realistically, for now, the goal is simply to be helpful to our clients everywhere in the world. What are 12 directions today might become 40 down the line.

What matters most is the principles the business is run on. Eighteen years ago in Kazakhstan, it would have been considered a step up to leave and become in house counsel at a large international company, but I never saw that as real growth for me, because GRATA gives me so much room to grow within it, and the freedom to do so. It’s built on a foundation of high quality, and I don’t just mean intellectually sound legal work. I mean quality in the decency of the people themselves. We work with business, with money, with corporate structures and finances, and that requires real decency and an understanding of responsibility. That’s what I respect about GRATA, and it’s what keeps me here. I’m genuinely a fan of my own company. I love what I do, and I like how we do it.