On October 30, 2023, Sayenko Kharenko announced that its Partner and Head of IP Yaroslav Ognevyuk would leave the team at the end of the month, to continue practicing law at his own firm.
Practicing IP law for almost 30 years, Ognevyuk spent the last five with Sayenko Kharenko. Before that, he spent over 12 years with Doubinsky & Osharova, from 2006 onwards. Earlier, he spent two years between 2004 and 2006 as the Chief of the Litigation Division of the Patent Office of Ukraine. He started his career as an in-house Lawyer with the Educational Book publishing house in 2002.
After Ognevyuk’s departure, the Sayenko Kharenko IP practice will remain under the overall leadership of Partner Nazar Chernyavsky, together with the heads of individual practice areas Counsel Oleg Klymchuk and Senior Associate Volodymyr Hrunskyi.
"As part of a constructive discussion, we have agreed that splitting up the legal business is currently the best option for both parties," Ognevyuk commented. "Conflicts do not affect our decision. It is aimed at further development and considers the interests of all."
"We understand that this decision will give Yaroslav more flexibility to realize his ambitions and experiment with different legal products," Chernyavsky added. "At the same time, we have agreed to continue our cooperation in matters where Yaroslav’s clients in the new firm will need the expertise of other Sayenko Kharenko practices or vice versa. For almost five years of working together, we have established an effective implementation of complex, interesting, and non-standard projects that require the involvement of specialists in various fields of law."