Legal Run 2017

From 20 to 27 May 2017, around 5,000 lawyers and their friends from more than 50 cities and 12 countries of the world took part in Legal Run 2017, the unique fundraising project that has been uniting the representatives of the global lawyers' professional community since 2014 to support the Gift of Life, a charitable foundation, and a number of regional foundations.

A record amount of over 5m roubles was raised as part of the Legal Run project in 2017:

• 4.5m roubles were transferred to the Gift of Life Foundation for the treatment and complex surgery operations for 14 children: Dima Nikitin (Khanty-Mansisk), Ksenia Gavrilova (Kursk), Vanya Voylo (Ivnya village, the Belgorod Region),  Guvanch Alidzhanov (Yanghy-Aryk village, Turkmenistan), Sasha Pozhylov (Smolensk), Artem Borodulin (Gryaznoe village, the Ryazan Region),  Stanislav Grigoriev (Naberezhnye Chelny, Tatarstan), Polina Kokh (Khabarovsk), Abdumanon Khamidov (Gozien village, Republic of Tajikistan), Liza Savva (Tiraspol city, Moldova), Innokentiy Persiyantsev (Ivanteevka village, Moscow region), Varya Sukhoruchenko (Moscow), Gleb Melnik (Neftekamsk city, Republic of Bashkortostan), Sofya Ovchinnikova (Aldan city, the Republic of Sakha, Yakutia).

• 350k roubles were raised by lawyers in Yekaterinburg for the Children of Russia, a regional charitable foundation 

• 150k roubles were raised by the Tomsk Legal Run for the Tomsk Alyona Petrova children's foundation, and

• 150k roubles were transferred by lawyers of the Volga Legal Run to the Nizhny Novgorod Oncology Study Centre. 
  

This year witnessed an unprecedented geography of the project - from Blagoveshchensk to London: official runs were held during a week in 14 cities from 20 until 27 May. On 20 May the runs took place in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, Tomsk and Blagoveshchensk, on 24 May there was a run in London, while on 27 May they picked up the slack of the Legal Run in Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Voronezh and Krasnodar. The information on the winners and start lists is available on the pages of appropriate cities on the website of the Legal Run project.

The Global Legal Run events were held in dozens of other cities all over the world: lawyers' flash mobs took place in Russia - from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad - and abroad - from Helsinki to Barcelona; lawyers went to the streets of their cities to run an undefined distance to support the project.

Over 1,000 participants were gathered by the Moscow run, which was for the first time held in the territory of Sokolniki, which with its area of 515.7 ha is the largest park in Moscow and one of the largest in Europe. The run route at distances of 5 and 10 km covered the green outskirts of the park - wide alleys and forest corridors as well as its famous central circle. The highlights of the event included a dancing surprise from the support team of the Legal Run 2017 before the mass start: it was a dancing flash mob of life-size puppets and a concert of VANYN, a music band.

The runs were organised on account of private donations and sponsorship from law firms and other companies. Over 100 Russian and foreign law firms supported the project in different cities in 2017, of which 26 provided financial assistance to the Moscow run: A2, Aronov & Partners, Art De Lex, Bartolius, BEITEN BURKHARDT, BGP Litigation, Westside, Gudkov, Korelskiy, Smolyarzh, DS Law, EPAM, ZKS, KIAP, CLIFF, Com-Unity, Liniya Prava, Linklaters, Nektorov, Savelyev & Partners, Noerr, Ost Legal, RKT, Squire Patton Boggs, Taxology, FBK Pravo, YurPartner, YUST, and Translex legal translation agency.

Over 500 persons worked at the Legal Run project in different cities: organising committees in Moscow and other cities of official runs, lawyers and marketing experts caring about sports and charity, and certainly multiple generous volunteers.