Darya Zatonova

Education and scientific activity

Graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg State University (Bachelor's degree, Master's degree in Civil Procedure and Arbitration, postgraduate studies).

She is an associate professor at the Department of Civil Procedure at St. Petersburg State University, and conducts research and teaching activities.

In 2023, Daria, under the scientific supervision of M.Z. Schwarts, successfully defended her thesis for the degree of Candidate of Law on the topic: "Civil liability of the court expert", specialty 12.00.15 "Civil procedure, arbitration process".

Her research interests include forensic examination, evidence and proof.

Work experience and practice

She began her practical work under the guidance of M.Z. Schwarts, and for more than 8 years now, the Bureau's clients have trusted her to protect their interests.

Daria Zatonova has extensive experience representing clients in the courts of the Russian Federation on a wide range of issues, including corporate, customs, antitrust, real estate, bankruptcy, and construction contract disputes.

Daria was repeatedly involved in the preparation of legal opinions on complex issues of procedural and substantive law at the request of commercial organizations, as well as for the St. Petersburg State University Center of Expertise.

Among Daria's most significant and successful projects are:

• judicial challenge of the decision and the order of the antimonopoly authority on the need to return cultural heritage objects transferred to trust management to the Committee of Property Relations of St. Petersburg in connection with violation of the conditions for granting state preferences.;
• the peaceful resolution of a major corporate conflict that lasted for more than 5 years and included more than 25 interrelated arbitration cases (the amount of mutual claims of the parties is over 700 million rubles);
• challenging fake transactions for the withdrawal of assets worth more than 500 million rubles from the holding company during a corporate conflict between its participants;
• successful management of more than 15 interrelated court cases in arbitration courts (first, appellate, cassation instances) aimed at restoring the violated rights of one participant in a corporate conflict;
• legal support of major transactions on the acquisition/alienation of real estate and shares in the authorized capital of business entities, including in the context of anti-sanctions regulation;
• optimization of the corporate governance system in the group of companies with a capitalization of about 2 billion rubles in order, among other things, to exclude from the corporate structure of foreign persons from three states unfriendly to the Russian Federation;
• preparation of documents for the establishment of a personal fund in order to protect and optimize asset management worth more than 700 million rubles.

Daria is distinguished by her ability to simply talk about difficult things, clearly conveying her position to the court, independently interpret the law and find a way out of the most difficult situations.

She is fluent in English and French.

Daria's recent scientific publications include:

• On the issue of sanctions for evading a party from presenting evidence requested by the court// Law. 2025. No. 2. pp. 81-88.
• The property claim of a judicial expert for payment for the work performed by him. Commentary to the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated July 20, 2023 No. 43-P // Bulletin of the Civil Procedure. 2023. No. 6. pp. 183-200.
• Panfilov G.P., Fetisova E.A. A claim for exclusion of a member of an economic society: in search of conceptual grounds// Law. 2023. No. 1. pp. 253-265.
• Limits of control of the antimonopoly authority over the provision and targeted use of state property in a preferential manner // Competition Law. 2022. No. 4. pp. 20-24.
• On the phenomenon of property procedural legal relations linking the court and the judicial expert// Arbitration and Civil Procedure, 2020, No. 3, pp. 10-15.
• On the issue of the expert's immunity from civil liability // Bulletin of the Civil Procedure. 2017. No. 3. pp. 221-255.