Lyudmila Luchkina

Lyudmila Luchkina

Counsel, Labor Law Practice

With over 20 years of professional experience, including an active litigation background in labor, corporate, and administrative law, Lyudmila has held senior positions at major Russian companies and has also worked as an external consultant.

Her main specialization is defending the rights and interests of employers in complex labor disputes - successfully representing clients in courts across the Russian Federation and post-Soviet countries and handling employee conflicts, including contentious dismissals. She is highly skilled at representing clients in negotiations with employees, government authorities, and third-party organizations.

Lyudmila advises on issues of electronic document management in labor relations, conducts comprehensive compliance audits of employer business processes related to personnel management and records administration, assesses legal risks, and develops strategies to mitigate them.

She provides professional defense of company rights and interests during regulatory inspections, including audits by labor inspectorates and the prosecutor’s office, and also protects the company and its executives in administrative proceedings. Lyudmila accompanies administrative cases, including those involving suspension of company operations.

She is a regular invited speaker at leading industry conferences on labor law.‍

Some successful projects

The total savings for employers as a result of successful litigation and administrative labor cases exceeded 750 million rubles.
Provided methodological and legal support for more than 40 contentious dismissals, 80% of which were resolved by agreement on terms defined by the employer.
Achieved reversal of unfavorable judicial precedents regarding employee claims for reimbursement of excess personal income tax (PIT) deductions. Led 5 cases in the RF Supreme Court out of 32 adverse cases in 4 regions, resulting in positive outcomes for organizations.
Changed negative judicial practice regarding claims by employees from the Far North and equivalent regions for travel expense compensation. Three cases were considered by the RF Supreme Court, previous rulings favoring employees were overturned, and 48 more cases were reviewed based on new circumstances, resulting in favorable outcomes for organizations.
Handled collective labor disputes, including changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Employees alleged contract terms worsened and violated labor rights; 45 cases were considered and all were won, creating positive precedent nationwide.
Significant experience representing organizations in disputes involving termination of employment due to repeated unexcused nonperformance with disciplinary records, headcount/position reductions (including contentious dismissals), or liquidation. Developed strategic positions for two legal entities—both for previously existing and newly formed (subsidiary) companies.
Prepared position for representation of the Russian Federation in the RF Supreme Court regarding challenges to regulatory legal acts; drafted the Ministry of Transport’s position on legality of issued rules. The challenged rules were upheld.
Arbitration experience in corporate and economic disputes.

Education

2008: Bryansk State University, Law major, diploma with honors
2010: Advanced training, “New Rules for Employer Audits by Labor Inspectorates and Prosecutor’s Bodies”
2016: Advanced training, “Civil Code Reform: Commentary on Amendments”
2021: Advanced training, “Mediation. Basic Course”
2022: Advanced training, “Strategic Shift Scheduling. Optimization in Crisis and Nonstandard Situations”
2022: Advanced training, “Internal Auditor for Labor Law”
2022: Advanced training, “Electronic Document Management in HR: Optimization and Automation 2.0”
2023: Advanced training, “HR Architect. Digital Transformation Strategy for HR. HR Process Automation”

Foreign languages

English