Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

Elena Liptser is one of Russia's best known human rights lawyers. She heads the Moscow law firm "Liptser, Stavitskaya and Partners," where she specializes in representing Russia citizens before the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. She holds a technical degree from the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys and law degree from the Moscow Institute of Economics, Management and Law. She is the recipient of the Medal for Achievements in the Defense of Civil Rights and Liberties.

Liptser first started working in the field of human rights in 1997 as a volunteer at Moscow's International Protection Centre, an inter-regional non-governmental organization founded by human rights lawyer Karinna Moskalenko.

In 2001, Liptser began practicing human rights law and has since then become widely recognized for her work defending human rights before Russia's Constitutional Court as well as the ECHR. One of her first prominent cases was representing the Chernobyl catastrophe emergency workers before the ECHR; Liptser successfully argued that their right to compensation from the State had been violated.

Currently, more than 30 cases filed by Liptser have been heard by or are pending before the ECHR.

Those cases include three applications filed on behalf of Russian lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin, convicted by the Russian authorities of divulging state secrets in connection with mysterious apartment house bombings in Moscow; former Group Menatep president and YUKOS Oil Company shareholder Platon Lebedev, convicted of fraud and tax evasion (three applications have been lodged on his behalf as well; in the first, the Court found that Lebedev's pre-trial rights had been violated); and Fail Sadretdinov, a notary who was charged with the murder of journalist Paul Khlebnikov. The ECHR also has given priority status to the application of the former Chairman of the South Ossetian Supreme Court, Mr. Alan Parastayev, and has formally submitted questions with respect to his case to both Russia and Georgia, including questions concerning the legal status of South Ossetia.

One of the most important Russian cases Liptser argued was the case of Mr. Kisimov, who in 2001 filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation demanding that it recognize the right of convicts to submit requests for parole to courts directly themselves. Until then, only the administration of a colony, prison, or investigative isolator was allowed to file such a request at its own discretion. The application, drafted jointly with Karinna Moskalenko, helped Mr. Kisimov convince the Constitutional Court that convicts should have the opportunity to file parole requests to a court directly.

Liptser also works closely with the All-Russia Public Movement For Human Rights, headed by the human rights advocate Lev Ponomarev, who is also her father and a Doctor of Physics and Mathematics. Some of Liptser's projects with the Movement include work on behalf of a penal colony inmate involved in a mass self-mutilation campaign in the summer of 2005, and a successful appeal filed with the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation challenging provisions that hinder lawyers' ability to visit their incarcerated clients.