On 18 September in Moscow Representatives of the "Conference of International NGOs" of the Council of Europe met the Heads of Russian and foreign communal organisations working in Russia in order to discuss issues connected with the implementation of the new Law on NGOs, particularly as regards registration, accounting arrangements and financing. The organisers of the event wanted to gather information about the effect of the new Law on the working of civil organisations in Russia at first hand for report back to the members of the Council of Europe. Head of the International Centre for Civil Rights and expert on NGO taxation, Darya Miloslavskaya, told the story of the registration of the non-commercial partnership "Lawyers for a Civil Society". Their first attempt at registration in June failed; they succeeded only in August. The partnership now has about twenty lawyers, who will be advising NGOs on accountability issues. However, she noted that in some regions the Registration Service itself does not have specialists who are au fait with the new Law so that third sector lawyers are quite often invited to collaborate with it.