Ivan Pavlov, JD, PhD, lives in St. Petersburg and has practiced as a legal attorney since 1994, professionally defending citizens’ rights in the field of access to socially significant information. Among the individuals and organizations he has defended in court are Aleksandr Nikitin, Grigory Pasko, Mikhail Suprun, Memorial and Ivan Safronov. He leads Team 29, an association of lawyers working to promote freedom of information, and for many years was chair of the board of the Freedom of Information Foundation, the only Russian NGO that dealt exclusively with issues of information freedom and governmental openness. He is also a member of the federal-level expert Working Group reviewing the initiatives promoted by the Russian Public Initiative web portal, and an expert of the Working Group on Open Government in the Russian Federation. Ivan Pavlov has represented Russian civil society at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) events in 2011 and 2012 upon invitation of the OGP Steering Committee.