II Legal Forum in St Petersburg was a professional test for the School’s trainers, graduates and students, who provided linguistic support to the Forum participants, but not only that. It was also an opportunity for the School to host Veniamin Yakovlev, one of Russia’s leading lawyers and an advisor to the President. He took a round of the school premises and conference rooms, dropped in one of the classes and even had a talk in Chinese with Prof. Liang Cuizhen.

During his meeting with First Vice Rector Sergei Goncharov, Veniamin Yakovlev discussed the important issues of multidimentional humanitarian dialogue and linguistic mediation in the modern world, the use of technologies for humanitarian education and the implementation of the “Skolkovo” principle as applied to St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation. They also discussed the ways to raise support for this fledgling project. Advisor Veniamin Yakovlev wished Herzen University and the School success in living up to its innovative ideas.