Anna's thesis work involved the investigation of the linguistic expression of empathy in defense speeches of Russian and French lawyers. Building on the research conducted by a French linguist Alain Rabatel on the expression of empathy in discourse, she analyzed the linguistic means used to convey empathy in the speeches of the defense attorneys Fyodor Plevako and Gustave Louis Chaix d'Est-Ange and has put forward the hypothesis that several linguistic categories, namely the categorycategories of evaluation, emotivity, passiveness and generalization, play the key role in transmitting empathy towards the defendant and consequently convey to the audience thean image of the defendant that is advantageous for the outcome of their court case. Consequently, under my supervision, Anna has published an article regarding the particularities of the expression of empathy in a national-level scientific journal. Another paper is currently being readied for publication.