SSW Pragmatic Solutions has advised Venture Capital fund Cofounder Zone on its acquisition of an undefined stake in Ekobilet S.A., the owner of a technology platform for selling tickets for artistic and sporting events.
SSW Pragmatic Solutions’s team was led by Partners Katarzyna Solarz and Szymon Okon and supported by Associate Maciej Rutecki.
SSW did not reply to our inquiry on the matter.
A new labor and employment boutique, PCS Paruch Chrusciel Schiffter, has opened for business in Poland.
According to a firm press release, PCS, which has “approximately 40 experienced lawyers, immigration consultants, BD and administrative support,” has offices in Warsaw, Katowice, Krakow, and Poznan. According to that press release, PCS “is an HR law firm providing comprehensive and pragmatic support to companies within HR laws, including employment and labor law, global mobility and immigration, employment disputes and litigation, trade unions relations and collective bargaining, mobbing and harassment, data protection, social security, employees’ savings plans, social fund and others.”
PCS was founded by former Raczkowski Paruch Partners Slawomir Paruch, Lukasz Chrusciel (who heads PSC’s Katowice office), Karolina Schiffter, and Robert Stepien (who heads the Krakow office). According to a statement by a firm representative, “today, with its four offices, PCS offers the widest reach across Poland among Labor & Employment firms.“
Penteris has advised Apollo Rida on the acquisition of the Equal Business Park in Krakow from Cavatina Holding. Dentons reportedly advised the sellers.
The Equal Business Park consists of four Class A offices in Krakow’s Podgorze district. The fourth stage of the investment over 11,300 square meters is currently being implemented. In total, Equal Business Park will provide approximately 60,641 square meters of office and service space.
Penteris’s team included Senior Partner Andrzej Tokaj, Senior Associate Izabela Bogucka, and Associate Kamil Oskowski.
Marcin Bejm, already the head of CMS’s Infrastructure and Project Finance practice, has become the head of the Energy and Projects department as well, taking over from Tomasz Minkiewicz.
Bejm joined CMS as Head of Infrastructure and Project Finance in March 2018 (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on April 6, 2018), after spending ten years at Clifford Chance, seven years with Norton Rose, and almost three years with Baker McKenzie. According to CMS, his professional experience “includes advising clients on transactions and projects in sectors such as: airports, seaports, highways, railways, healthcare, public transport, IT, heating, water and sewage, renewable energy, oil and gas, and waste management,” and the firm reports that he “specializes in the project finance and public-private partnership projects.”
“We are currently dynamically increasing the scale of our business – in particular the renewable energy and waste management markets are providing us with opportunities for rapid development,” explained Bejm. “We want to further utilize our well known strengths: a highly experienced team, in-depth sector knowledge and out of box thinking in approaching legal issues. They are crucial to strengthen our leading position on the project market, where the ability to effectively solve complex legal problems is in great demand.”
“Recent years have been a period of rapid change and growth for the firm,” added CMS Poland Managing Partner Andrzej Posniak. “Our energy team has been a market leader in Poland for many years. We have also achieved the position of Band 1 legal advisor on the market of infrastructure and industrial projects. We look to the future with huge optimism. Our ambition is to make the best use of the existing potential and to maintain the position of a market leader for energy, industrial and infrastructure projects advice in Poland.”
White & Case has advised the Polish Aviation Group, which owns LOT Polish Airlines, on the acquisition of Germany’s Condor Flugdienst GmbH. The sellers, UK’s Thomas Cook, were advised by Noerr.
According to White & Case, “the acquisition, which was preceded by a bidding process in which PGL prevailed over several financial investors, is expected to close by April 2020 once customary antitrust approvals are obtained and Condor exits the protective shield proceedings. The parties have agreed not to disclose the value of the transaction.”
PGL is an aviation company in Central & Eastern Europe. In 2019, LOT carried more than ten million passengers and generated revenue of EUR 1.9 billion. Condor carries around 9.4 million passengers per year. In the 2018/19 financial year, it generated an operating profit of around EUR 57 million and sales of around EUR 1.7 billion.
The White & Case team in Warsaw included Local Partner Maciej Zalewski and Partner Marcin Studniarek. Its team in Frankfurt included Partners Matthias Kasch, Stefan Bressler, and Andreas Kleinschmidt, Local Partner Michael Leicht, Counsel Christian Bock, and Associates Agmal Bahrami and Micha Gersdorf, while its Hamburg-based team included Partners Sven-Holger Undritz, Florian Degenhardt, Hendrik Roger, Justus Herrlinger, and Martin Munz, Local Partner Bela Knof, and Associates Tobias Zundorf, Carola Boeckmann, and Louisa Maier-Witt. The firm’s Brussels-based team included Partner Katarzyna Czapracka. Its team in Berlin consisted of Counsels Katrin Helle and Anna Burghardt, and its team in London included Counsel David Wright.
Noerr’s Germany-based team included Partners Thomas Hoffmann, Marlies Raschke, Till Kosche, Helge Heinrich, Andreas Naujoks, Torsten Wehrhahn, Tobias Dolde, and Hans-Christoph Schimmelpfennig, Associated Partners Sarah Blazek, Torsten Kraul, Simone Schoenen, Ethel Nanaeva, and Benjamin Jahn, Counsel Emma Lenze, and Associates Andrea Braun, Eike Hofmann, Kenny Koa, Dorian Legel, Daniel Dommermuth-Alhauser, and Michael Wilhelm Weber.
Kondrat & Partners has successfully represented the interests of the Warsaw School of Economics in a ten-year long dispute with the International Olympic Committee.
According to Kondrat & Partners, the dispute arose in 2010 when the Foundation of the Promotion and Accreditation of Economic Education, which was founded by five Polish universities, started organizing the Polish “Entrepreneurship Olympiad” and the “High School Civics Olympics” for students and high school pupils. The International Olympic Committee opposed the registration of the “Entrepreneurship Olympiad” trademark, claiming that the word “olympiad” cannot function in other entities’ trademarks.
On January 17, 2020 the Supreme Administrative Court ruled in favor of the Foundation and the Warsaw School of Economics and stated that the word “olympiad” in the competition “Entrepreneurship Olympiad” can coexist with the trademarks owned by the International Olympic Committee.
The Kondrat & Partners team consisted of Attorneys Mariusz Kondrat and Andrzej Przytula.
Managing Associate Adam Kraszewski has taken over from Dorota Bryndal as the new Head of Labor Law and Life Sciences/IP at the Gessel law firm.
Kraszewski, who holds an MA and a postgraduate degree in Law from Warsaw University, has been with Gessel since 2006. According to the firm, he has “extensive knowledge in the field of labor law, personal data protection, compliance, Life Sciences, and intellectual property law [and] provides clients with comprehensive support focused on long-term, trust-based cooperation.”
“I am very happy to be able to take such a great role,” commented Kraszewski. “I have been associated with Gessel for many years and I know that the firm is top class. It is a great honor for me that I can take over the practice created and led for many years by Dorota Bryndal. The modern market is a big challenge but I know that with such a team as the Gessel Law Firm team we were, we are and we will be the best. “
“Life Science/IP and labor law are one of the key areas of modern business,” added Managing Partner Marcin Macieszczak. “It was necessary for these practices to be led by a valued and experienced specialist in our company. So it happened, which I am very happy about! 14 years of close cooperation with Adam allows me to say with full responsibility that our service in the field of labor law, Life Sciences / IP is and will be at the highest level.
Kochanski & Partners has helped Global Primex obtain clearance from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority to introduce the Vload eVoucher within the European Union.
The Vload eVoucher is an independent payment instrument issued by an entity from outside the EU, and distributed within the EU by Global Primex.
According to Kochanski & Partners, the firm’s advice included determining whether the Vload eVoucher could be considered as electronic money or as a payment instrument within the meaning of EMD1, EMD2, and the Payment Services Act, and whether the distribution of the eVoucher could be qualified as a payment service within the meaning of PSD2 and the Payment Services Act.
The K&P team was led by Partner Agnieszka Serzysko and supported by Senior Lawyer Daniel Kozlowski.
Mrowiec Fialek and Partners has advised Centrum Rozliczen Elektronicznych Polskie ePlatnosci S.A., a portfolio company of Innova Capital, on the acquisition of 100% of shares in Poznan-based TopCard.
According to Mrowiec Fialek, “TopCard offers various services related to providing POS terminals to small and medium enterprises.”
Mrowiec Fialek and Partners’s team was led by Partner Miroslaw Fialek, Senior Associates Malgorzata Banaszkiewicz, Pawel Cyganik, and Maria Krupa, and Associate Julia Pycka. The due diligence report was also prepared by Senior Associates Dominika Leszczynska and Rafał Siemieniec and Associates Kamil Gago, Anna Malecka, and Katarzyna Witak.
Mrowiec Fialek declined to identify the sellers or the seller’s counsel.
Jacek Kosinski Adwokaci i Radcowie Prawni has helped PGE Baltica obtain environmental permits to construct two offshore wind farms from the Regional Director for Environmental Protection in Gdansk.
According to Jacek Kosinski Adwokaci i Radcowie Prawni, the total value of the Baltica-2 and Baltica-3 wind power plants is PLN 30 billion.
The Jacek Kosinski Adwokaci i Radcowie Prawni team included Managing Partner Jacek Kosinski, Counsel Aleksandra Blaszczynska, and Attorney Anna Polak.