“The legal market in Poland is a bit challenging right now,” says Linklaters Partner Janusz Dzianachowski. “It’s growing very fast and is quite dynamic. We see loads of new clients, which means new work – but also more competition.” According to Dzianachowski, more and more law firms are branding themselves “experts” in the field, but this does not “affect long-present, established firms.”
Dzianachowski reports that “all business sectors are relatively busy,” with real estate showing particular activity and banking & finance growing. “It’s like new markets opened up; there is a clear inflow of capital from all over the world, the scale of which nobody could have expected a few years ago,” he says. “Poland is primed for South Korean capital, there are clients from Canada, the USA, East Asia, the Middle East … no longer is the market reserved for the traditional German-fund type of investors.”
There seem, he says, to be some “flickers of activity” in the legal market itself. Some practice areas which were “traditionally reserved for the boutique law firms — those that focus on IP, IT, tech law, and legal advice related to game development — have become of greater interest to large international firms,” he says. “Major firms are picking it up as well, realizing the potential behind it. Also, it’s very attractive for consumers – it is definitely an appealing subject.”
Finally, speaking of the political scene in Poland, Dzianachowski says that “since the last Governmental change in 2015 there was some palpable hesitation from some potential sources of investment, but that seems to have passed, especially given constant economic growth. Investors, it would seem, have come to terms with how the market is right now and business is continuing just fine.” He characterizes this as a “stable flow” in a “dynamic environment,” and claims that it seems to be doing good things for the Polish market.
