Category: Poland

A team of lawyers from K&L Gates’ Warsaw office, acting pro bono, has successfully represented Tomasz Stepien in a case involving the recognition and enforcement in Poland of an arbitral award rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne in Switzerland.

K&L Gates describes Tomasz Stepien, the captain of the Polish rugby team, as “one of the most successful players in the Polish league.” According to the firm, he “appealed [a] decision of the Gaming and Discipline Commission to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. The arbitral proceedings, in which the player was represented by K&L Gates’ lawyers, led to a ruling favorable to the appellant, Mr. Stepien. Consequently, a proceeding took place before the Court of Appeal in Warsaw for recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award. The Court of Appeal in its entirety accepted the application of the player’s counsel.”

The K&L Gates team consisted of Partners Rafal Morek and Associate Patrycja Treder.

Baker McKenzie Warsaw has advised Baltisse on its acquisition of Polflam, a Polish fire-resistant glass manufacturer, from its two founders, Maciej Szamborski and Wojciech Wilczak, and from Syntaxis Capital, a private debt and growth capital investor. Dentons, which had advised Syntaxis Capital on its 2014 investment in Polflam (then trading as Glass-Team), advised the sellers on the deal.

The Baker McKenzie team advising Baltisse — an investment firm owned by Filip Balcaen — was led by Counsel Jacek Balicki and Associate Lukasz Targoszynski.

The Dentons team was supervised by Partner Piotr Dulewicz and included Partner Paweł Grabowski, Counsel Michał Wasiak, Senior Associate Natalia Lawniczak-Koziol, and Associate Robert Semczuk. Belgian aspects of the transaction were handled with the assistance of Brussels-based Partner Yolande Meyvis. 

CMS has announced that Andrzej Posniak will replace Malgorzata Surdek as Managing Partner of the firm’s Polish operations on May 1, 2019.

According to CMS, Surdek is stepping down after three years as Poland Managing Partner as a result of her appointment to the International Chamber of Commerce Court of Arbitration in Paris.

Posniak, who has managed the Tax Advisory team at CMS in Warsaw for the past four years, started at CMS in 2003 as a corporate trainee. He also manages the Central-Eastern European tax practice and is a member of the CMS global tax practice’s management team. For the last three years, he has been a member of the advisory team supporting Surdek in the management of CMS’s business in Poland.

As General Counsel at CMS, he was also responsible for legal, tax and regulatory risk management with regard to the firm’s activities on the Polish market CEE Legal Matters interviewed Posniak about his dual role here.

“On May 1 I will pass the management of the firm in Poland to a partner who combines experience in managing with an ability to observe market trends and respond to clients’ changing needs,” commented Surdek. “The moment I took over as managing partner of CMS, Andrzej has been involved in setting the direction of development of the firm, and together we have created our business strategy. He is thus very well placed to continue this direction of growth and development, which is good news for both our clients and our lawyers.”

In December 2018, CEE Legal Matters interviewed Posniak about the then-pending tax regulation updates that he believed posed the biggest challenge to businesses and lawyers in Poland.

Schoenherr Warsaw has taken a team of three arbitration and litigation lawyers led by Partner Marcin Aslanowicz from Wolf Theiss.

In addition to Aslanowicz — Schoenherr’s new head of Dispute Resolution in Warsaw — Senior Associate Pawel Bukiel and Associate Ewa Parczewska join in making the move. 

Schoenherr Partner Christoph Lindinger, the head of the firm-wide Dispute Resolution practice, commented: “Dispute resolution is a very important pillar of our regional competence. With the newly established team in our Warsaw office we underline our capabilities as a one-stop-shop in high profile international disputes in CEE.”

Schoenherr Warsaw Managing Partner Pawel Halwa added: “I am thrilled to welcome Marcin, Pawel, and Ewa to our Warsaw office. I have known them for many years and I am convinced that they will be a great fit, equally in terms of their practice area, the client base they serve, and the culture and values that drive them.”

“I am absolutely delighted to join Schoenherr – a top tier law firm with an outstanding reputation,” said Marcin Aslanowicz. “Together we can build an even stronger dispute resolution practice, offering both international and Polish clients a unique combination of arbitration and litigation experience as well as in-depth knowledge of the market. We do understand the clients’ business needs and are keen to deliver them the highest quality legal service.” 

Dawid Demianiuk and Marzanna Sobaniec have been promoted to Partner at Magnusson Warsaw.

Both Demianiuk and Sobaniec joined Magnusson in 2009. Demianiuk covers real estate and corporate/M&A and was part of the Magnusson team assisting the A-R-A Retail Centers on their Polish Portfolio sale in 2018 as reported by CEE Legal Matters on January 11, 2018. Sobaniec focuses on litigation, arbitration, and public procurement. 

“We are delighted to welcome Marzanna and Dawid as Partners,” said Magnusson Warsaw Managing Partner Agnieszka Pytlas. “They have been an integral part of the Magnusson Warsaw team for over a decade and all of us have had the opportunity to see them in action: professional, engaged, and at the same time friendly and helpful. We couldn’t be more proud.”

DLA Piper has launched a new “Proptech” practice for the real estate and construction sector and new technologies.

The firm’s Polish Proptech team is led by Poland Co-Managing Partner Jacek Gizinski, head of real estate, and Ewa Kurowska-Tober, head of intellectual property and new technologies.

DLA Piper reports that “property and technology, i.e. the combination of commercial real estate/developer sector with new technologies, is a new version of a huge business area, which brings with it a number of challenges and legal issues.” 

“The practice of proptech is a natural extension of our law firm’s specialization resulting from the work for clients representing both the real estate sector and technology companies,” commented Gizinski. “Properties, in particular commercial ones, are already managed using new technologies as a standard; their digital use (e.g. identification of entrance through gates via smartphone application) is becoming common for tenants in the highest class buildings. The technology also helps to effectively manage energy consumption in buildings, which generates savings for tenants and helps to protect the environment. Office property users have a variety of amenities at their disposal, such as carsharing or bicycles, which are ordered via mobile applications. Finally, for institutional clients, solutions based on algorithms and artificial intelligence are created, making it easier for them to manage datasets, e.g. covering thousands of lease agreements. These are just a few examples of the presence of technology in real estate.” 

“New technologies are being taken by storm by other industries which until now seemed less receptive to this type of investment,” added Kurowska-Tober. “It is all the more interesting to participate in client projects, which result from their development plans in the real estate and construction sectors. From the legal point of view we are dealing with many interesting topics also for practicing lawyers. Licence agreements, intellectual property protection, personal data protection are classic areas of our expertise. An interesting challenge is also the protection of business concepts and ideas, which more and more often require non-standard legal solutions. If we add to this the nature of the digital economy and completely new business models, there are issues of a disruptive nature.”

Gide Warsaw has advised Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which it describes as “the largest commercial real estate company in Europe,” on the refinancing of the Galeria Mokotow shopping center in Warsaw.

According to Gide, “a EUR 200 million credit facility was granted by Commerzbank AG.” 

The Galeria Mokotow is located in the Mokotow borough of Warsaw. Phase 1 of the shopping center opened in 2000, with approximately 48,000 square meters of retail space, and it has subsequently been expanded to over 62,000 square meters.

The firm’s team was led by Associate Mateusz Gronau, working under the supervision of Partner Pawel Grzeskowiak.

Editor’s Note: After this article was published, Norton Rose Fulbright announced that it had advised Commerzbank on the financing. The firm’s team in Warsaw was supervised by Partner Grzegorz Dyczkowski and the transaction was led by Associate Maksymilian Jarzabek and Of Counsel Tomasz Rogalski, with assistance from Polish Associate Igor Kondratowicz French Partner Christine Ezcutari, Of Counsel Alexandre Roth, and Associate Alexis Babin de Lignac, and London-based Partner Dan Kennedy.

Pawel Wec has become Partner at SPCG Studnicki, Pleszka, Cwiakalski, Gorski.

Wec, who joined SPCG in 2002, specializes in competition law and issues related to unfair competition, industrial property law, public procurement law, and bankruptcy law. According to SPCG, “he has over 15 years in representing Polish and foreign entities in proceedings before common and arbitration courts.”

He got his degree in 2003 from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University.

DLA Piper has advised Eiffel Investment Group on the financing of photovoltaic systems in Poland built by Germany’s SUNfarming Group. SUNfarming was advised by Roedl & Partner on Polish law matters and Luther Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft on German law.

According to DLA Piper, the interim financing that was concluded within six weeks in December 2018 and January 2019 “helps the SUNfarming Group expand its portfolio of photovoltaic systems in Poland.”

“The projects include four photovoltaic systems in Ostrołeka that went into operation in December 2018,” DLA Piper reports, “and five new projects which are going to be completed by the end of June 2019 – three in Lask in the province of Lodz and two near Zabkowice Slaskie in the province of Dolnoslaskie.”

The DLA Piper team was led by Vienna-based Partner Jasna Zwitter-Tehovnik, assisted by Warsaw-based Partner Mariusz Hyla and Senior Associates Ivan Males and Pawel Turek.

Jara Drapala & Partner has persuaded the Court of Appeal in Warsaw to dismiss an appeal of a judgment by the Regional Court awarding compensation to IT company and firm client Exorigo-Upos sp. z o.o. for “stock exchange damage.”

According to JDP, “the dispute arose with respect to acquisition of a minority shareholding in a listed company in 2010. The damage resulted from non-performance by another shareholder (the defendant), who gained the dominant position in the company, of the obligation to announce a tender offer for all other shares and hence buy the minority shareholding held by the claimant.”

“The Court of Appeal in Warsaw,” the firm reports, “sharing the position presented by JDP attorneys, pointed out to the precedent aspects of the case. In the case-law, there [are] practically no decisions concerning the relationship between the shareholder’s tort and its consequences consisting in a loss suffered by another shareholder, the value of which is calculated on the basis of time-varying parameters (change in stock prices). Also assessment of business decisions made by the shareholder who suffered damage (when to sell shares, what sales strategy to adopt) in the context of the cause-and-effect relationship, predictability of future changes in stock prices and calculation of the damage suffered were important. In the proceedings, an interesting issue emerged, namely potential damage caused to other shareholders who did not participate in the proceedings alongside the claimant.”

According to JDP, “it is one of the first judgments in Poland regarding remedy for so called stock exchange damage which may be relevant in similar cases in the future. The judgment is final and non-appealable.”

The JDP team was led by Partners Przemysław Drapala and Marcin Chomiuk, and Associate Mateusz Jaworski.