Category: Interviews

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Djuro Otasevic, Founding Partner at NKO Partners in Serbia and Montenegro.

CEELMDirect: Hello, Djuro! According to your profile on CEELMDirect, you are one of the founding partners at NKO Partners. What can you tell us about the firm’s founding? 

Otasevic: NKO was founded back in 2008 and we are very proud and grateful to our great team that made it possible for us to expand so much over the years! We now have nearly 20 fee earners, which is a dramatic increase since the firm was first founded. Indeed, this year we have continued with our expansion drive by joining forces with Petar Orlic from London. Having worked in London as a Partner at firms such as Paul Hastings, Reed Smith, and Watson Farley & Williams, Petar brings a wealth of experience working on international deals and will be the interface between NKO and its international clients and partners.

CEELMDirect: Speaking of NKO clients, do you remember your first client at the firm, and matter? What was it?  

Otasevic: Wow – that was a while back! We were lucky to start immediately working with several clients as soon as we established the office and we are very proud that the majority of those clients are still working with us, 14 years later. At the outset, we represented several investment funds, multinational and regional, that we gave a wide range of advice to, in the commercial, real estate, and litigation areas. We were very lucky to be provided with the opportunity to work on a number of M&A deals that involved the biggest local and international law offices, which was helpful, because it immediately put us on the map as a professional outfit dealing with the most complex deals in the region.

CEELMDirect: What made you go into the law in the first place?  

Otasevic: To be honest, it was as though the Law chose me! I’ve always liked the analytical way of thinking and approach to things and I thought the legal profession was the best place to utilize and improve these skills. I also wanted to be constantly challenged intellectually and I find this is definitely the case in the legal world, where laws and legal cases are constantly being changed and challenged!

CEELMDirect: The past few years have obviously been unusual, what with Covid, recent inflation, and the war in Ukraine, among other challenges. How has NKO responded over that time – has the firm undergone any changes of significance?

Otasevic: Amazingly, NKO significantly expanded during these unusual times, in terms of our client portfolio, the size of our team, and the complexity of the matters we deal with. We already had a philosophy of “flexible working” at the firm, and I think that this put us in good stead to deal with Covid as the demands for this increased. As our client base develops, we are also undertaking more transactions with an international flavor, and I believe the addition of Petar Orlic to the NKO team will help in this regard.

CEELMDirect: Great. Thank you!

On July 5, 2022, Avellum announced it was joining an international team of professionals from Allen & Overy, Morgan Lewis, and Norton Rose Fulbright to establish a legal education scholarship in the name of fallen Ukrainian hero, lawyer, and activist Roman Ratushnyi. CEE Legal Matters sat down with Avellum Partner Maksym Maksymenko to learn more about Roman and the team’s aims and hopes for the Roman Ratushnyi Scholarship.

CEELM: Tell us a bit about Roman Ratushnyi and his life before the war.

Maksymenko: Roman was born in 1997 to the family of Taras, an activist for the Save Old Kyiv initiative, and Svitlana, a writer. He studied Law at the College of Finance and Law. In 2013, he participated in the Maidan Revolution, being among students who suffered the Berkut attack for merely supporting the country’s pro-EU aspirations. After the revolution, he continued being a civil and environmental activist and became a leader of the initiative to preserve the green zone in the middle of Kyiv. Roman did not go into law to make money, but he rather used his law degree as an activist, creating positive social change and helping those who couldn’t afford such services.

Once the Russian invasion began this year, he voluntarily joined Ukraine’s armed forces to defend Kyiv, and later became a military intelligence officer with the 93rd Independent Kholodnyi Yar Mechanized Brigade. He took part in the liberation of Trostianets, in the north of Ukraine, and he fought in the Kharkiv region, where he was killed a month before his 25th birthday.

CEELM: How did the idea to establish a scholarship honoring Roman originate?

Maksymenko: The idea came from Thomasz Wozniak, a Partner with Morgan Lewis, and Anna Buyevska, a Global Business Development Manager with Norton Rose Fulbright. Together with their friends, they raised and spent over USD 1 million on purchasing and transferring aid to the Ukrainian army. The aid included pick-up trucks, which are highly sought-after on the frontlines. They worked closely with the 93rd brigade, where they met Roman.

When the news about his tragic death became public – and we were all shocked and heartbroken – Thomasz and Anna had the idea to establish the scholarship. The next day, Thomasz sent me a video of Roman, driving together with his comrades in the pick-up truck they had purchased for them, thanking them for the vehicle, and saying that we would definitely win the war. Soon after that, we started working on establishing the scholarship, with colleagues from Allen & Overy, Morgan Lewis, and Norton Rose Fulbright involved as well. Avellum provided pro-bono legal support on all Ukrainian jurisdiction matters, including creating the charitable fund and negotiating with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The idea was met with a warm welcome from students, faculty, and university officials alike.

CEELM: Who stands to receive the scholarship, and what will be the selection criteria?

Maksymenko: At the moment, we are preparing the procedure for awarding the scholarship and we are discussing specific details, including selection criteria and the schedule for awarding it. What we plan now, presumably for this year, is to grant scholarships to some graduates who were admitted for their master’s program in Law. The scholarship will cover tuition fees and other living expenses. We are still uncertain about the schedule, as many students are on the frontlines, passing exams online while at war. Because of martial law, we still don’t know when the master’s program admission results will be announced, and that makes the planning process a bit difficult.

As for the criteria, we want to target students who have a background in community service and who are passionate about creating positive social change, as Roman did. We want to give opportunities to students who, rather than choosing to practice law at some of the best law firms, looking to earn a lot of money, would choose the work that is not as highly paid in society but is crucial for the country’s development. 

CEELM: What are your hopes and dreams for the Roman Ratushnyi Scholarship?

Maksymenko: Thomasz’ and Anna’s dream is for the scholarship to last for at least 10-20 years, being awarded to students on an ongoing basis. Given what is happening right now, we predict that the demand for justice will grow and reach the highest levels and that, someday, with the help of international friends and partners, we will build a socially and environmentally active community. We hope that our scholarship will encourage and support Law students to orient themselves toward that goal.

This Article was originally published in Issue 9.8 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.

On June 23, 2022, CEE Legal Matters reported that Eversheds Sutherland entered the Bulgarian market by combining with Sofia-based “long-standing relationship firm” Tsvetkova Bebov & Partners. We spoke with the Bulgarian firm’s Co-Managing Partners Irina Tsvetkova and Nikolay Bebov to learn more about the tie-up and their plans going forward.

CEELM: First, congratulations on the new set-up! How did it come to be and for how long have you been working on this update? 

Tsvetkova: We began discussions before the pandemic so the whole process took about three years. Eversheds Sutherland wanted to ensure that it was the right choice, both commercially and culturally, for both TBP and the firm. Eversheds Sutherland was keen to have a reach in the Bulgarian market and, on our side, we particularly had to assess the impact on our growth, the reaction of our clients, and the market as a whole.

CEELM: Were you actively seeking an international firm to team up with or did Eversheds first approach you?

Tsvetkova: We’ve known the partners at Eversheds Sutherland for many years and we have been cooperating on some projects. We have always benefited from excellent contacts with great firms (our history relates to PwC’s legal offering, and we have worked with many global law firms and on many global projects), so we always knew that our place is leaning towards an international feel – not only in relation to our way of working, ethics, and principles but also in view of the profile of our clients.

Bebov: On the other hand, we have always been deeply rooted in our Bulgarian and Balkan environment, with excellent domestic and regional clients, alongside our international ones. Both aspects surely made us an interesting partner to have discussions with.

CEELM: What were the main selling points for both sides in your view? Why does this tie-up make sense for you and why does it for Eversheds? 

Tsvetkova: As I said, for us, it was all about working in an international environment, with high standards of quality, access to interesting multi-country projects, and access to international expertise and learning. For Eversheds Sutherland, it was a matter of expanding to a new country in CEE.

CEELM: And what made Bulgaria particularly attractive?

Bebov: Bulgaria has been a sustainably growing economy for the past decade, and the legal business follows suit.

CEELM: As with any such tie-up, there’s always going to be downsides – from a loss of some degree of independence to some potential referral work going away. What were the main factors you considered and (a) why did you decide they are not important and (b) how did you plan to minimize their impact?

Tsvetkova: Of course, we considered eventual risks to our business, potentially losing referrals from other international law firms. But we have had discussions with many of them and the majority reacted positively.

Bebov: For many of them, our quality as lawyers and our knowledge of the local market will prevail over the normal concerns of how you work together on a project with a potential competitor somewhere else. It also helps that Eversheds Sutherland has a network structure of independent law firms.

I have to point out that our clients and business contacts also reacted very positively to the news.

CEELM: How did the team members react to the news internally? What were the main concerns raised and how were their minds put at ease?

Tsvetkova: The team reacted very positively – for our staff to be a part of a global law firm in Bulgaria, with access to even more interesting clients and projects and with the opportunity to learn and get know-how from a wider team, is a big advantage. Of course, every change raises some concerns. But we have been very transparent and open in our communications, and our colleagues from Eversheds Sutherland invested a lot of time during the onboarding process – they did presentations on every aspect of teaming up and the new requirements and opportunities and made people feel like they are a part of the wider team. I have to say that the onboarding was fantastically organized.

CEELM: What about the local bar association(s)? How open are they to such moves and what are the main, if any, barriers currently in place that had to be overcome?

Bebov: Bulgaria’s Bar, and the Sofia Bar Association in our case, are well-functioning self-governing organizations. We believe that the legal profession in Bulgaria is maintaining a high stature and Bulgarian lawyers hold high values, and of course, the legal profession is also changing and adapting to Bulgaria’s status of an open economy, which evolves continuously. Also, we have had on the Bulgarian market, for many years, quite a few international players or groupings, so we are not unique in this respect. Importantly, we continue to view ourselves proudly as part of the legal profession in Bulgaria.

CEELM: The announcement went out and the firm is now officially a part of the Eversheds family. What are the next steps in your ongoing integration efforts?

Tsvetkova: To continue to provide high-quality services to our clients, to be an active member of the network, and to grow Eversheds Sutherland’s client base.

CEELM: What will be the biggest challenge and what are you most excited about going forward?

Bebov: The biggest challenge will be overcoming the context of the current economic situation in Europe and worldwide.

Tsvetkova: We are excited to be a part of a global network, we are eager to meet our new colleagues and to actively contribute, based on our history and track record, to the growth of the network and its client base.

CEELM: Looking at the overall Bulgarian market, do you believe there is a business case for further internationals to contemplate entering the market? And why?

Bebov: The market is growing but it is hard to opine on the pace of this growth, especially having in mind all the negative global developments since 2020. As part of this market, we will be welcoming all developments that make it more sophisticated, more ethical, and more advanced.

This Article was originally published in Issue 9.8 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.

The QuickLegal online marketplace was launched in 2021 in Romania, aiming to provide answers to legal questions for individuals and small businesses by effortlessly connecting them with relevant lawyers. CEE Legal Matters spoke with two of QuickLegal’s three Co-Founders – Iulia Caizer and Luminita Busuricu – to learn more about their project, progress, and plans.

CEELM: First, tell us a bit about the platform – how would you describe QuickLegal?

Busuricu: QuickLegal is an online marketplace for legal services, connecting individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises with lawyers in Romania. In a nutshell, the way the platform operates is the following: after creating an account and filling out the questionnaire, applicants are instantly matched with the three most suitable lawyers, followed by a 15-minute free consultation with a lawyer of their choice. This gives the users a chance to choose whether they want to continue working with the suggested lawyer or not. What sets us apart is our legal matchmaking algorithm – we are not simply asking questions – we use other filters, such as area of law, lawyer profile, location, years of experience, potential fees to be charged, and more.

Caizer: And the offer that clients receive is not just about a lawyer, but also includes some guidance, like the estimated fees to be charged and a brief proposed solution. We believe that this is an essential tool for SMEs, as this could be either an alternative to the traditional legal departments or a valuable resource for it. We offer a fast, reliable, and cost-effective tool to help SMEs deal with their legal matters. 

CEELM: How did you come together to establish QuickLegal?

Busuricu: We are three female co-founders – all lawyers, with international backgrounds, looking to improve the legal market in Romania through innovation. I am a dispute resolution lawyer working for an international law firm established in Bucharest.

Caizer: And I’m an in-house counsel for UiPath, the Romanian unicorn. Bianca Florea, our other Co-Founder, is an antitrust lawyer in Paris.

Busuricu: We all noticed problems in the Romanian legal system and came together in wanting to make a change. We came up with this idea in 2018, at the Global Legal Hackathon, where legal and IT professionals meet to identify problems in the legal field and solve them through tech solutions. We wanted to, on the one hand, give individuals and SMEs easy access to legal information and services and, on the other hand, tackle the lawyers’ difficulties in reaching out to potential clients. Now that legal platforms like QuickLegal are gradually being regulated, both at the EU and national level, we believe it is the perfect time to bring to the market a solution like QuickLegal.

CEELM: What were the specific steps, from an idea to implementation?

Caizer: As all founders are legal professionals, we knew little about being entrepreneurs at first. There were a lot of steps that we took to get to where we are now, and we had to learn everything along the way. First, we had to think about how the project would work and put that into practice, understand the market needs, the product, and how it would change the status quo. We participated in incubator and accelerator programs to improve the product and find new members for the team. We also had to refine our market strategy and update our business plan – learn how to best approach potential investors or increase our market visibility, for example. 

Busuricu: We formed the co-founders’ team in 2018 and we launched the platform in 2021. Since then, we’ve consolidated the team, launched our minimum viable product, and participated in various programs, including one of the biggest accelerators in CEE – InnovX-BCR – where we won third place. We’ve marketed the business with the founders’ personal funds, yet we already have over 200 users and 80 lawyers.

CEELM: Which stage of development are you at, right now? And what’s in the pipeline?

Busuricu: We are still testing and developing – I would say that, for now, we have the MVP. In terms of investment, we are pre-seed. We’re looking forward to April, when we’re invited to join the 2023 Silicon Valley Conference and get to pitch our business to US investors – by then the project and our revenues should be in a more advanced phase.

Caizer: We’re also investing in bringing technologies into our platform, to improve customer experience and functionality, and expanding our team. At this point, we are looking for lawyers and business advisors who have experience as legal market entrepreneurs, to learn from their understanding and incorporate it into the business. In the future, we also want to expand the core legal team. But right now, we are more focused on partnerships with law firms and key legal players and on adapting the platform to better address market needs. 

Busuricu: To date, we have been focusing on labor law but we’re working with lawyers specializing in every area of the legal field. In the near future, we aim to expand the platform to some Eastern European countries and France. And we’re also working on using the conversations between the client and attorney – anonymized and with the parties’ consent, of course – to launch an AI-powered robo-lawyer. We are also launching our virtual office soon, to bring lawyers and clients together online.

CEELM: That’s quite the pipeline. How are you promoting QuickLegal and building the user base?

Caizer: We’re also developing our marketing strategy, to increase visibility. SMEs, and sometimes even foreign investors, don’t necessarily follow legal news. Rather, they search online and use recommendations to target law firms in Romania. So, we’re looking at paid ads and social media platforms, but also those more traditional ways of spreading the news, such as IT-focused TV programs, to reach a broader audience.

CEELM: And what’s the plan for revenue generation?

Busuricu: Our business model includes subscriptions for lawyers. At this point, all of them are registered for free, but after reaching 150 lawyers we’ll start implementing a subscription model. The same applies to users: after registration, they receive 12 free queries per year. Beyond that, they will have to pay a small subscription fee, covering platform expenses.

Caizer: The market potential is huge. According to our estimates, legal services are a EUR 4 billion business in Romania. With the right investment, we expect to have around EUR 4 to 5 million in revenue in the upcoming five years. An initial investment of EUR 250,000 is needed to launch a fully equipped platform and accelerate our market visibility. We will need further investment rounds, but we are hopeful, since it’s the first stage that is usually the hardest, and we have received excellent feedback so far. 

CEELM: You mentioned your focus on labor law. Why did you choose this field?

Caizer: During the pandemic, we saw a high number of employment contracts being terminated, and those people needed advice on how to deal with it. After studying the market, we learned that labor law was the top field, in terms of legal issues, in the past five years. There are around 5.6 million employees and 400,000 SMEs in Romania, so we saw plenty of opportunity in this field. 

Busuricu: In addition to the pandemic, following the war in Ukraine, we saw an increased demand for employment lawyers, with many companies relocating from war-affected countries. We received many inquiries about moving businesses to Romania, dealing with taxes and work-related regulations. And we also offered pro-bono legal services to some of these companies from Ukraine, in partnership with local NGOs.

However, we’ve seen increased demand for lawyers specializing in media and GDPR, and we are considering expanding in these areas. We are still conducting surveys on the platform, but the next sectors to target include tax, mortgages, and financial investments. We’re refining our data to respond to market needs.

CEELM: And how was your project received by your colleagues in Romania?

Busuricu: Many of our colleagues have already registered on the platform – they support the idea and have been encouraging us to keep going. It’s good to see QuickLegal resonates with Romanian legal professionals – that’s a good sign looking forward to our next, April 2023, milestone.

Caizer: We all have a personal reasoning for developing this project – we want to democratize the legal market and bring more transparency – so it was great to have my co-workers’ support. Law is mostly an old-school profession in Romania: it has to adapt to societal needs and current technology. It will take time to see that change at a broader level, but we’re confident we’ll reach that stage sooner than most expect.

This Article was originally published in Issue 9.8 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Mia Kalas, Partner at Selih & Partnerji in Slovenia. 

CEELMDirect: Mia, what can you tell us about the circumstances of Selih & Partnerji’s founding?

Kalas: Our firm has a tradition of more than sixty years. It was founded in 1961 by Rudi Selih, whose career path was extremely rich; among other things, he served as Chair of the Slovenian Bar Association, was a member of the chairing committee of the alliance of the bar associations of the former Yugoslavia, and was an honorary consul of the Kingdom of Denmark. He received several awards for his contribution to the development of the legal profession in Slovenia. As a true visionary, he recognized the importance of cross-border transactions even back in those iron times. Upon his retirement in 2005, his daughter Nina Selih and three partners – Natasa Pipan Nahtigal, Helena Butolen, and Gregor Simoniti – co-founded the modern firm we are today. We have grown considerably in the last 20 years, from an initial small team of about 10 to now more than 30 employees.

CEELMDirect: According to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Selih & Partnerji has worked on more reported deals so far in 2022 than any other firm. What can you tell us about the first part of the year?

Kalas: It has indeed been a busy first half of the year. The Slovenian M&A market remained very active despite the uncertainties triggered by the war in Ukraine. We assisted in several acquisitions (and attempted acquisitions) of large and medium-sized companies, and also in a couple of exits of private-equity funds from their Slovenian investments. Whenever the M&A market is hot, law firms are obviously also busy with acquisition financings. One particularly interesting financing this year was related to Oaktree’s acquisition of Slovenian gaming equipment provider Interblock.

The real estate market has been on the rise as well, with prices of both residential and industrial properties going ballistic. There is still so much demand for real property that sometimes even mid-sized companies look at multiple opportunities and then do not only pursue one, but several. For instance, we just helped a client who purchased the real property it used to rent, in parallel, agreed to purchase construction land located in a green-field industrial zone that is still under development, and is, on top of that, looking to buy some additional premises in the vicinity of its existing facilities.

However, on a less optimistic note, the business and investment climate has been rapidly cooling since the summer.  As in other EU countries, the Slovenian economy is facing serious inflation, raging energy prices, and, perhaps a bit more here than elsewhere, concerns about a potential new wave of COVID-19.

Some of our clients and other participants in the market are much concerned about the decrease in production orders, and they fear that the coming crisis may be so deep that the proposed aid measures (such as certain controls over energy prices) may be insufficient. The growth of real-property transactions has already tipped. I think we should be ready for a rough autumn and winter, and expect a slow-down of transactional and financing work. However, this usually goes in pair with an increase in other types of work, such as restructuring and employment-related work, so I remain cautiously optimistic that the impact of the expected crisis may not be too devastating for law firms. 

CEELMDirect: In an interview with Partner Jera Majzelj back in January that appears on Selih & Partnerji’s CEELMDirect profile, Majzelj commented on various constitutional challenges to the regulations enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, eight months later, how do you think Slovenia handled the crisis, and do you think there are things that could have been done better? 

Kalas: The COVID-19 pandemic was completely unprecedented, and I do believe that most people did their very best. There will always be things that could have been done better, but it is also easy to criticize when the battle is over. In my personal view, Slovenia handled the crisis efficiently. Certain genuinely helpful measures for businesses were adopted relatively promptly. As a result, we did not experience the major wave of insolvencies that was expected upon the first lockdowns. I also believe that most individuals in the medical profession worked until (and often over) the verge of burn-out, and truly deserve applause. Also, most other public services remained available with bearable delays, or were quickly restored.

As regards room for improvement, as a lawyer I was most upset over certain regulations and actions of the authorities contravening the constitution, and about the introduction of certain institutes which were not really related to COVID-19 through intervening measures (such as proceedings for screening of foreign investments).

The public generally was – to my impression – most critical of the large number of deceased in elderly care centers, the often intimidating manner of communication by the authorities, the evident political pressure on expert institutions, the diverting of significant funds to importers of unvalidated rapid COVID tests, and the suppression of public protests.

CEELMDirect: Are there any major or significant changes or initiatives underway at Selih & Partnerji you’re proud of and would like to tell us about? 

Kalas: One initiative that we are particularly proud of is our recent obtaining of the certificate of a Socially Responsible Employer, which recognized our care for employees and our investment in their development, the maintaining of fair and transparent relationships towards employees, clients, business partners, and the society in which we operate, and our care for the environment.

CEELMDirect: You have a Premium profile on the CEELMDirect platform. What potential do you think the platform has to help you and your colleagues? 

Kalas: In my view, the greatest potential of this platform lies in the easy access to several different types of information relevant for law firms – legal briefings, reports on transactions, activity rankings, and more. Just a glance over the page during the morning coffee and there you are – fully up to date with the most recent happenings in the CEE legal market.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Mojmir Ostermann, Managing Partner of Ostermann & Partners in Zagreb.

CEELMDirect: How was the first half of 2022 for you, your firm, and your clients? 

Ostermann: It was very active, especially on the M&A front, while our Disputes team was busy as always. At the end of period, the headline deal we worked on regretfully did not come through but, in turn, the second half started with interesting finance mandates. We noticed that, despite sharp inflation, prices on the legal market remained at the same level. 

CEELMDirect: In an interview with you back in April 2020 that appears on your CEELMDirect profile (here), you reviewed the Croatian government’s early response to the then-new COVID-19 crisis. Looking back on it, how do you think Croatia handled the crisis, and do you think there are things that could have been done better? 

Ostermann: I would say that, in general, Croatia handled the crisis very well. We had a successful tourism year in 2020, unlike those Mediterranean countries that followed the lockdown path, and that helped many small businesses survive. On the other hand, after a great start, the government lost credibility in the public eye for some mismanaged political decisions.

CEELMDirect: On a personal note, how did you get into the law? What first inspired you to pursue a legal career?

Ostermann: As a kid in the early 80s I used to watch LA Law, and I liked the idea of being a trial lawyer. In the final year of high school, I considered studying history, but my history teacher told me not to be nuts and that I should study law, while I can always read (history) books in my leisure time. It turned out to be great advice. As a lawyer I do not happen to have much leisure time, but law is truly my favorite discipline. I cannot imagine myself now reading history books.

CEELMDirect: You have a Premium profile on the CEELMDirect platform. What potential do you think the platform has to help you and your colleagues? 

Ostermann: We see the platform as a means to enhance the visibility of lawyers in the CEE region, as well as the region itself. It is a great source of information and practically the only legal platform that focuses specifically on the CEE region, so it made perfect sense to join.

CEELMDirect: Finally, are there any major or significant changes or initiatives underway at Ostermann & Partners you’re proud of and would like to tell us about? 

Ostermann: Last year we invested a lot of time and resources in developing a new, custom-made IT application for case management. The project has taken more time than planned but, finally, in the second half of this year, we are going on cloud, when our billing application will be merged with the case management application. It is one of probably-less-than-five Croatian tailor-made legal applications. This will help us be far more data-safe, while our case management and reporting will enable us to be even more efficient.

Last year has been a busy time in terms of warranty & indemnity insurance for the CEE market, according to W&I Insurance Broker and Advisor and former M&A lawyer Gergely Juhasz.

“A few years back I was the only lawyer from CEE who worked on the global W&I insurance market in London – already having a good knowledge of the CEE M&A market due to my Hungarian legal background,” Juhasz begins. “However, ten years ago, W&I insurance was seldomly applied in CEE, compared to the other parts of the world.” This trend, according to Juhasz, has now changed – “these days lawyers and investors are increasingly recognizing the benefits of insuring transactions, and in the last few years, the number of deals submitted to insurance has multiplied. There is more interest in W&I insurance everywhere in the CEE than before and I am very happy to see a greater professional interest by lawyers and ex-lawyers alike in legal indemnities insurances.”

“RFB Consulting is an advisory entity working as part of UlysseRe for the actual placement of W&I insurance. Together with UlysseRe, we also co-operate with other insurance brokers who do not have their own W&I teams – such as HunInsurance in Hungary, or GrECo in Austria, to mention a few in the CEE. Through broker partners and directly, we are active in all countries in Europe, but among them, we have core markets in Austria, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, and the Czech Republic,” Juhasz explains. “W&I insurance is applied for both real estate and corporate takeovers but the W&I insurance market is slightly different locally in every country. We work mainly on real estate transactions in, for example, Poland and Hungary, while in Slovenia we are more active on corporate deals.” According to him, “this can be explained by local factors such as the structure of the economy and the regulatory environment, but the general investment climate is very positive across the CEE these days for insuring both real estate and corporate takeovers.” 

Juhasz explains that the increased use of W&I insurance “is accelerated by CEE investors and lawyers becoming more aware of these kinds of products over time. The global transactional liability insurance market has grown and more insurers can underwrite risks in the CEE region. One of the benefits of the product is that it reduces both country and legal forum risks, provides a clean exit for the sellers, and increased protection for buyers,” he adds. “A seller wants to incur as few liabilities as possible but avoid the loss of purchase price. In some instances, a state entity or disrupted seller is not even in a position to warrant for their assets. For the buyers, the greatest benefit is that they can have recourse against the insurer when they have concerns about the financial strength of the seller or the targeted company.”

Juhasz notes that negotiation is a key element in obtaining a good W&I insurance policy. “The placement of the insurance is almost subject to the same level of complex negotiations as an asset- or share purchase agreement – it is a lengthy process, but working with the right broker makes the lawyers’ jobs easier,” he adds, explaining that insurers underwrite the risk but brokers manage the clients directly or work with referrals from law firms. “The more general trend is to have a good relationship with law firms as they understand the product better and can make more competent referrals on a deal-to-deal basis,” he notes.

Juhasz believes that this pattern is bound to continue. “There is still optimism in global markets about the CEE,” he notes. “Of course, with the rise of competition, the insurance services are becoming more sophisticated with time to reflect market demands for different pricing and coverage options.” According to him, despite the pandemic and the crisis in Ukraine, insurers are still continuing to be more comfortable with underwriting risks in CEE. “The claims’ question is always relevant to our industry,” he adds. “With the expansion of W&I insurance, more claims will be presented and other types of liability products are also likely to become popular, including tax, contingent liability, and environmental insurance. The M&A landscape suggests that not only global investors are coming to CEE, but the CEE investors are also going global, and we also aim to assist the latter with their global ambitions,” he concludes.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Djordje Novcic, Partner at JPM.

CEELMDirect: According to your CEELMDirect profile, you specialize in Dispute Resolution at JPM. Can you tell us a bit about your practice?

Novcic: I have been a part of JPM’s team for the last 15 years. I started as a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team and, after five years, I was promoted to Partner and made the Head of the Dispute Resolution team. Since my childhood, I have always been interested in finding a solution to problems that involved more than one person. To my mind, any problem can be solved if the parties have the will to discuss the issue at hand. At the same time, I am against resolutions that serve to benefit only one party, as settlements need to be fair and just.

With that in mind, you can imagine my work in JPM has been, and still is, a fantastic ride. Honestly, I enjoy every day of it. Most of my work comes from commercial disputes that are brought before the Serbian Commercial Court. However, my work related to advising and representing clients in arbitration has significantly increased in the last five years, as it appears Serbian companies enjoy the advantages arbitration has over proceedings before local courts. That is something I am particularly proud of as a member of Belgrade Arbitration Centre’s working group for promoting arbitration in Serbia.

CEELMDirect: Tell us more about the Dispute Resolution team at JPM. 

Novcic: JPM’s Dispute Resolution team has ten lawyers, in three teams covering commercial disputes and arbitration, civil disputes, and white-collar crime. I’m proud to note that my colleagues are among the most experienced and appreciated in the Serbian market. We represent clients in almost every industry and sector, from emerging start-ups in growth industries to established heavyweights in more mature markets.

CEELMDirect: Tell us a bit about the judicial system in Serbia. In your opinion, is it reliable, efficient, transparent? Are there problems you would like to see addressed?

Novcic: In general, the judicial system in Serbia can be perceived as fair and transparent, especially when it comes to proceedings in Serbia’s Commercial Courts. There is always the issue of efficiency – i.e., the duration of proceedings. Truth be told, it has significantly improved over the last decade, especially after introducing the concept of time duration for the proceedings, where, at the very beginning of the proceedings, the parties and the court set forth a timetable of the events to be undertaken, as well as specific dates for each event. At the same time, I am of the opinion that there remain a lot of things to be enhanced and refined, like appointing and educating judges with special fields of expertise, introducing paperless proceedings, and also enhancing the involvement of advocacy in resolving the problems of the legal community.

CEELMDirect: What drew you into the law? Why did you decide to become a lawyer?

Novcic: When I look back, it appears there was never a different choice for me. Coming from a family of legal professionals, I was first surrounded by and then very curious about the work my close family members did. I remember Sunday lunches where we discussed interesting points from well-known cases, often leading to an argument without general consent. Now, we agree to keep these kinds of discussions away from Sunday lunches.

CEELMDirect: On a personal note, what do you like to do when you’re out of the office? What other passions/interests do you enjoy?

Novcic: Aside from my work, I enjoy spending time with my family. We are all very much into sports, from weekend walks in the park to winter skiing or summer paddle boarding. Every now and then, my wife and I try to find time to hang out with our friends or enjoy a concert.

CEELMDirect: Finally, you have a Premium profile on the CEELMDirect platform. What potential do you think the platform has to help you and your colleagues? 

Novcic: The platform seems to be a great place to share experiences with the regional law community. We are happy for the opportunity to follow professional developments in other jurisdictions and compare those to the work in Serbia. I find this exchange both interesting and valuable.

CEELMDirect: Thank you, Djordje, and enjoy the rest of your summer!

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Darija Ognjenovic, Partner at Prica & Partners in Belgrade.

CEELMDirect: According to your CEELMDirect profile, you joined Prica & Partners in 2004 and became Partner in 2008. How has the firm changed in the almost 20 years since you joined it – and how has the Serbian legal market changed?

Ognjenovic: I’ve been in the firm for so long that I can easily compare the work to marriage – for better and for worse. Seriously, there were difficult times in the beginning, since we were one of the first law firms incorporated in the form of a company – at the time, it was rare in the market, unlike now, when most medium-sized and large law firms are organized as companies. What has changed the most during the last 20 years is the legal profession itself, namely, we became more and more business oriented. Instead of doing strictly legal work, we are now included in rendering business decisions by our clients and we have to make in-depth analyses of their industries. Having in mind that most industries have their own specifics, we need to gain respective comprehensive knowledge in order to meet clients’ needs to the highest possible extent.

Another massive change is the daily use of different IT tools, including numerous databases (legal, business, scholar, articles), and numerous programs which ease our work but, on the other hand, make it more uniform. It is obvious that in the legal market, unlike the role of lawyers in the past, we have become more and more sales-people who sell their product (e.g., agreements, due diligence reports, etc.) and compete with each other mostly based on pricing, instead of quality. Nevertheless, I still enjoy dealing with complex legal issues and structures, with the same passion as 20 years ago.

CEELMDirect: You lead the Prica & Partners Competition practice and are obviously highly familiar with Serbia’s competition authority, the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition. As an expert, what is your view of the authority? Is there anything it could do better, either in its procedures or its rulings – or anything you think it does particularly well?

Ognjenovic: Since its official commencement of work back in 2005, the authority has been constantly improving, educating, and employing competent staff, and we are in most cases satisfied with its work. This is a rare institution where politics does not seem to influence the work of the authority and selection of the workforce to a high extent, which results in rather competent and knowledgeable officers. However, there is always room for improvement, and there are issues we believe should be changed – the most important being communication with lawyers and parties. The authority adopted very strict rules on meetings with the parties, mostly refusing to communicate, which we believe is not productive for either the parties or the authority itself. This leads to significant time loss and, at the end of the day, cost increases for the clients, and we hope that the authority will change its attitude in the future and loosen its rigid policy. 

CEELMDirect: What with COVID, global inflation, and a major military conflict not too far away, this has obviously been a challenging past few years in Serbia, as across CEE and the world. In your opinion, how has Serbia weathered those storms – and is there something you think the country could or should do better going forward? 

Ognjenovic: The government was initially slow to recognize the real danger of COVID, but eventually handled it pretty well, with only a few downsides. As regards the economy, it obviously suffers the consequences of COVID, as well as the military conflict in Europe. All in all, the situation is similar to that in neighboring countries.

Notwithstanding the above, what COVID did to the economy, society, and companies, including law firms, is enhance the awareness of the importance of mental health. It seems that most of us are becoming aware that we need to give space to lawyers to freely talk about their mental health and be certain that doing so will not affect their careers in any manner. Further, I think most of us have recognized that people need a space to disconnect, instead of being available via email 24/7.

Another issue is the wide use of working from home. It definitely enabled more flexibility, but on the other hand, made work present at home, so deleting or at least blurring the boundaries between work and life. It yet remains to be seen whether this will be a temporary solution only during the pandemic, but it seems to me that it will probably remain once the pandemic is over, due to productivity and especially cost effectiveness.

CEELMDirect: You have a Premium profile on the CEELMDirect platform. What potential do you think the platform has to help you and your colleagues?

Ognjenovic: We think having a premium profile on the CEELMDirect legal platform is a great marketing opportunity and are very glad that you launched the platform, since we are certain that CEELMDirect is the leading legal directory in the region, which makes it more important for our marketing purposes than other large international platforms. In addition, it is now easier to find the contacts of our colleagues in the neighboring and CEE countries, as we are mostly engaged in international/regional transactions.

CEELMDirect: Finally, are there any major or significant changes or initiatives underway at Prica & Partners you’re proud of and would like to tell us about?

Ognjenovic: We are proud that we have recently launched our Italian desk, intended for Italian clients, where we offer a wide range of legal advisory and solutions customized to the specific needs of Italian businesses in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investments, corporate and commercial law matters, business restructuring, etc. Our dedicated team of experts provides bilingual support to Italian-speaking clients.

We already established a Montenegrin desk a while ago, related to transactions concerning Montenegro, since we practice law there based on a bilateral treaty and are often engaged in transactions covering the Montenegrin territory. Due to such a heavy workload, we are now in the process of establishing a physical presence, i.e., an office in Montenegro. The process was delayed due to the pandemic, but we hope we will complete it in the near future. CEE Legal Matters will of course be the first to know.

In addition, although many firms decrease their office spaces due to working-from-home, we decided to invest in new office space in the Belgrade city center, right across from the old Royal Court, with nice views, in order to improve our work environment. We strongly believe that in order for the business to grow, we need to keep our people happy and satisfied.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with partners and firms with profiles on the new CEELMDirect online legal directory. Today’s interview: Igor Zivkovski, Partner at Zivkovic Samardzic in Serbia.

CEELMDirect: Igor, how has the first half of 2022 been for you, your firm, and your clients? 

Zivkovski: The first and second quarters of 2022 were very challenging in all areas of the economy, not only in Serbia, but across the Western Balkans. We were faced with the consequences of the COVID pandemic, with military conflict in the east of Europe, as well as with a global crisis and inflation whose effects will be seen in the third and fourth quarters of 2022 and in 2023.

Despite everything, in this challenging and rapidly changing environment, our business is recording growth. We managed to maintain our position as one of the leading full-service independent law firms in Serbia and Montenegro. Especially in the first two quarters of this year, our law firm was involved in many significant transactions, and drafted legal opinions, and provided legal advice. I would particularly like to mention our legal analysis of Serbia’s regulatory framework related to the issuance of and the exchange and trading platform for stablecoins, which is of great importance considering that the framework for digital assets is still new, and yet to be tested in practice.

I am optimistic about the future as we continue to be responsible and provide creative solutions to the challenges our clients face.

CEELMDirect: You have, over the years, contributed 16 thought leadership articles to the CEE Legal Matters website – far more than most lawyers. Do you enjoy the process of considering and preparing these analyses? How does doing so fit into your personal concept of lawyering? 

Zivkovski: I believe that lawyers are writers. Whether it is a merger agreement, an email to a client, or draft legislation, the legal craft is often a written one. Sure, a brief legal opinion may not be a literary masterpiece, but it is at least a testament to your skill with the written word. So why not put that skill to better use? Publishing articles regularly can help lawyers build a name, establish themselves as experts, and increase their credibility, especially if the articles are published on an important platform, which the CEE Legal Matters website certainly is, with great traffic and many decision-makers reading the articles. Moreover, you might actually enjoy it. 

I am very active as a lecturer at the Academy of the Legal Profession of the Bar Association of Serbia and at the eCommerce Academy of the eCommerce Association of Serbia, so I know that academics are familiar with the phrase “publish or perish.” It represents the idea that the continued publication of scholarly articles is essential to maintaining an academic career – the pressure to pad your CV has grown so strong that many academics pay to have their pieces published, even in respected journals. The reason for writing is simple: the more quality writing you put out, and the more people see your name, the more credible you become in your field.

CEELMDirect: What with COVID, global inflation, and a major military conflict not too far away, this has obviously been a challenging past few years in Serbia, as across CEE and the world. In your opinion, how has Serbia weathered those storms – and is there something you think the country could or should do better going forward?

Zivkovski: The Serbian economy recovered well from a mild recession in 2020 that was related to the impact of COVID-19. The economy grew in 2021, driven mainly by private consumption, due to a strong increase in salary levels and consumer loans. The economic recovery in 2021 was broad, except for the agriculture sector. 

Growth is expected to decelerate in 2022, and the risks to the growth outlook are tilted downwards. However, the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions imposed on Russia will have an impact on Serbia’s exports, foreign direct investment, remittances, and tourism revenues. As such, economic growth for 2022 has been revised downward. Poverty reduction is expected to stagnate in 2022, as higher inflation is eroding income gains.

The unfolding war in Ukraine poses a significant downside risk to household welfare in Serbia. Although the Serbian economy is expected to continue to grow, rising inflation will limit the purchasing power of citizens. Rising energy prices, if passed onto household energy tariffs, would disproportionately affect the poor.

CEELMDirect: You have a Premium profile on the CEELMDirect platform. What potential do you think the platform has to help you and your colleagues?  

Zivkovski: The CEELMDirect platform is a very useful initiative that has been long-awaited. A legal directory like CEELMDirect gives us the opportunity to become well-known throughout the region, which represents a great chance to reach future clients. Potential clients can use the platform to obtain necessary information about law firms as well as about their partners, i.e., the leading people of the law firm. All this is available at a very reasonable price, which is another advantage.

CEELMDirect: Finally, are there any major or significant changes or initiatives underway at Zivkovic Samardzic you’re proud of and would like to tell us about?

Zivkovski: Currently, we are emphasizing the following four areas: (1) Optimizing networking capacity and our ability to enter new markets, since we are currently members of five different international law/accounting associations, and last year we participated in forming a new regional network called Rivet:net, so we need to take full advantage of all this power; (2) Our idea is to remain a full-service law firm, but each department should further develop the skills and approach of highly-specialized boutique establishments in order to add value on both ends; (3) Technology – the continuous improvement of internal software solutions; and (4) Compliance and standardization (final introduction of the ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards).

CEELMDirect: Excellent. Thank you so much.