Category: On the Move

Sorainen has promoted Estonian lawyers Mihkel Miidla and Paul Kunnap and Lithuanian lawyers Augustas Klezys and Mantas Petkevicius to the firm’s partnership.

Mihkel Miidla, who specializes in IT and telecom-related matters, began his career with Sorainen ten years ago, immediately after obtaining his Master’s Degree from the University of Tartu. He is Head of the firm’s Communications, Media & Technology Sector Group and Head of the Information Technology & Data Protection Practice in Estonia. 

Paul Kunnap, who has been with Sorainen for 20 years, is the head of the firm’s Estonian Real Estate & Construction Sector Group. He advises mainly on real estate and construction and tax law matters. According to Sorainen, “Kunnap also has extensive knowledge in the M&A field and has advised [on] many transactions involving the food, energy, technology and real estate sectors.” He received his Master’s of Law degree from Estonia’s Concordia International University.

Augustas Klezys joined Sorainen in 2011 from DNB Nord, where he was Deputy Manager of the Legal Department. Since 2016, he has been Head of the firm’s Financial Services & Insurance Sector Group. According to Sorainen, he “has advised global financial institutions and major banks in Lithuania on a number of high-profile strategic transactions.” He specializes in financial services and regulation. He received his law degree from Vilnius University.

Mantas Petkevicius, who has been with the Sorainen since graduating from Vilnius University in 2003, is Head of the Lithuanian office’s Private Equity Practice. He has specializes in advising on corporate and tax matters, and according to the firm, he “regularly advises high-profile private equity and venture capital players on fund formation, portfolio management, investment restructuring, exits, and regulatory aspects. He has also experience in leveraged buyouts, management buyouts and buy-ins, venture capital (seed, start-up, growth capital) investments, angel investments as well as mezzanine financing.”

“Never before have we invited four partners to join simultaneously,” stated Sorainen Senior Partner Aku Sorainen. The move is even more significant as all four have grown within the firm and have, over many years, become leading specialists in their fields of practice – Mantas in M&A and private equity, Augustas in banking and finance, Mihkel in IT, IP and data protection and Paul in real estate related M&A, construction and tax.”

Sorainen now has 33 partners in four countries.

Schoenherr has promoted Austria IP lawyer Michael Woller and Czech corporate/M&A expert Vladimir Cizek to Contract Partner. 

Michael Woller, who joined Schoenherr in 2008 and coordinates the firm’s IP practice across CEE, specializes in intellectual property and unfair competition law. He has a particular focus on new technology matters, international trademark strategy and advertising, and unfair competition law — both non-contentious matters and litigation. He advises and represents many Austrian and international companies in the IT, pharma, and consumer industries. He received his law degree from the University of Vienna.

Vladimir Cizek, who joined Schoenherr in 2013, focuses mainly on M&A transactions, corporate law matters, banking & finance, and capital markets. In recent years, Cizek has also developed expertise in payments services regulations, and has advised EVO Payments International and Komercni Banka on building merchant acquiring alliances. Cizek also contributed to the establishment of the White Collar Crime task force in Schoenherr’s Prague office. He studied law at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK and holds a law doctorate degree from the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

Karanovic & Nikolic has announced that Marko Ketler has become Senior Partner at the firm, and that Ivan Nonkovic, Goran Radosevic, Ivana Disovic, Katarina Guduric, Jaka Simoncic, and Petar Mitrovic have been named Partner.

According to a statement on the Karanovic & Nikolic website, “we are proud to announce the promotion of these attorneys at law cooperating with Karanovic & Nikolic who have demonstrated their utmost professional excellence and in such a way contributed to strengthening our international practice and furthering the legal network’s reputation as a regional legal powerhouse.”

Slovenian lawyer Marko Ketler — a transactional lawyer specializing in Corporate/M&A and Banking and Finance — is an independent Attorney at Law admitted to the Slovenian Bar Association and practicing in Slovenia. According to K&N, he “has immense professional experience and niche expertise in takeovers, advising on the sale of non-performing loans and international financings.” He joined K&N in January 2015 after spending two and a half years at ODI Law and another three and a half years at Rojs, Peljhan, Prelesnik & Partners. He received his law degree in 2007 from the University of Ljubljana and an LL.M. from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2012. 

K&N reports that Serbian lawyer Ivan Nonkovic is “recognized for his keen professional and commercial insights, focuses on mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, privatizations, and corporate restructurings where he represents both public and private companies, as well as private equity firms in a variety of domestic and international transactions.” According to the firm, “Ivan’s broad experience includes counseling clients in a variety of industries, including healthcare, energy, retail, consumer products and services, manufacturing, and banking.” He joined K&N in 2008 immediately after graduating from the University of Belgrade.

Serbian lawyer Goran Radosevic is, according to K&N, “renowned for his ingenuity and strategic advice. Thanks to the breadth of his professional experience, he advises on a wide range of corporate and commercial law matters. His areas of expertise include contractual law, consumer protection, data protection, healthcare, public procurement, regulatory and compliance, anti-corruption, IT and intellectual property.” He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade in 2009.

Fellow Serbian lawyer Ivana Disovic is, K&N reports, “highly experienced in employment law and labor relations, and regularly advises both leading multinationals [and] domestic companies on all types of dispute resolution in the context of employment law, including litigation in the civil courts, arbitration and mediation of employee claims including in respect of dismissals, discrimination, and equality, and other labor dispute resolution matters. She also represents clients in corporate and commercial litigation and has in-depth knowledge of the pharma and FMCG sectors.” She joined K&N in 2010, and has a 2007 law degree from the University of Belgrade.

K&N reports that “Katarina Guduric brings unique perspective from the business world, joining the knowledge of what clients look for with in-depth legal professionalism. She advised clients in many major infrastructure transactions in Serbia and has extensive experience in transactions involving international banks and leading financial institutions, advising both lenders and the borrowers in a wide range of industries. She also specializes in the areas of insurance business and FX transactions.” Guduric initially joined Karanovic & Nikolic in June 2007, though she spent a year with BDK Legal before returning to the firm in January 2013. She also graduated from the University of Belgrade.

Slovenian lawyer Jaka Simoncic, the firm states, “is widely recognized for his breadth of knowledge and understanding of all aspects corporate / commercial and banking & finance matters. His expertise encompasses a full range of corporate work, principally in mergers and acquisitions and restructurings. Jaka also advises on privatizations, reorganizations, financing, data protection and other commercial arrangements and associated regulatory issues.” He began his career with Jadek & Pensa in Ljubljana in 2010 before moving to Karanovic & Nikolic in the spring of 2015. He graduated from the University of Ljubljana in 2007.

Finally, according to Karanovic & Nikolic, “Petar Mitrovic has played a leading role in some of the most high-profile energy projects related to both the development of new energy facilities and projects that aim to improve the regulatory framework for renewable energy sources. He is recognized as a top energy lawyer among relevant stakeholders. Petar is also a highly experienced tax attorney and he focuses on issues related to VAT and corporate income tax, general corporate law and M&A.” Mitrovic graduated from the University of Belgrade in 2009 and joined K&N in 2010. 

K&N Managing Partner Rastko Petakovic explained that “these individuals represent the next generation of Karanovic & Nikolic. Clients and peers recognize them as leading experts in their fields. They embody our core values, creativity and commercial approach. Often on the cutting-edge areas of the law, and with full commitment to our clients and teamwork, they have greatly contributed to the growth of our practice.”

CEE Attorneys has expanded into two new markets, with the December 1, 2017 addition of the Stadler & Bellak Law Office in Hungary and Semper Legal Attorneys at Law in Ukraine.

According to CEE Attorneys, Stadler & Bellak was created at the beginning of 2017 as a result of the merger of the Tamas Bellak and Endre Stadler firms. Both lawyers have over 20 years of private practice, and CEE Attorneys describes their “long-lasting partnership dating back to when both worked in the multinational banking business in the 1990s.”

“In essence, we wish to emulate the pattern of full service business law firms,” commented Tamas Bellak in a press release distributed by CEE Attorneys. “We selected and established our areas of specialization on the basis of our experience over the past few decades, during which we established good working relationships with a number of solicitors and other business partners. In joining CEE Attorneys as their Hungarian partner, we aim to provide high-quality, cost-efficient legal services to clients in Hungary and elsewhere in the region.”

Semper Legal has offices in both Kyiv and Lviv and has over 20 lawyers.

“Our main goal is to provide consistent legal support for our clients, asserting their rights in different legal areas,” said Partner Vadym Ivanov, in that same CEE Attorneys press release. “By becoming a part of CEE Attorneys we open new opportunities for our clients to be represented all over Central and Eastern Europe.”

“We are very happy to have found colleagues in Hungary and Ukraine who share a similar vision of the essentials required to develop a multinational legal service in Central and Eastern Europe and who wish to grow together,” said Zdenek Tomicek, Founding Partner of CEE Attorneys.

CEE Attorneys now has 11 offices in Central and Eastern Europe, on the ground in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and Partner Offices in India and China. 

Prague-based Jan Stejskal and Warsaw-based Aneta Urban have been promoted to Local Partner by White & Case as part of the firm’s global promotion round, effective January 1, 2018.

Stejskal works within the firm’s Global Mergers & Acquisitions Practice. Based in Prague, he advises clients on private equity and private mergers and acquisitions, primarily cross-border transactions with Czech aspects.

Urban works in the firm’s Global Banking Practice. Based in Warsaw, she advises Polish and foreign banks, financial institutions, borrowers, sponsors, investment funds and private equity funds on Polish and cross-border financing transactions.

According to White & Case, “the position of local partner is offered in select White & Case regions and locations where it is common market practice. At present this includes offices in Asia-Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The title of local partner is a recognized career step towards admission into firm partnership.”

Karanovic & Nikolic has announced that former Peterka & Partners Partner Alexander Poels joined it on September 1, 2017 as Partner and Director of International Relations. 

Poels, from Belgium, has 13 years of professional experience in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, all of which came at Peterka & Partners, where he was a Partner and Director of International Relations. He also was, for a time, Managing Partner of Peterka & Partners’ Ukrainian office, which he helped open in 2007. 

Karanovic & Nikolic describes him as “a highly experienced transactional M&A lawyer, having represented many leading global companies in high profile transactions throughout the CEE and SEE regions,” and reports that “Alexander has developed a unique international practice working with multinational clients in diverse sectors, ranging from banking and finance and private equity, to transport and logistics, manufacturing, pharma, and FMCG.” Finally, the firm reports, “with law degrees from leading universities in Belgium and Iceland, and having lived in 13 countries throughout Europe, North America and Australia and vast experience in international relations and law firm management, Alexander focuses a major part of his practice on client relations, business development and growth strategy.”

Poels will be based in the firm’s Ljubljana office.

Partner Sandor Haboczky has left the Budapest office of Schoenherr to join the Kapolyi Law Firm.

Haboczky, who joins Kapolyi as Partner, has been a Partner with Schoenherr for the past seven and a half years, where he headed the real estate, regulatory/energy, and litigation/dispute resolution practices. According to Kapolyi, “through these years, he has gained significant experience with complex real estate transactions, e.g. office, retail, hotel, and logistics investments and developments as well as with real estate aspects of numerous M&A deals.” In addition, the firm reports, he “was previously acting as a leading partner of a Budapest law firms’ association, primarily assisting a set of domestic private investors, where he joined following a period of more than five years spent as M&A lawyer with the Hungarian office of Baker & McKenzie.”

Haboczky brings with him Senior Associate Peter Gullai, who has been working on Habocky’s team since 2015, focusing primarily on regulatory, energy law, and real estate mandates.

“With these new hirings we would like to further strengthen our well established real estate practice,” commented Managing Partner Jozsef Kapolyi. “Sandor is a very experienced lawyer, forming also an assembled and dynamic team with Peter, and I am sure he will be a good leader of our expanded real estate team of five lawyers that has already been showing significant skills in recent domestic and international transactions. The extended Kapolyi team, consisting of 16 lawyers by now, shall not only play dominant role in relation with capital market and M&A deals but will also be able to sufficiently respond to the current market growth in the Hungarian real estate sector. Last but not least we want to give a real boost to the overall development and expansion projections of our law firm.”

Karl Juhan Paadam has been appointed Managing Partner of PwC Legal in Central and Eastern Europe, responsible for coordinating the network’s activity in seventeen European countries.

In addition to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as of the beginning of May Paadam’s area of responsibility includes the markets in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Montenegro.

PwC Legal Global’s Senior Partner Heinz-Klaus Kroppen claims that under Paadam, PwC Legal has risen to be among the leading law offices in the Baltic States. “On behalf of the PwC Legal network, we are very glad that our Central and Eastern European law offices will have an outstanding leader in Paadam,” Kroppen added.

Paadam says that PwC Legal will continue to expand vigorously in the entire region. “The quick growth of PwC Legal confirms we have the right business model — the network’s specialists from various areas of business consulting serve the needs of a single client at the same time, if necessary. Owing to its global reach, PwC Legal is a trendsetter, dictated mostly by the demands of our transnational clients,” says Paadam.

In recent years, PwC Legal has grown from 2000 to 3,500 legal advisers world-wide. In April, thirteen lawyers from Glimstedt joined Paadam in the Estonian office of PwC Legal.   

Kinstellar has promotions Iustinian Captariu and Remus Codreanu in Bucharest and Akos Nagy in Budapest to Partner.

According to Kinstellar, “Iustinian Captariu has over ten years of experience advising clients on competition, energy, joint ventures, and other transactional work. He focuses on all aspects of competition law and related areas including abuse of dominant position, cartels, merger control, joint ventures, dawn raids, and unfair competition, as well as on energy transactions and other energy matters. [He] is currently leading the firm’s Competition and Energy practices in Romania.”

Remus Codreanu, according to Kinstellar, “has over 13 years of broad and in-depth experience advising and representing Romanian and international companies active in various sectors, including IT, energy, retail, life sciences, construction, automotive, forestry & agriculture, and chemicals, His expertise spans several practice areas, including dispute resolution, white-collar crime, employment law, administrative law (including public procurement), intellectual property, insolvency, and media law. Over the years, Remus has advised and represented important local and international clients in contentious matters, including litigation & arbitration matters, before all levels of courts and other local and international jurisdictional bodies, including Romanian prosecution offices and related criminal courts.”

Before joining Kinstellar as an Associate in 2010, Codreanu worked as an independent litigation lawyer and as Head of the Legal Department of Romanian Public Television. Remus graduated from the Faculty of Law at Bucharest University. 

Finally, according to Kinstellar, Akos Nagy “focuses primarily on corporate and M&A transactions and has more than 12 years of significant, broad-based experience advising on asset and share deals, mergers, MBOs, joint venture investments, minority and majority investments, and corporate restructurings. Moreover, since 2014, AAkos has played a key role in the firm’s Compliance, Risk and Sensitive Investigations and White Collar Crime practices, working on complex and highly sensitive matters, and bringing consistent and valuable contributions to the know-how development of these practices. Sensitive commercial matters have become one of Ákos’ focus points, in addition to servicing his existing corporate clientele and advising on M&A transactions, with an emphasis on strategic investors active in the automotive, industrial, and pharma sectors.”

Nagy has been with Kinstellar since its inception in 2008 and previously with its Budapest team (then as Linklaters) since 2004, when he started his career. He graduated from the University of Debrecen and holds a degree in European law studies from Leiden University. He completed advanced postgraduate education in the field of information communication at Janus Pannonius University, Pécs (Hungary). Ákos also spent six months at Linklaters’ London office on secondment in 2008 in the Corporate Department working on M&A and capital market matters.

Kinstellar also announced that Romanian lawyer Zsuzsa Csiki and Ukrainian lawyer Olena Kuchynska were promoted to Counsel.

Jason Mogg, Kinstellar Managing Partner, commented that: ‘’We are fortunate to have Akos, Iustin, Remus, Olena, and Zsuzsa as part of our team. These promotions are in recognition of their importance to our firm and its future and to their commitment to delivering exceptional value to our clients. On behalf of the Partners and the entire firm, I warmly congratulate them! We look forward to their leadership and continuing contributions to the firm.’’

A new European law firm alliance with a substantial CEE presence has appeared on the legal scene. The new Act Legal alliance (branded in lower-case, as “act legal”) consists of founding members AC Tischendorf (in Germany), BSWW (in Poland), MPH (Slovakia), Randa Havel Legal (Czech Republic), Vivien & Associes (France), and WMWP (Austria).

According to a press release distributed by the new alliance, “with around 250 first-class corporate lawyers, tax consultants and business experts, act legal will be the very first choice for top-quality legal advice in Europe.” That same press release claims that “act legal plans to provide global support to clients through its existing network memberships, linking it to more than 57 law firms and approximately 1,350 lawyers in all major business centers of the world.”

Act Legal’s activities will be coordinated by a team consisting of Sven Tischendorf from AC Tischendorf, Nicolas Vivien from Vivien & Associes, and Martin Randa from Randa Havel Legal.

Martin Randa explains: “Changes in the way of our clients work, in particular by increasing international trade interdependence and consolidating of originally local businesses into larger units, have been the main impulse for the formation of act legal. With act legal our aim is quite plainly to offer the market the best of all legal consultancy worlds, by combining top partner-led, local law firms with international professionalism. In addition, act legal will offer talented, entrepreneurial-minded, internationally-oriented lawyers an attractive platform for their professional careers.”

Act Legal reports that it “aims to have its own offices in all major countries of Europe,” and that “initial talks are already underway with high-performing law firms in Scandinavia and Southern Europe focused on Corporate, M&A, and General Commercial law.”