Category: On the Move

GRATA International has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation with the Belarus-based Arzinger & Partners law firm, according to which Arzinger & Partners will provide GRATA International clients with “comprehensive legal support in Belarus and other countries where Arzinger & Partners has presence.”

GRATA International was established in 1992, and now has 120 lawyers, with offices in Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Mongolia. The firm also has representative offices in China, Netherlands, UAE, United Kingdom, and the United States. Arzinger & Partners was established in 1990 in Germany, and the firm opened its Minsk office in 2006.

Tlek Baigabulov, Senior Partner at GRATA International, said that: “We are very happy to join our efforts to develop a global law firm – GRATA International, with real experts and associates from Arzinger & Partners. We are confident that the synergies and ambitions of the cooperation will not only help to strengthen significantly our position in Belarus but also to expand presence of GRATA International in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. We hope we will soon tell good news to our clients about expansion and opening full services practices in China, UAE, and South Korea.”

For his part, Sergei Mashonski, the Managing Partner of Arzinger & Partners, said: “The cooperation is an important step in the development of our firms. Such integration is a logical step forward in view of strengthening of various associations in the CIS countries, including the EurAsEC (Eurasian Economic Community). Our association is not limited to the post-Soviet countries and taking into account the experience of Arzinger & Partners in working with European companies, together we intend to expand our geographical presence in other countries as well.”

 

Peters & Partners and ETilling have joined forces resulting in Tilling Peters with Oxana Peters and Ekaterina Tilling as the new firm’s Senior Partners.

The new team has 9 lawyers and, according to Tilling, is going to expand further in the near future. Tilling told CEE Legal Matters that Tilling Peters is primarily going to focus on dispute resolution, but will also cover general commercial and corporate matters. 

Prior to Peters & Partners, Peters spent 4 years with Dechert, preceeded by 5 years with Noerr, where she was the head of the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice in Moscow.

Tillng previously worked, in reverse order, as the Head of IP of Baker Botts, Goltsblat BLP, and Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners (now Pepeliaev Group since the departure of former Partner Andrey Goltsblat). Earlier experience includes co-founding the Ars Iuris Bar Association, and working as a lawyer for the Yust law firm.

Pinar Aksakal Aydin is Legal Counsel at Zorlu Holding, one of the largest corporate groups in Turkey, where she leads Zorlu Energy, managing a team of 11 lawyers and reporting directly to the Zorlu Holding Head of Legal. Zorlu Group companies are active principally in the areas of textiles, electronics manufacturing, energy, and financial services. Aydin joined Zorlu Holding in January 2009 and – with the exception of a brief period at Avea Iletisim Hizmetleri in 2012 – and has been there since. Before joining Zorlu Holding she spent a year at the well-known Eryurekli & Fidan law office, and a little over a year at the Salih Zeki Bayten law office.

P.A.: Actually it was not a deliberate decision, but I can say that it was a good coincidence. In 2008 I was working for a small law firm the primary activity area of which specialized in project finance deals. In that year most of the projects that the law firm was retained on were energy projects, and so I started working on these projects. Due to the financial crisis at the end of 2008 the partners of the law firm had to split their ways. Simultaneously I learnt that Zorlu Enerji was looking for a lawyer, and considering my energy projects background, I applied for this position.

P.A.: For the entire Zorlu group of companies there is a legal team of 45 persons working under the management of the Chief Legal Officer. This team consists of lawyers, legal managers, secretaries, and paralegals. For the energy group of companies I manage a team of 11 persons. My primary responsibilities are providing legal services to all energy group companies, ensuring that the legal services are provided in a proper manner, determining the strategy of the department together with the Chief Legal Officer, maintaining relationships with other departments of the group companies, reviewing, negotiating the agreements which have strategic importance for group companies, preparing the budget of the department, and representing the companies before courts and public authorities.

P.A.: Since we are working on a determined budget, it is unreasonable to say that fees are not important for us. While selecting a law firm we pay attention to their fee proposal, but apart from that in our view the firm’s experience on the selected project or deal and its references have more importance than their proposal.

P.A.: I believe that the entrance of international law firms into the Turkish legal market is a big step in terms of developing the market. In the future I would like to see more international law firms in the market so that the working environment becomes more professional.

P.A.: Of course we give importance to rankings and initial proposals, but the determinant factor for us is the referral/recommendation. If, in the past, a law firm worked for one of our group companies and this company was content of their work we may be inclined to select them.

P.A.: Every morning before starting to work we check the websites of the official gazette, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority, and the Capital Markets Board. In this way we keep ourselves updated.

P.A.: There will be a change in the natural gas legislation. We expect that this change will impact the natural gas market and in turn our work in a substantial way.

P.A.: Zorlu has a fast moving environment. In Zorlu every day is a new challenge. That’s why I cannot make any distinction on my assignments, but I can easily say that working for Zorlu is a pleasure for me in itself.

P.A: The dynamic working environment is my favorite part of being at Zorlu. It keeps me alive and updated.

This Article was originally published in Issue 2.1. of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. 

Seven CEE lawyers have been promoted to Partner by CMS. Romanian lawyer Cristina Reichmann, Czech lawyers Lukas Hejduk and Patrik Przyhoda, Polish lawyers Jakub Marcinkowski and Iga Lis, Austrian lawyer Clemens Grossmayer, and dual-qualified (and London-based) Romanian lawyer Anela Musat were among the 39 lawyers joining the firms’ partnership in Europe and the Middle East. Women accounted for 18 of the 39 firm’s global promotions, and 7 of the 10 UK lawyers promoted to Partner were female. 

Prague-based Lukas Hejduk is the Head of Prague’s Hotel & Leisure group and the Deputy Head of the CEE Hotel & Leisure group.  He specializes in complex real estate investment and restructuring transactions involving institutional and private investors. He has experience in construction projects, development, leasing, sale and lease-backs, hotel management agreements, and various investment transactions. He began his career with five years at Havel & Holasek in the Czech Republic before joining CMS in April 2006. He received his law degree from the Charles University Faculty of Law in 2005.

Corporate and commercial lawyer Patrik Przyhoda has been part of CMS’s Prague office since 2002. His experience includes advising clients on corporate restructuring, including mergers, de-mergers and business sales, as well as on various aspects of company-related regulatory issues, insolvency and capital markets. He also assists clients with general day-to-day company-related legal issues and agreements and has extensive experience with M&A and management of due diligence and vendor due diligence processes. He received both his Master’s and a Ph.D. in Law from Charles University in Prague.

Warsaw-based Jakub Marcinkowski specializes in corporate, commercial, and civil law, and has advised on a number of mergers and acquisitions and private equity transactions, as well as on general corporate issues. He joined Baker & McKenzie after graduating from the University of Warsaw in 2004, and after 2 years there he moved to CMS, where he has been since.

Warsaw-based Iga Lis works in the Energy Department in CMS, where she specializes in the field of conventional energy and heavy industry, primarily on the development, construction, and operation of different contractual structures of new installations in power generation, refining, and metallurgical plants. Her experience also includes the preparation and negotiation of various agreements involving the multi-contracting and turn-key structure. Lis has represented clients in proceedings based on the Act on Public Procurement Law, and she has participated in a number of negations and preparation of public procurement projects. She graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw, and she joined CMS in 2007.

Vienna-based Clemens Grossmayer joined CMS in 2005. He specializes in M&A transactions, corporate finance, and general corporate law.

Bucharest-based Cristina Reichmann is Head of Capital Markets in Romania for CMS, and she specializes on all types of capital markets work, including IPOs on local and international markets, takeover public offerings and squeeze-out procedures, acquisition/disposal of financial instruments, investment funds, and management companies. 

Romanian (but London-based) lawyer Anela Musat began her career with 5 and a half years at Linklaters in Bucharest — a period which concluded with a 10-month secondment to the Royal Bank of Scotland in London. In June 2010 she joined CMS’s International Private Equity practice in London, where she focuses on cross-border transactions (particularly in emerging markets). She has significant M&A, private equity and corporate finance experience, having advised private equity players, corporates, and finance institutions on, among other things, leveraged buy-outs, equity and debt financings, restructurings and exits. She has a particular focus on telecoms, healthcare, and retail. She received her degree from the Facultatea de Drept, Universitatea Bucuresti in 2004 and is qualified in both the UK and Romania.

CMS Senior Partner Penelope Warner, said of the promotions that: “We are delighted to welcome these talented individuals to the partnership. These promotions were made across a number of areas, and reflect the talent and commitment of our lawyers as we grow the firm internationally. We are proud that seven of the 10 partners in the UK are women, reinforcing our strong commitment to diversity.”

CMS Executive Chairman Cornelius Brandi added: “The naming of 39 new partners is a clear indication that CMS is continuing on its course of growth and expansion. With over 800 lawyers in total in 59 locations, we have a very strong position in the international legal market.”

Prague-based Tomicek Legal has announced that it and Bratislava-based Fox Martens have founded the CEE Attorneys network, which aims to “provide superior legal services to its clients in the whole Central European region through a group of cooperating law firms.”

Tomicek Legal Managing Partner Zdenek Tomicek is unsurprisingly enthusiastic about the new network, which went active on March 1, 2015. “In most cases our major clients are companies operating in multiple jurisdictions within the Central European region,” Tomicek explains. “Therefore it is quite logical that we want to ensure for them the highest standard of legal services where they operate.” Accordingly, Zdenek plans to extend the network beyond the Czech Republic and Slovakia: “Our vision is to extend the network of CEE Attorneys not only to all countries of the Visegrad Group (Visegrad Four), but also to other Central European countries as well as the countries in which our clients operate. At present we are actively negotiating not only with several specific law firms in Germany and Poland, but also in Turkey.”

Tomicek explained to CEE Legal Matters that partnering with other firms was an important part of his plan when starting his own office in 2013. The former DLA Piper and PWC lawyer referred to the increasing number of Czech firms starting to to business outside the country as the basis for his efforts in founding the network, which he also hopes will also eventually include firms in Austria and Hungary. 

Michal Martinek, Partner at Fox Martens, shares his counterpart’s confidence.“We believe that through the network of CEE Attorneys we will be able to offer to clients the maximum added value in legal services while maintaining rates reflecting the price level in the region. Together with our colleagues from the Czech Republic and other candidate law firms in given jurisdictions, with which we are actively negotiating, we want to create a leading network of top legal advisers. Individual candidates to this network undergo a long screening process so that we can offer to our clients the best possible legal advice in all countries of the region.” 

The teams associated with Magnusson in Latvia and Belarus before separating from the firm in controversial circumstances this past summer have announced that they are once again doing business as Vilgerts — the name they operated under before the 2012 tie-up with Magnusson. Simultaneously, Vilgerts announced that it has opened offices in Estonia and Lithuania “to ensure consistently high quality of our services to clients throughout the region.”

Vilgerts Managing Partner Gints Vilgerts has previous experience leading the Latvian operations of both Sorainen and Varul. He put out a shingle under his own name in 2008, and his firm opened an office in Minsk in 2011, before tying up with Magnusson in October, 2012. Although only together for 18 months before a messy separation from Magnusson this past August, Vilgerts claims to have been the highest ranked office in Legal500 in the Magnusson network. 

According to Managing Partner Gints Vilgerts: “We have so much adrenaline today after what we learned at Magnusson. We think that we really did the right thing. Now we are in search of partners in Lithuania and Estonia and getting reconnected to the rest of business law community in Europe. Our practice focus remains very conservative. We wish to grow via micro-mergers and to become the top firm in M&A, Competition, IPR, Tax and Litigation. Our clients support this change and they encourage us.”

Magnusson International has announced that it is “discontinuing cooperation with the current Riga and Minsk teams” effective as of August 16, 2014. The northern European firm maintains its offices in Sweden, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, Norway, and Poland.

In an exclusive conversation with CEE Legal Matters, Senior Partner Per Magnusson explained that the Riga and Minsk offices “did not live up to the standards that we set forth,” and although the firm had made attempts to improve upon the performance of the lawyers in those offices, the firm’s partners felt they had no choice but to end the relationship.  Asked about what would happen with the firm’s clients, Magnusson was sanguine. “Clients tend to go where they go,” he said. “This will play out naturally.” 

The firm’s primary goal, Magnusson explained, is to make sure that there is no disruption to the affairs of the firm’s international and institutional clients. To that end, Magnusson stated, “in the short term we have people in place that can work under our supervision.” The firm is also already “very active” in finding long term solutions in Belarus and Latvia, and Magnusson reports being involved already in ongoing discussions with potential replacements. He hopes to have the process completed before the end of the year. Still, he cautions, “given this experience, we want to be very diligent about finding the right team.”

Susanne Marston, former Vice President & Chief Counsel for the EMEA region at the Eaton Corporation joined APM Terminals, an independent unit of the Danish Maersk Group, as their General Counsel in August and is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Marston was previously based in Morges, Switzerland. As part of her role with Eaton, she was heading up the regional law department and was responsible for the handling of all legal aspects of doing business in Europe, Middle East and Africa, including Intellectual Property, the implementation of tax strategies, and the management of risks related to the expansion into Russia, Middle East, and Africa. Prior to joining Eaton in September 2006, she worked for a little over 5 years as International Legal Counsel with GMAC Automotive and GMAC Insurance in the United Kingdom.

APM Terminals operates a Global Terminal Network of 20,300 employees on five continents which includes 65 operating port and terminal facilities in 39 countries, and over 160 Inland Services operations in 47 countries. The company provides port management and operations to over 60 liner shipping customers who serve the world’s leading importers and exporters of containerized and other cargoes.

In CEE, the company’s global terminal network of ports includes Tallinn in Estonia, and St. Petersburg, (4 Terminals: Petrolesport, First Container Terminal, Moby Dik Container Terminal and Ust-Luga Container Terminal), Moscow, and Vostochny in Russia, while its network of inland services includes terminals in Romania, Russia, and Turkey. The company reported a 2013 revenue of USD 4.33 billion.

 

In mid-July it was reported that Partner Perry Zizzi would be leaving Badea Clifford Chance in Bucharest to return to Dentons, where he had worked (under the Salans brand) before leaving 7 years before. On August 4 the news broke that long-time Ukrainian expert Adam Mycyk had joined Dentons as well. Mycyk moved over from Chadbourne & Parke, as that firm winds down its operations in Kiev. We reached out to Zizzi and Mycyk to ask them about their decisions to join Dentons.

 CEELM: Why Dentons? 

P.Z.: It was interesting to observe the evolution of the firm over 7 years from the outside and I was impressed with its flexibility and capacity to adapt rapidly to the realities of post-recession business. The firm has a highly developed entrepreneurial spirit yet it encourages cohesive practice groups and cooperation among offices and regions. I would go so far as to say that Dentons real estate practice in Europe works so well that it has become a model that other firms have tried to emulate. Additionally, Dentons’ polycentric character means that we don’t simply have a large headquarters that develops approaches to legal issues and creates templates in a top-down manner. Rather, each attorney – no matter in which office he or she is based – is given the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. Last but not least, it has been a smooth transition process to rejoining a place where I knew many people with whom I had worked very well.

A.M.: Believe it or not, in the 20 years that I’ve been in Ukraine, I’ve had two other missed opportunities to join Dentons in Kiev (actually, the former Salans office).  I first interviewed with Salans in 1995, but for reasons I now forget I decided to join Altheimer & Grey instead.  The second opportunity arose when Altheimer announced its dissolution back in 2003 and all of Altheimer’s international offices in the region decided to join Salans with the exception of Kiev and Warsaw, which teamed up with Chadbourne & Parke.  As they say, the third time’s the charm!  That – and of course the global reach of the firm, its long-term presence and commitment to Ukraine and the region and its fantastic visionary leadership – were the top selling points for me.   

 CEELM: What are your thoughts on prospects for business and investment in Romania and Ukraine at the moment, and in the near future?

P.Z.: Romania has tremendous capacity to generate economic growth. JP Morgan has recently included Romanian sovereign bonds in its global index of recommended emerging markets, and I trust this will send a positive signal to investors. There are opportunities in the financial sector, given the appetite of both large and medium banks for acquisition of both shares or assets portfolios. Private equity funds have started to eye Romania again, many of them with significant cash to invest. After a long period of downturn and then stagnation, the real estate market is recovering, although we might not necessarily witness a bubble due to the continuing difficult in procuring debt financing.

A.M.: Although it’s no secret that Ukraine has been under tremendous stress for the last 8 months, I have always been – and will remain – a Ukraine optimist.  This is a large market in the geographical center of Europe that everyone recognizes as having tremendous potential – and not only in areas such as agriculture, but also in energy, TMT and infrastructure, just to name a few.  Unfortunately over the years, due to high levels of corruption, slow-paced reforms, and a variety of other systemic problems, the level of foreign investment has remained below that of neighboring countries, with the market experiencing very good “highs” and very bad “lows.”  I feel confident that when the current difficulties stabilize, given Ukraine’s clear  European aspirations (the fight for which has, unfortunately, resulted in many lost lives) and the support of Western governments, levels of investment will begin to increase.  This will be gradual at first and will need to be accompanied with a number of reforms to further improve the business and investment climates, but in two to three years’ time I am certain that we will see a very busy legal services market in Ukraine. 

 CEELM: Is your role any different at Dentons than it was at your previous firm (Badea Clifford Chance for Perry, and Chadbourne for Adam)?

P.Z.: As head of the Bucharest office banking and finance practice, my priority at Dentons is to strengthen that particular practice.  Of course, I will also be a key part of the real estate team, as I was during my previous stint here. Regionally, I expect that I will advise on matters in a broader geographical area. 

A.M.: My role here will not be that much different than at Chadbourne. I have joined the firm as part of our Corporate group in Kyiv but I will continue to work on a variety of transactions, advising both Ukrainian companies and foreign investors, banks and financial institutions. Together with the team here, we have a shared vision for the development of the Ukraine practice and I plan on playing an integral role in achieving our common goals and increasing our market share. 

 CEELM: Obviously Perry knew many of the lawyers at Dentons well, having worked with many of them back when the firm operated under the Salans brand. But Adam, did you know members of the Dentons office personally before beginning talks about possibly joining them? 

A.M.: Yes, as a matter of fact I did.  I worked with two of the partners – Myron Rabij and Markian Silecky – at my first job in Kyiv over 20 years ago, and Natalia Selyakova was a client of ours years ago at Chadbourne before she joined Salans from one of the multinational banks in town.  It’s wonderful to be welcomed into an environment of strong and capable professionals who just also happen to be very nice people, which makes the transition that much easier.

 CEELM: Adam, did you bring any members of your team with you from Chadbourne?

A.M.: At this point in time I have made this transition alone – but it’s a small world and I hope that I have an opportunity to work with each of my talented former colleagues at some point again in the future!  I am lucky to have worked with so many talented Ukrainian lawyers over the years, many of whom are now highly regarded professionals on the market.

 

The KLC Law Firm in Greece has announced that three of its Senior Associates were promoted to Partner on July 14, 2014.  

The new Partners are Xenofon Papayiannis, Alexandros Tsirigos, and Theodore Loukopoulos. 

Tax expert Papayiannis joined KLC from Ernst and Young as a Senior Associate in 2006. In addition to his tax expertise, he advises on complex transactions and M&As. Tsigiros and Loukopoulos both joined the firm as trainees in 2001 and have been there since. Tsigiros focuses on M&As, Privatizations, and International Arbitration, particularly in the energy, construction, and financial services sectors. Loukopoulos works primarily in the pharmaceutical sector, where he advises Greek and multinational pharmaceutical companies on M&As, patent litigations, and matters related to the marketing of pharmaceutical products. 

imagecredits: klclawfirm.com