Three lawyers from CEE — Romanian tax specialist Tudor Nedelea, Ukrainian corporate lawyer Galyna Zagorodniuk, and Austrian corporate lawyer Elisabeth Stichmann — are among the 48 lawyers promoted to partner by DLA Piper as part of its 2016 global promotion round.
Tudor Nedelea has over 10 years’ experience in both Romanian and international taxation, and the firm describes him as “involved in complex assignments such as merger and acquisition processes, business restructuring schemes, various corporate tax consultancy projects and due diligence projects.” DLA Piper reports that he is “also involved in international tax structuring matters, advising several clients in setting up of their holding structures, working closely with advisors in The Netherlands, Cyprus and Luxembourg.” He began his career as a Tax Consultant at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in 2000 and moved up the ladder for 10 years before joining DLA Piper in August 2010 as a Tax Director and head of the firm’s Romanian Tax Practice. He graduated from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies in 2001.
Galyna Zagorodniuk, in Ukraine, specializes in corporate/M&A, competition law, and employment, and works in various sectors, including oil and gas, food manufacturing, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, retail, and IT.
In addition to her corporate practice, she Co-heads DLA’s Ukrainian Competition practice. She started her career as a lawyer with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine in 1997, then went in-house with Ukrainian Securities JSC in September of that year. She became Head of Back Office and Deputy General Director of the Helvex Financial Agency, where she stayed for four and a half years before moving into private practice as a Senior Associate with Konnov & Sozanovsky in September, 2002. In January 2005 she moved over to Ernst & Young, and six months later joined DLA, where she remains today. She received her law degree from Kyiv’s National Taras Shevchenko University in 1997, an MA in Law from that same institution in 1998, and an LL.M. from the University of London in 2010. Among recent matters she’s worked on are a 2015 sale by Pharma Start’s shareholders of a 100% stake in the company to Acino Pharma (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on October 30, 2015), and the obtaining of merger clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for Discovery Communicatons’ acquisition of ALL3Media Holding Limited, made together with Liberty Group (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on August 14, 2014).
Elisabeth Stichmann, in Vienna, focusses on M&A, corporate commercial, strategic advice of shareholders in listed and private companies, global corporate restructuring of company groups including post-M&A integration, as well as on setting up, structuring, and operating private foundations. According to DLA Piper, she has “in-depth knowledge of the life sciences and retail sectors and regularly advises clients on industry-specific legal matters.” She began her career with three and a half years as an Associate with Dorda Bruegger Jordis in 2004, then joined DLA Piper Weiss-Tessbach in March of 2008, gradually transitioning through positions as Associate, Attorney-at-law, Senior Lead Lawyer, and finally Partner. She obtained her law degree from the University of Virginia in 2003, and another degree from the University of Essex that same year. Among the matters she has worked on is TRINFICO’s 2014 purchase of two office towers in the Airport City of St. Petersburg, Russia, via its Russian Blagosostoyanie real estate fund (as reported by CEE Legal Matters on November 27, 2014), and Pfizer’s 2014 acquisition of Baxter’s USD commercial vaccine business (as reported by CEE Legal matters on August 11, 2014).
According to a DLA Piper announcement, “across the firm’s practice groups globally, Corporate saw the largest intake of new partners with 12 promotions, followed by Litigation & Regulatory with 10 and Real Estate with 7 promotions. The Tax group had five promotions and the Finance and IPT groups both had four, with a further three in Employment. There were 18 promotions in the United States, 14 in the United Kingdom, 9 across Continental Europe, 5 in Asia and a further 2 in Australia.”
Simon Levine, Global Co-CEO of DLA Piper, commented: “I would like to congratulate all of our lawyers promoted to the partnership globally this year. Developing the capability of our people and helping them to realise their potential is a key part of our global strategy and allows us to deliver the highest quality service to our clients.”
Jay Rains, Global Co-CEO, added: “These lawyers represent the future of DLA Piper and will play an integral role in growing our practice, making the partnership stronger and achieving our vision to be the world’s leading global business law firm. We congratulate each and every one of them on their dedication to the firm and look forward to their contributions in the years to come.”
