Category: Uncategorized

Asters provided legal advice to Eustream on Ukrainian law matters related to the reverse gas supply to Ukraine from the Slovak Republic and the subsequent preparation of transactional documents executed by Eustream with Ukrtransgaz and NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy.

Asters Senior Partner Armen Khachaturyan said of the deal that: “Cooperation between Slovakia and Ukraine on the reverse gas supply to Ukraine is extremely important for Ukraine under the current complex political and economic circumstances and we take it as a great honor to assist on this matter.”

Asters’ working team included Khachaturyan, Counsels Yaroslav Petrov and Oleksiy Demyanenko, and Associate Yuriy Radko.

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Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka has advised a consortium of Polish and Spanish companies on an August 7, 2014 agreement with Zwiazek Miedzygminny “Gospodarka Odpadami Aglomeracji Poznanskiej” [Poznan Agglomeration Waste Management Inter-Municipal Association] for the collection of mixed and green municipal waste and for management of separately collected waste in the Poznan agglomeration.

The consortium consisted of Poland-based FB Serwis and the Spain-based Cespa Compania Espanola de Servicios Publicos Auxiliares.

Under the terms of the agreement, and as of January 1, 2015, the Polish/Spanish consortium will collect waste from 4 sectors of Poznan: Grunwald, Piatkowo, Rataje, and Winogrady. The services will be provided for 36 months.

DZP reports that the contract was concluded pursuant to two public procurement procedures. DZP advised the Polish/Spanish consortium on drawing up the winning bid and during appeal proceedings before the National Appeal Board.

The firm’s lawyers engaged in the advisory included Partner Katarzyna Kuzma, Counsel Daniel Chojnacki, Senior Associate Karolina Szymczak, and Associate Michal Wojciechowski, all members of DZP’s Infrastructure and Energy Practice.

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Liniya Prava has announced that it has been selected by the Tender Commission at the Saint Petersburg Investment Committee to render legal support regarding the construction and operation of a sports and wellness center and the reconstruction, construction, and operation of a building in a maternity hospital, both in St. Petersburg.

The wellness center is located in the Kurortniy District of the city, while  Maternity Hospital No. 17 is located at Vavilovykh str., 12A. Both projects will be performed on a public-private partnership basis.

According to the firm, “Liniya Prava will provide comprehensive legal support for the Projects; review their financial and commercial structures, applicable tax structures and benefits; develop a detailed risk matrix including risk management options and potential mitigation measures. In particular, Liniya Prava will prepare legal acts necessary for further Project development and draft tender documentation, as well as a concession agreement and other commercial and financial appendices thereto.”

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Domanski, Zakrzewski, Palinka has obtained the successful resolution of a dispute involving the claims of Polski Zwiazek Lowiecki [the Polish Hunting Association] — DZP’s client — relating to real estate at ul. Nowy Swiat in Warsaw, where the company has long kept its registered office. According to DZP, “the real estate in question was, after reprivatisation, restored several years ago to the heirs of its pre-war owner, which raised a question over it continuing to house the PZL’s head office.”

A DZP statement explained that, at the end of WWII, PZL built its head office on the property and continued to maintain and renovate it for years from its own funds, although — due to the lack of clarity from the courts  — for many years the Association did not have effective legal title to the building. 

DZP carried out a detailed legal analysis of the re-privatization process for PZL, and then entered into negotiations with the real estate’s current owner, which ended in PZL’s purchase of the disputed real estate, along with the creation of several easements, and a settlement finally resolving the current owner’s claims against PZL for non-contractual occupation of the property, as well as PZL’s claims for reimbursement of the outlays made by the Association for the property throughout the post-war period.

DZP’s advisory to PZL also covered procedural aspects relating to the end of the court case involving the disputes real estate.

The DZP lawyers advising PZL were Partner Lech Zyzylewski and Associate Piotr Golaszewski.

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Papapolitis & Papapolitis has acted for Intracom Holdings in the sale of its shareholding participation in Hellas Online, a leading provider of broadband and fixed telephone services, to Vodafone Greece, in the largest transaction in the telecom industry in Greece this year.

In the transaction, Vodafone, which bought an 18.5 percent stake in Hellas Online in 2009, acquired an additional 73 percent stake for EUR 73 million.

The deal gives Hellas Online an equity value of 311 million euros, including debt, Vodafone said. Regulators still have to approve the deal, which is expected to be completed in Q4, 2014.

The combination with Vodafone’s Greek unit will make it the second-largest integrated phone company in Greece by revenue. Hellas Online had about 519,000 customers at the end of last year, representing a market share of around 11 percent, Vodafone said. The Greek company reported EUR 224.2 million in revenue last year.

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Herbst Kinsky has advised institutional investor Constantia Industries and early stage Austrian/US venture fund Initial Factor Speed Invest regarding their 7-digit USD investments in bitmovin, a technology leader in adaptive streaming solutions.

The additional capital is expected to be used by bitmovin “to accelerate development and deployment of its high performance cloud-based encoding platform bitcodin and its efficient bit dash streaming clients for MPEG-DASH.” 

Bitmovin is the global technology leader in online over-the-top streaming client solutions and server encoding systems, enabling best-quality media experience for the user. According to a bitmovin press release, “this is bitmovin’s first investment round, following the founding of the company in 2012 and the commercial release of its bitdash streaming client solutions and of the bitcodin high-performance cloud encoding platform. Using this financial basis, bitmovin will invest in further development and expansion of its product portfolio and accelerate its market entry in Europe and the U.S.”

Speed Invest is an early stage seed fund based in Vienna. With offices in Vienna, Austria and Silicon Valley, it targets seed stage companies out of Central Europe in the Internet and mobile sector.

Constantia Industries is a privately-owned Austrian company with annual sales of about Euro 618 million. The most important markets for its products are the construction and building material industry, the furniture industry, the sporting goods industry, the machinery and generator industry, and the aircraft industry, as well as solar and energy technology.

Herbst Kinsky’s team was led by Partner Philipp Kinsky and Attorney Florian Steinhart.

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ALRUD is advising the global Shire biopharmaceutical company on Russian-law related aspects related to its proposed combination with the US-based AbbVie pharmaceutical giant.

AbbVie intends to acquire Shire for approximately USD 52 billion in order to both diversify its product line-up and reduce its tax burden in US. Shire’s Board of Directors recommended the AbbVie offer on July 18, 2014.

The deal is subject to a certain number of regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions, including approval by the Russian antimonopoly service.

Members of ALRUD’s antitrust practice working on the matter include Senior Partner Vassily Rudomino, Senior Associate German Zakharov, and Attorney Ruslana Karimova.

Slaughter and May is advising Shire on EU law matters and Davis Polk & Wardwell is advising Shire on US law matters.

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SORAINEN has announced that it is representing both KIA Auto and Tallinna Kaubamaja in appealing the Latvian Competition Council’s conclusion that the companies are improperly restricting warranty rules to the Administrative Regional Court of the Republic of Latvia.

The Competition Council’s decision holds the companies jointly and severally liable to pay a fine on the grounds that the warranty procedures introduced by KIA Auto are restricting passenger vehicle repairs and usage of non-original spare parts. “In reality,” a SORAINEN statement asserts, “these warranty procedures are aimed at ensuring passenger vehicle safety and are not used to exclude independent repairers or prevent usage of matching spare parts.” According to the firm, “KIA Auto discontinues cooperation with authorized repairers which attempt to introduce such restrictive practices in any way and constantly reviews its cooperation partners.”

KIA Auto and Tallinna Kaubamaja’s appeal claims that the Competition Council’s decision is not supported by evidence. In an extensive statement on the matter, SORAINEN claims that: “the companies are also opposed to the way the decision has been interpreted and publicised by the Latvian Competition Council as a lengthy and ongoing breach, potentially causing undue and unjustified loss of reputation of KIA Auto and Tallinna Kaubamaja. In fact, KIA Auto and Tallinna Kaubamaja have been fined and held accountable for unilateral actions of one cooperation partner, namely Gros Auto Grupa, which denied warranty repair of KIA Ceed passenger vehicle on the grounds that the technical maintenance of the car had been carried out by Auto Stils Serviss and not by an authorised KIA repairer. KIA Auto strongly emphasized that the whole review of the Competition Council has been based on this one-of case. There is no evidence of other cases where KIA owners or users had been denied warranty repairs. Furthermore, during the investigation KIA Auto provided numerous explanations to the Latvian Competition Council regarding KIA Auto warranty rules, procedures to ensure their correct application and the possibilities to contact KIA Auto as the importer in case any of the authorized repairers denies warranty repairs for any reason. KIA Auto provided also supporting documentation and procedures. The Competition Council ignored the explanations provided about KIA warranty rules and their application in practice. It should be further emphasized that the Competition Council failed to carry out any survey of the owners and users of KIA passenger vehicles to determine of there have been any other cases of unjustified warranty refusals or actual foreclosure of independent repairs market or spare parts market. Finally, applying joint and several liability to Tallinna Kaubamaja as the holding company of KIA Auto is a grave abuse of mother company liability doctrine as normally understood and applied by the competition authorities.”

The Competition Council fined KIA Auto EUR 134,514.43 (EUR 96,150.92 of which is applied jointly and severally with Tallinna Kaubamaja as holding company of KIA Auto). The Council also requires KIA Auto to discontinue the application of allegedly restrictive warranty rules, change the warranty rules until January 1, 2015, and inform the owners of KIA passenger vehicles about the possibilities to carry out technical maintenance and non-warranty repairers at independent repairers. 

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Fellner Wratzfeld & Partner has advised the HANNOVER Finanz private equity company on its acquisition of IS Inkasso Service Group, a company operating in Austria, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

The Linz-based IS Inkasso Service Group is a market leader in receivables management in Austria. The company previously belonged to Swedish company Transcom WorldWide.

Along with TPA Horwath, fwp was in charge of carrying out due diligence, negotiating the share purchase agreements, and obtaining regulatory approval for the merger on behalf of the buyer.

The share purchase agreement for acquiring IS Inkasso Service Group was signed in June, and the closing took place in August following approval by the Austrian competition authorities.

The fwp transaction team was led by Partner Lukas Flener.

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Magdalena Kultys is a Polish lawyer now working as a Senior Consultant and Legal Recruiter at Capital Search International in Warsaw. We asked her to provide some perspective for our readers on the legal recruiting business in Poland and current opportunities in the Polish legal market.

   

Magdalena Kultys, Senior Consultant and Legal Recruiter, Capital Search International

 CEELM: What’s your background –how did you become a legal recruiter?

M.K.: My route into headhunting has been a far from a typical one, at least here in Poland. Prior to joining Capital Search International, I worked as a transactional lawyer, first at K&L Gates, then at Baker McKenzie. 

Quitting a rather clear-cut career path was a tough decision to make. I saw so many similar suits like me and realized that I wanted something different. The opportunity came when I received a job offer from my current company when it decided to expand into the legal recruitment business. I thought to myself, “it’s now or never,” quit the law firm, and stepped over the fence to the headhunting side. 

But of course my previous experience as a practicing lawyer helps me every day in understanding my clients’ needs and in helping them find the best lawyers Poland has to offer.

 CEELM: Are you and your colleagues seeing much movement in Poland at the moment, or is it still quiet?

M.K.: We’re not quite back to what we observed before the economic crisis of 2008. But the first half of 2014 was very promising – especially in TMT (Technology Media Telecommunications), transactional, and tax practices. This is in line with Poland’s economic growth forecasts. Poland’s consumer confidence index is at its highest point since 2010; GDP growth is accelerating. Based on what clients are telling me, the second half of 2014 will see significant movement on the Polish legal market.

 CEELM: Where do you see most of your work coming from, as a legal recruiter? Local firms, international firms, or in-house roles for corporates?

M.K.: Currently, there are two major recruitment trends. The first is recruiting for senior positions – partners, counsels and senior associates – in the international law firms. The second trend is that big companies are looking to fill positions in their legal departments, both general counsel and in-house lawyers. Small and medium-sized local legal offices tend to look for candidates on their own. 

 CEELM: What practice areas are in most demand at the moment in Poland?

M.K.: Since the beginning of the year clients have been expressing great interest in finding lawyers who specialize in IT, data protection and e-commerce. Law firms are trying to meet the expectations of their TMT clients. There’s a lot of demand for lawyers with an extensive knowledge of the law and terminology specifically related to IT. So, to any IT lawyers reading this – I have your dream job waiting here in Poland!

Alongside this trend in IT law, there is high demand for transactional lawyers with a strong second specialization, such as employment law, general corporate law or competition law. 

In the eyes of my clients, lawyers focused on two practices give great added value to the firm, as they can be flexible in demanding times. On the other hand, as the saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none: claiming to know more than three practices is seen as no specialization at all.

 CEELM: Are law firms and companies in Poland comfortable using legal recruiters, or are you still expected to explain/prove your usefulness sometimes? Does that differ among international law firms and domestic firms?

M.K.: There’s a saying: “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur.” Small and medium-sized domestic law firms usually learn this lesson the hard way. In most cases they decide to conduct recruitment processes on their own. As a result, they suffer from high staff rotation which scares legal talent away. In many cases we have to explain to them that using legal recruitment services will improve their work and add value. In the last year the number of small and medium-sized law firms (including boutique law firms) who sought the assistance of legal head hunters increased slightly but it is still not a very big market.

On the other hand, international law firms, large domestic legal offices, and large companies use legal recruiters regularly. It allows them to save two very important things: time, and in the long-term, money.

 CEELM: Is there any role for expatriate lawyers wanting to come work in Poland, or are those opportunities limited?

M.K.: Let me use an example: Banking & Finance attorneys who advise on preparing LMA standard documentation will easily join projects in every European country, including Poland. On the other hand, lawyers with a litigation background from London might have serious difficulties in adapting to our proceedings (excluding international arbitration). The conclusion is simple: the opportunities for expatriate lawyers depend on their qualifications and their practice area. Our legal market is still growing so there will be more interesting positions for expats lawyers in big law firms. However, we must admit that it is more difficult to transfer expats in-house than lawyers in law firms, as legal departments generally favor lawyers already based in their jurisdictions.