Sponsors of the 2020 Dealer’s Choice Law Firm Summit, which will be held on April 23, 2020 in conjunction with the Deal of the Year Awards Banquet, explain their involvement.
In the second of our series counting down to the April 23, 2020 Dealer’s Choice Law Firm Summit – the first ever major conference in London for lawyers and law firms from and interested in Central and Eastern Europe – we reached out to three sponsors to learn more about their hopes and expectations for the event.
- Mykola Stetsenko, Co-Managing Partner, Avellum, Dealer’s Choice Sponsor for Ukraine
- Peter Berethalmi, Partner, Nagy es Trocsanyi, Dealer’s Choice Sponsor for Hungary
- Vladimir Bojanovic, Partner at Bojanovic & Partners and member of the Adriala law firm alliance in South East Europe
CEELM: First, for our readers, can you each tell us a little about your firms – their backgrounds and profiles?
Mykola: Well, Avellum is a full-service law firm and our key focus is on Finance, Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Tax, Real Estate, and Antitrust. We aim to be the firm of choice for large businesses and financial institutions for their most important and challenging transactions.
Peter: Nagy es Trocsanyi is one of the largest, home-grown independent law firms in Hungary and we celebrated our 25th anniversary two years ago. We are an exclusive Lex Mundi member firm and provide services to multi-national and domestic companies in various fields. Our firm is well-known internationally for its dispute resolution and transactional work capabilities. We have an extensive Energy practice which included our participation in the Paks 2 project and various other energy projects including thermal and solar energy. We also provide advice regularly in Real Estate and Banking and Finance matters.
CEELM: And Vladimir, tell us about Adriala.
Vladimir: Adriala is a unique business law firm alliance of independent premium law firms based in nine jurisdictions in SEE, distinctive from any other local law firm or legal network in its approach to clients. Adriala was founded in 2016 and since then has enabled member firms to, among other things, handle international projects seamlessly throughout the South-East region. All of the Adriala independent premium law firms from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia are ranked top tier, based on their expertise, professional and pragmatic approach to business issues and legal services tailored to client needs. Being independent is a major factor in ensuring quality control. Instead of expansion from one centralized headquarters, we focus on delivering locally while ensuring the highest quality of service in jurisdictions where we operate.
CEELM: Let’s stay with you, Vladimir. Why did Adriala decide to sponsor the Dealer’s Choice event?
Vladimir: We think that the Dealer’s Choice Conference is a perfect event combining topics of importance to the legal profession and a gathering of people from various law firms across the globe. We think this is a great opportunity for Adriala to contribute to this amazing event and to exchange views and ideas with others in an entertaining way.
CEELM: And Mykola, what about Avellum?
Mykola: The Dealer’s Choice event is a great opportunity to meet leading practitioners and in-house lawyers in the CEE region. We enjoy building strong connections with our colleagues in the region and have been attending CEELM events for a number of years. Thus, sponsoring this event in London was a natural choice for us.
CEELM: What about you Peter? Why did Nagy es Trocsanyi think it important to sponsor this?
Peter: We first of all wish to support CEELM as a leading international legal publication in its efforts to market and promote the Central European legal market and we think that for us, as a leading Hungarian domestic firm, the Central European legal market is important. Also, we wish to demonstrate our capabilities in the region with our extensive network of friendly law firms in the region.
CEELM: What topics would your firms be interested in seeing addressed at the event?
Mykola: I am personally interested in the debate around automation and AI, as well as better practices for people management.
Peter: We would like to see something addressing the challenges of the legal market in general and the particular challenges of the region.
Vladimir: For us, there are various topics of interest, ranging from Artificial Intelligence, M&A and Banking and Finance, Competition, and Energy-related topics to cross-border enforcement of IP Rights.
CEELM: How much of your business would you estimate comes via referrals from international firms - and how do you keep that pipeline flowing?
Mykola: I would say that roughly 25% of our business comes from referrals from international law firms. We believe that keeping in touch is very important, but delivering really high-quality legal advice on time is the key factor for our referral sources. These law firms and their clients really like our approach to work.
Peter: I would estimate that 20-30% of our work is generated by international firms but this number alters from time to time. We make a concerted effort to maintain our working relationships through various channels.
Vladimir: We would estimate that a significant percentage of all Adriala business comes via referrals from international law firms, somewhat less than locally-sourced work and regional referrals. Additionally, we would like to point out that in the past year we have strengthened our relationships with big international law firms and we try to maintain and develop these relationships.
CEELM: Thank you all. We are delighted you will be helping us shape the agenda to make Dealer’s Choice a massive success next year in London!
This Article was originally published in Issue 6.6 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.
