Aside from Croatia entering the Euro and Schengen zones, there have been numerous other legislative updates of note – primarily in the spheres of labor and land rights – according to Miroslav Plascar, Co-Managing Partner of Zuric i Partneri in cooperation with Kinstellar.

Real estate is going through a transitional period, the Recovery and Resilience Plan's short deadlines are creating both pressure and legal work, while sustainability and waste management take center stage in Romania, according to Popescu & Asociatii Partner Loredana Popescu.

Renewable energy is slowly becoming an evergreen industry in Greece, with strong investor interest in wind and solar power projects that stand to hasten the recovery of the country, according to Reed Smith Partner Dimitris Assimakis.

The country's EU candidate status and grave security concerns gave rise to far-reaching legislative reform in Moldova, with IPOs and digitalization in full swing, according to ACI Partners Partner Cristina Martin.

The Czech Republic is looking at a promising start to the year, after somewhat of a market slowdown towards the end of 2022, with no dark clouds on the horizon just yet, according to Schoenherr Partner Vladimir Cizek.

Developments in legislation, controversy on the measures dealing with the energy crisis, and interesting M&A transactions are the major talking points in Slovenia, according to Ulcar & Partnerji Managing Partner Matjaz Ulcar.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with Premium profile-holders on the CEELMDirect legal directory. Today’s interview: Robert Bachovski Sinkoli, Managing Partner at Bachovski Sinkoli Attorneys in North Macedonia.

It’s been four years since we sat down with Octavian Popescu, Managing Partner at Popescu & Asociatii, and discussed what was at that time the new firm’s perspective and its future plans. We reached out again, on the firm’s Fourth Anniversary, to see how those plans have been progressing and chart the firm’s development.

CEELMDirect Profile Pick: A series of interviews with Premium profile-holders on the CEELMDirect legal directory. Today’s interview: Jiri Sixta, Partner at Glatzova & Co. in Prague.

With an average of 30 transactions in the last five years, Delivery Hero has developed its own, internal, dedicated M&A team. We sat down with Director and Head of M&A Legal Deniz Ozkan Ergun to learn more about how her team came to be and how they manage their pipeline of projects.

Later this year, the European Parliament is expected to pass the Regulation on Foreign Subsidies distorting the Internal Market (FSR). CEE Legal Matters spoke with Schoenherr’s Volker Weiss, Johannes Stalzer, and Jan Kupcik to learn more about the new Regulation and its impact.

Providing insights into Nestor Nestor Disculescu Kingston Petersen’s most active practice areas, Partners Ruxandra Bologa and Gabriela Cacerea took a deep dive into the firm’s Corporate/M&A and Energy and Natural Resources practices.

On November 10, four Banking & Finance experts from Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss banking consolidation, financing availability, the effects of high interest rates, bank capitalization, green financing, the specter of loan restructuring, and the other challenges the sector is facing.

Hosted by Penkov, Markov & Partners, nine lawyers from Bulgaria – six working in-house and three in private practice – sat down for a round table conversation to discuss the EU Whistleblowing Directive and how it will impact companies in the country.

On July 7, four leading lawyers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Ukraine sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the increasing prominence of ESG issues and their impact on M&A transactions, due diligence procedures, and the role of the lawyers themselves.

On July 12, four leading lawyers from Croatia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the latest in ESG developments with a focus on green financing, its regional and local drivers and roadblocks, its impact on non-financial reporting, and what it all means for the legal profession.

On March 9, 2022, four leading Estonian lawyers sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the current state of the startup environment in Estonia and analyze its main drivers, the local startup ecosystem, and the regulatory environment shaping it.

On March 10, five leading lawyers in Serbia sat down for a virtual round table moderated by CEE Legal Matters Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea to discuss the current state and outlook of the renewables market in Serbia, with topics covered including the goals set and the country's National Renewable Energy Action Plan, the challenges presented by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the "conservative wave" in the country, the main players and the deals pipeline in the sector, the availability of green financing for renewable projects in the country, as well as the biggest regulatory hurdles currently still affecting renewables in Serbia and the participants' wishlist of what could be done to remove some of these obstacles.

In Part 1, I talked about the dilemma facing most lawyers when asked to involve themselves with business development. If you want to be good at BD, it helps a lot to be an optimist. But, since most lawyers are uber-pessimists, we struggle with BD and find ourselves with practically zero persistence.

Lawyers know that business development requires a handful of sales skills, a pinch of luck, and a boatload of persistence. Freaking BD persistence… it’s a serious problem for all of us. We didn’t go to law school to do sales.

When you get up to present at a conference, what is your goal? Since lawyers are addicted to billable hours, you are probably gambling some non-billable time with the hope of landing some legal work. To accomplish this, you want to sell yourself to potential clients as a competent, trustworthy, and mildly entertaining lawyer.

Although in most respects the law firm business in Central Europe is on par with other sophisticated practices in the rest of the world, coaching is one thing that has not been as widely adopted as elsewhere. This article addresses the questions of what coaching is, what it offers lawyers and law firms, and whether it should be more widely embraced by the legal profession in Central Europe.

In December of 2021, I had the pleasure of attending the CEELM Winter Ball, a festive event filled with good food and great discussions. Although I truly enjoyed this opportunity to catch up with old friends, I also found it fascinating to observe lawyers operating outside of their office comfort zone by partaking in the mysterious ritual of networking.

The following situation would cause me to pull my hair out – if I had any left.

Aside from Croatia entering the Euro and Schengen zones, there have been numerous other legislative updates of note – primarily in the spheres of labor and land rights – according to Miroslav Plascar, Co-Managing Partner of Zuric i Partneri in cooperation with Kinstellar.

Did You Know that, according to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Clifford Chance’s Andrzej Stosio, Norton Rose Fulbright’s Warsaw Managing Partner Grzegorz Dyczkowski, and Mark Harrison, the Founder and Principal of Harrisons, all worked on six reported Banking & Finance deals in the past 12 months, placing them in a three-way tie for first place in CEE over that time?

Real estate is going through a transitional period, the Recovery and Resilience Plan's short deadlines are creating both pressure and legal work, while sustainability and waste management take center stage in Romania, according to Popescu & Asociatii Partner Loredana Popescu.

Did You Know that, according to the Activity Rankings function of the CEELMDirect website, Djingov Gouginsky Kyutchukov & Velichkov worked on 15 reported client matters in Bulgaria in 2022 – more than any other law firm?

Renewable energy is slowly becoming an evergreen industry in Greece, with strong investor interest in wind and solar power projects that stand to hasten the recovery of the country, according to Reed Smith Partner Dimitris Assimakis.

The country's EU candidate status and grave security concerns gave rise to far-reaching legislative reform in Moldova, with IPOs and digitalization in full swing, according to ACI Partners Partner Cristina Martin.