Following the adoption of the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC („GDPR“) on April 27, 2016, the Croatian GDPR Implementing Act („GDPR Act“) entered into force on May 25, 2018, simultaneously with the start of application of the GDPR.

In late November 2019 the Croatian Parliament passed a series of laws amending Croatian tax legislation. The new laws, in the most part, came into effect on 1 January 2020. The changes form part of wider efforts of the Croatian Government to ease the tax burden on both citizens and businesses.

Why would anyone knowingly become a law firm marketing specialist – a role that is demanding, complicated, challenging, and stressful? To explore this mystery, we went to the source. Accordingly, this time around we asked the law firm marketing specialists of CEE to complete the following question: “I went into Law Firm Marketing/BD as a career because ____________.“

Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic has promoted Ana-Marija Grubisic Cabraja, Ema Mendusic Skugor, Marina Kovac Krka, and Martina Kalamiza to partner, in the firm's words, "closing a year of great changes in the best possible way."

“There haven’t been any large shifts in the legal landscape recently if we’re talking about legal offices, teams moving, exits, and so forth,” says Schoenherr Partner Miriam Simsa. “The general situation seems to be that established players have things pretty much in control and that there is not a lot of room for new entries. Yet it is fair to say that the spin-offs have been increasing their market share over the last few years.”

When investors think of attractive and developed capital markets, Croatia’s is probably not the first to come to mind. Can that be changed? 

Former Wolf Theiss Poland Co-Managing Partner Ron Given has joined Deloitte Legal as its CE Senior Legal Counsel, responsible for all of the firm’s offices in 19 Central and Eastern European countries.

Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic has helped Globe Trade Center obtain stage two financing from Erste & Steiermarkische Bank for the construction of the Matrix Office Park, a project consisting of “two highly-efficient buildings, designed and constructed in line with LEED Platinum certification for green construction,” according to DTB.

Doklestic Repic & Gajin has announced the establishment of Lex Adria, an alliance of independent law firms in the Adriatic region, to provide what the firm calls “seamless and premium legal support across the area.”

“Croatia has had a wave of NPL transactions which have left behind a need for more lawyers to manage the sold loan portfolios as case managers,” says Ivna Medic of Kallay & Partners in Zagreb. She reports that the Croatian businesses have recognized the need for lawyers as compliance officers and that more and more lawyers are accepting such positions.

BDK Advokati has advised the United Kingdom's Convex Holding on the sale of 51% of its shares in Trizma d.o.o. to Croatia's Meritus Upravljanje d.o.o. MPRR reportedly advised the buyers on the deal.

Established by senior Croatian lawyers from three separate firms, Lovric│Novokmet│Smrcek — LNS — has opened its doors in Zagreb.

When it first appeared, the compliance field seemed little more than “regulatory” in new clothes – a fancy name for making sure a company stayed within the ambit of provisions set out in the laws of a country. As time passed, however, more and more companies started treating compliance as a practice in its own right, and as a field of law … that is much more than just law. Compliance became an area of interest not only to seasoned lawyers, but also to scholars, consultants, and in-house counsels – all levels of legal practice became aware of its significance.

This time, our law firm marketing friends across CEE considered the following question: “What one part of your job would you most appreciate having more help with – not in terms of training or capability, but simply in terms of time?”

Use of Artificial intelligence is growing rapidly. Some of the world’s largest industries are using AI as frequently as any other business tool. Still, there are industries which seem to be more risk averse. Pharma integrates AI at the rate of 31% in the service operations sector, 31% in the product/service development sector, and 27% in the marketing sector. Does that mean that pharma is lagging in implementing AI?

Divjak, Topic Bahtijarevic has advised Energia Naturalis on its mandatory public offer for all outstanding shares in Luka Ploce.

Croatia's Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic is mourning the unexpected passing of Founding Partner Sasa Divjak.

By outsourcing production of major parts of car components, carmakers have also outsourced a substantial amount of their financing needs and associated risks to their suppliers. Still, despite rather slim margins, the prospect of a fairly stable cash flow over a number of years has made the automotive supplier business viable in the past. However, this viability is becoming questionable. This is visible in the number of struggling or even insolvent suppliers, the German group Eisenmann being a very recent example.