With the global pandemic, high inflation rates, and the war in Ukraine being the main drivers of work in Serbia, PR Legal’s Corporate and M&A practice has been quite busy, according to PR Legal Partner Milan Petrovic.

Energy has been Jankovic Popovic Mitic’s busiest practice, according to Senior Partner Jelena Gazivoda, mainly driven by Serbia’s long-standing aspiration to achieve energy stability and security of supply and bolstered by recent legislative amendments and the expected energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

Schoenherr’s busiest practice, according to Partner Vladimir Cizek, has been Corporate/M&A, with a lot of activity involving banking and financial services, technology targets, and healthcare and life sciences in the last 12-plus months. Cizek explains that technological advancement, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the increasing demand for businesses to grow have contributed to increased activities in these sectors.

The hot practice for Popescu & Asociatii over the past year has been Dispute Resolution, with the pandemic crisis as a primary driver of work, according to Partner Octavian Popescu, who reports about a vibrant 2021 and looks ahead to a similar 2022.

Mares & Mares' hot practice over the last 12 months has been their white-collar crime one, according to Managing Partner Mihai Mares. Trigger-happy authorities have been the main driver of work, with Mares expecting the levels of activity to continue to increase in light of the upcoming Whistleblowing Directive.

An increasing number of Corporate/M&A deals, in particular, in travel and tourism, due to the country’s unique characteristics, and in the energy sector, accelerated by the war in Ukraine, has been the main focus of Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners, according to Partner Yanos Gramatidis.

Increased awareness of competition law in the past few years, alongside the evolving legislative framework and practice on the EU level, has led to the continuous growth of CMS’s competition law practice, according to CMS Partner Szabolcs Szendro.

"Data Protection matters have kept us extremely busy this year," Gjorgji Georgievski, ODI Law Partner in North Macedonia and Regional Head of TMT Group, reports, primarily as a result of the looming end of the transition period of the new data protection law in the country.

Debt collection cases, driven by the ongoing currency crisis in Turkey, as well as shareholder and other partnership disputes, have been the main focus of the Guleryuz & Partners law firm of late, according to Partner Tarik Guleryuz.

While the pandemic negatively affected a plethora of legal practices, this does not seem to be the case with employment and privacy, according to Schoenherr Counsel Daniel Gera who says that it has been the principal driver of work recently.

The Banking & Finance practice of Integrites in Ukraine has had its hands full lately, according to Partner Igor Krasovskiy, mainly thanks to the economic impact of Covid-19, Ukraine’s energy strategy, and the country’s commitments to international financial institutions.

“In the past year or so, we have been very focused on transactional work in the renewables sector,” says Dentons Warsaw Partner Agnieszka Kulinska. “In addition to that, together with our banking and finance colleagues, my department has also handled a number of financing deals in the sector.”

Over the past few months, the intellectual property specialists at Komor Hennel Attorneys have been busy. “We focus on a lot of corporate-related practice areas, but IP is our main focus and driver,” says Ildiko Komor Hennel, Managing Partner. “We have more than 20 years’ experience in IP, handling different aspects of the practice area, and we have a good grasp of how to keep levels high even during these times.” 

The hot practice for CMS in Hungary is Dispute Resolution, and Zsolt Okanyi, Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution both for Hungary and globally at CMS, explains that his team's current workload is primarily driven by the COVID-19 crisis.

Despite the pandemic raging all over Europe, Ileana Glodeanu, Partner in the Corporate/M&A practice of Wolf Theiss in Bucharest, reports that her team has been “the busiest of our practices this year,” noting that “over half” of the office’s lawyers are currently involved in Corporate/M&A projects. 

SBGK’s busiest practice over the last few months has been Data Protection, according to Partner Andras Gyorgy, driven by both the COVID-19 pandemic and, more importantly, by fines for GDPR breaches raising awareness among companies.

Although Bosnia & Herzegovina is relatively small, and despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Bojana Bosnjak-London, Partner in the Corporate/M&A practice of Maric & Co in Sarajevo, reports that her team has been busy, noting that they were “lucky to land quite a few good deals.”

Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen's Public Procurement team has been running at 115% this year, according to NNDKP Partner and Co-Head of Public Procurement and PPP, Adina Chilim-Dumitriu. And she has reasons to be optimistic that the practice will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.