This is a stable and steady time for lawyers in Slovenia, according to ODI Law Managing Partner Uros Ilic, who says that the consistent growth of the past few years — he reports 12 straight quarters of growth in the country — shows no sign of abating. Indeed, Ilic reports, although lawyers and clients alike are taking holidays in August, July was “extremely busy” in Slovenia.
NPL transactions — both single and portfolio deals — remain a primary concern in the country, with the highly-publicized IPO of NLB temporarily on hold as a result of the Brexit. Ilic explains that it had been contemplated that the newly-privaticized bank would be dual listed on the London Stock Exchange but the Brexit puts that in doubt, so everyone’s taking a step back to consider. The privatization is expected to go forward in September, but Ilic shrugs: “Who knows?”
When asked if the Brexit was affecting Slovenia in other ways, Ilic dismissed the idea. “To be honest, if the expected listing on the LSE wasn’t involved in the NLB privatization, there would be no major affect on Slovenia at all.”
Otherwise, the banking sector remains in a consolidation phase, and the RE market is “finally awakening”, particularly in the hotel sector, as Ilic notes that the Hotel InterContinental in Ljubljana currently under construction is adding a new floor every week.
In Slovenia, as in the rest of the former Yugoslavia, the courts take a month off from mid-July to mid-August (except for urgent matters), but the judges returned to work on August 16, meaning the litigators in the country are now ramping up as well.
Finally, Ilic says that there are no significant changes to the Slovenian legal market. Fee pressure remains extremely high, Ilic notes, pointing out that fees were not really discussed for several years after the crisis hit, and suggesting that the downwards pressure on them, which continues now several years after the crisis has abated, is therefore perhaps not surprising.
In short, Ilic says, “people are busy, and things are going well — everything is quite stable.”
In “The Buzz” we interview experts on the legal industry living and working in Central and Eastern Europe to find out what’s happening in the region and what legislative/professional/cultural trends and developments they’re following closely.
