On May 31 and June 1, 2017, CEE Legal Matters was proud to host a rare event: A gathering of those senior lawyers from each Central and Eastern European country identified by peers as being most influential, most important, most uniquely responsible for having created the country’s modern commercial legal market.
These individuals — these "Market Makers” — gathered for a special award ceremony held in Warsaw at the Gala Dinner of the 2017 CEE General Counsel Summit and a rare Round Table conversation of the winners, all highly charismatic and influential legal experts who played critical roles in pulling their countries’ legal markets into the modern era.
The Round Table conversation on May 31st was moderated by Partner Jonathan Marks of Slaughter & May -- also a Chairman Sponsor of the General Counsel Summit itself.
The Market Makers awards were conceived of and designed by the editors of CEE Legal Matters — the most widely-read source of news and information about the lawyers and legal markets of Central and Eastern Europe — who conducted the year-long research that led to the identification of the winners.
David Stuckey, Executive Editor of CEE Legal Matters, commented on the night’s events: “Having so many of the most influential, widely-recognized, highly-respected, and outrageously talented lawyers from across Central and Eastern Europe in one room was a special thrill. These lawyers did not just play a passive role in the transformation of their markets — to a large extent they made that transformation happen. In the course of our research in these 22 markets we discovered the Market Makers to be uniformly recognized for their intelligence, commercial instincts, business savvy, and commitment to the countries they live in. And, of course, their success and the reputation they’ve established over many decades is an obvious testament to their abilities, skill, dedication, and commitment to the highest standards of ethical advocacy. We were honored to have them join us last night, and proud to have brought them together for this one special evening.”
The Market Maker award winners were:
- Austria: Andreas Theiss (Partner, Wolf Theiss)
- Belarus: Liliya Vlasova (Senior Partner, Vlasova, Mikhel & Partners)
- Bosnia & Herzegovina: Branko Marić (Founding Partner, Marić & Co.)
- Bulgaria: Borislav Boyanov (Managing Partner, Boyanov & Co.)
- Croatia: Ratko Žurić (Founding Partner, Žurić i Partneri)
- Czech Republic: Martin Šolc (Partner, Kocián Šolc Balaštík)
- Estonia: Jüri Raidla (Senior Partner, Ellex Raidla)
- Hungary: András Szecskay (Managing Partner, Szecskay Attorneys at Law)
- Latvia: Filips Kļaviņš (Managing Partner, Ellex Klavins)
- Lithuania: Eugenija Sutkienė (Managing Partner (Lithuania), TGS Baltic)
- Montenegro: Dragan Prelević (Managing Partner, Prelević Law Firm)
- Poland: Stanisław Sołtysiński (Of Counsel, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak)
- Romania: Ion Nestor (Co-Managing Partner, Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen)
- Serbia: Dragan Karanovic (Founding Partner, Karanović & Nikolić)
- Ukraine: Vasil I. Kisil (Senior Partner, Vasil Kisil & Partners)
- Albania: Perparim Kalo (Managing Partner, Kalo & Associates)
- Greece: John C. Dryllerakis (Managing Senior Partner, Dryllerakis & Associates)
- Macedonia: Kristijan Polenak (Polenak)
- Moldova: Alexander Turcan (Managing Partner, Turcan Cazac)
- Russia Andrey Goltsblat (Managing Partner, Goltsblat BLP)
- Slovakia: Igor Palka
- Turkey: Fadil Cerrahoğlu (Managing Partner, Cerrahoğlu Law Firm)
More information on the Market Maker event, including a transcript of that rare Round Table conversation and a profile of the award winners, will appear in the special July 2017 issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine.
