Iain Batty is a Partner at CMS in Warsaw, where he’s responsible for the co-ordination of the Commercial Practice in Central and Eastern Europe. He is based in Poland and travels extensively through the region. We sat down with Batty for a coffee in his Warsaw office.
CEELM:
How did you get here? Did you have any previous connection with Poland?
I.B.: I started coming to this part of the world in 1991. I was undertaking work with a political party in parallel with my legal career. At one stage I wanted to be a member of Parliament, and I started assisting political parties in Slovakia and Slovenia in 1991. Then I joined McKenna & Co. (as it was then) in 1993. The firm was a pioneer in this part of the world. It had offices in a number of these countries – much smaller than they are now, of course – and I benefited from a partner who gave me a marketing budget to travel to CEE in order to develop some business. I started off with Hungary and the Czech Republic and Russia and was able to develop a small piece of business from 1993 onwards. I remember speaking at my first conference in Budapest in 1993, but it really took off when I came to Poland in 1995. I gave a speech at a conference and got a big assignment off the back of it. I ended up helping draft the country’s pension fund legislation. Nobody ever said, Iain, you’re going to Poland. There was never really any formal posting. I think somewhere in my drawer I still have a letter that says I’m welcome back to London anytime. I can’t think it’s likely I would ever want to go back. This part of the world is too interesting.
I started spending more and more time here. I initially saw myself being out here for a relatively short period of time. However, then I started getting involved in other areas of the law beyond pension fund work. I still go back to the UK from time to time, but this is my base. I got myself a flat, eventually got myself a wife, and that was that.
CEELM:
So you’ve been based here sort of permanently since 1995.
I.B.: Yes. However, I spend a fair amount of time out of the country. Later today I’m going over to London to pitch to a client, and on Friday it’s down to Tel Aviv. I’m all over the place. [Laughs].
CEELM:
Does being an expatriate partner here involve different responsibilities than your Polish counterparts?
I.B.: Yes, and I think it’s changed over time. Of course it’s different. I’m not Polish-qualified, and despite what people here may think, I don’t speak a huge amount of Polish. Lots of people seem to think I’m listening into their conversations and I understand everything, but I really don’t. My role is truly regional and involves dealing with issues around CEE. This involves a different range of responsibilities, particularly interacting with a client base of, by and large, American or UK companies. Sometimes there’s provision of English-law input or English-language drafting.
CEELM:
Are you asked to be the Anglo Saxon lawyer in a pitch, in a meeting, on a deal, that doesn’t necessarily involve your practice?
I.B.: Not to any great extent, no, because we have a number of expatriate lawyers here, and we can always rely on our offices in London or elsewhere for that. So if there’s a Corporate deal and they need an English transactional lawyer, I’m not the guy for that.
CEELM:
What would you say were the main challenges you faced when you started to work in CEE, and are those the same challenges you face today?
I.B.: When I started in this region in 1993, the challenges were very different from a legal perspective. Often the laws weren’t very well drafted, a lot of new laws had been rushed in after the end of communism – some of those were, let’s say, ambitious-but-flawed – and there was a huge amount of ambiguity. Often regulators were inexperienced, and this created some quite profound legal challenges.
Things have moved on a great deal. In EU countries in particular, the quality of the regulators by and large is a great deal better. The legislation, particularly when it has been harmonized to be in line with European Union directives, etc., has improved dramatically. So we don’t have as many of those challenges as we did.
Also, there were logistical challenges involved with living here. I remember the first time I came to Warsaw, it was very difficult to get an international telephone line. We had to ask secretaries to dial out, to try to get a line. Often it would take about 30 attempts before you could connect with the UK. In general the infrastructure was very poor. Over the past 20 years or so the country has completely transformed. It’s now a world class city, and living here is relatively easy. Just about anything I want I can get here.
CEELM:
How do you think your career was affected by your decision to move here?
I.B.: I think it’s been a lot more interesting, and a lot more challenging. I’ve been a bit of an Emerging Markets junkie, and although I’ve described the frustrations of the early years … perhaps they were also the most exciting times as well. I think sitting in the UK doing Pension Fund documentation day in and day out would have been a very boring life, compared with what I’ve had here. There’ve been numerous legal challenges and tricky situations which I’ve had to deal with. Sometimes it’s been frustrating, but a lot of the time it’s been fun. Having said that, if I’d been in England I’d probably have seen a bit more of my family than I have done being out here.
CEELM:
In general terms, how do you think the lawyers here in Poland and across CEE compare with those in the more established legal markets of the United States or United Kingdom? Have you seen improvement?
I.B.: I’d like to distinguish between the lawyers in my firm – and a small number of other international firms – and the general population of lawyers. I’m better qualified to speak about the international firms. I think that by and large the quality is extremely good. Here we have very bright, capable, and ambitious commercial lawyers who have been well trained to understand and to meet client demands.
We’ve now got quite a few lawyers in our Warsaw office who are becoming regional specialists. Sometimes they run pan-regional accounts or pan-regional practices. One of the reasons we attract talented lawyers is that they know they will have an opportunity to work in respect of other countries. Our closely integrated office network in the region gives them an opportunity to do so.
What I would say is in the wider market, particularly in the local firms, there are a lot of lawyers who are more generalists – they are more like barristers in the UK – and they can offer lower rates, but they can’t offer the specialization that we can.
CEELM:
The last question I have is the lightest one. Do you have a favorite spot in Warsaw?
I.B.: Actually, probably my favorite spot is my office. That doesn’t mean I’m obsessed with staying at work, or doing work. I just have an amazing view out over the Palace of Culture. We’re on the 28th floor. I know the Palace of Culture is unpopular with Poles because of its historical significance – it was a gift from Stalin – but I rather like looking out over the building. I don’t think anyone could have a better view of it than I do. Not that I spend a huge amount of time looking out the window, but when I do have an opportunity to have a glance, it’s nice to see it.
I also like going to the Old Town. That’s where I started living when I first came here. There are some nice little cafes there and interesting places to spend a Sunday afternoon.
This Article was originally published in Issue 6 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.