Velchev & Co has represented Philip Morris in the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria in a dispute with Georgia's Standard Tobacco Incorporated regarding the registration of the Parliament trademark.

Pavel Hristov opened the doors of Bulgaria’s Hristov & Partners law firm in 2013. Since then, his firm has grown steadily, and today competes on even terms with the long-established powers on the Bulgarian law firm market. We sat down with Hristov, himself a highly-regarded commercial lawyer, to learn about his firm’s history, strategy, and success.

In The Corner Office we ask Managing Partners across CEE about their unique roles and responsibilities. The question this time around: How do you do performance reviews, and how important are they to the planning and management of the firm?”

Kinstellar has advised a consortium led by French infrastructure fund Meridiam on its winning bid for the 35-year concession to manage the Sofia Airport.

Boyanov & Co in Bulgaria, NNDKP in Romania, and the Polenak Law Firm in North Macedonia have advised Norway's LINK Mobility Group on its June 29, 2019 acquisition of all five of Allterco's telecommunications subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Romania, and North Macedonia. Bulgaria's Forlexa law firm reportedly advised Allterco on the deal.

Vassilev & Partners has expanded its services by providing advice to companies in financial difficulty, as well as those that have been declared insolvent and those experiencing difficulty collecting receivables from insolvent debtors.

Tsvetkova Bebov Komarevski has advised Deutsche Bahn Bulgarian subsidiary DB Cargo Bulgaria EOOD, a licensed Bulgarian railway cargo operator, on the acquisition of assets of the insolvent railway rolling stock repair company VRZ Karlovo.

Kambourov & Partners has assisted Petroceltic International PLC with its sale of Petroceltic Bulgaria EOOD, the company's Bulgarian subsidiary, to an unidentified third party.

CMS Sofia has successfully convinced Bulgaria's Supreme Administrative Court to repeal a regulatory decision by the Bulgarian Energy and Water Regulatory Commission in favor of biomass producer Eco Energy Management Ltd.

Bojovic Draskovic Popovic & Partners and the other members of the South East Legal Alliance have become official partners of Italy's Grimaldi Alliance.

CMS Sofia has successfully represented CEZ in an administrative procedure against a regulatory decision from the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission on set prices for electricity sales in Bulgaria.

Boyanov & Co., Polenak, and NNDKP - three firms from the SEE Legal alliance - have advised Link Mobility Group AS Norway on the acquisition of Terracomm, a provider of B2C messaging services, from Allterco, a Bulgarian listed company. Allterco was advised by Forlexa.

Schoenherr Sofia Managing Partner Alexandra Doytchinova starts by talking about what’s happening — or rather, what’s not happening — in the Bulgarian legal market. “Nothing has moved,” she says, "which is not surprising, because Bulgaria is very conservative in this respect. Firms splitting and merging happens once in five years, if at all. So there’s nothing happening there on this front.”

The full liberalization of the Bulgarian Energy market has been the main focus in the sector for the last 18 months and continues to be the government’s objective.

Bulgarian anti-money laundering law requires that companies and other entities having their seat in Bulgaria register their ultimate beneficial owner(s). The registration is mandatory, and the deadline for registration is approaching. These obligations arise from the Bulgarian Anti-Money-Laundering Measures Act (2018) transposing Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 (4th AML Directive) into national law.

In March 2019 the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) cleared the acquisition of Nova Broadcasting Group AD (Nova TV) by Advance Media Group EAD, which is owned by the well-known Bulgarian businesspeople Kiril and Georgi Domuschievi. On this decision, Nova's previous owner, Swedish entertainment company Modern Times Group (MTG), was finally able to sell the TV network and exit the Bulgarian market, after having been prohibited from doing so by the CPC in July 2018.

In July 2018, following an in-depth investigation and in a rather hasty and controversial decision, the Commission on the Protection of Competition ("CPC") prohibited the acquisition of the largest media conglomerate in Bulgaria, Nova Broadcasting Group AD ("Nova TV" or "Nova"), by PPF, owned by Czech businessman Petr Kellner.

Bulgaria's Sazdov & Petrov law firm has become a member of the CEE Attorneys network of law firms.