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Experts Gather in Prague for CEE Legal Matters’ Annual Year-End Round Table

Experts Gather in Prague for CEE Legal Matters’ Annual Year-End Round Table

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On Thursday, November 30th, leading legal practitioners from across Central and Eastern Europe gathered in Prague to help CEE Legal Matters celebrate its fourth successful year as the leading chronicle of the legal industry in the region, participating in an expert Round Table conversation about the year just concluded and enjoying an evening of dinner, drinks, and bonhomie. 

The round table attendees were:

  • Gelu Maravela, Maravela & Asociatii, Romania
  • Milos Komnenic, Komnenic Law Firm, Montenegro  
  • Uros Ilic, ODI Law, Slovenia  
  • Gjorgji Georgievski, ODI Law, Macedonia  
  • Tomas Matejovsky, CMS, Czech Republic
  • Rastko Petakovic, Karanovic/Nikolic, Serbia  
  • Andras Posztl, DLA Piper, Hungary  
  • Roman Pecenka, PRK Partners, Czech Republic 
  • Damir Topic, Divjak, Topic & Bahtijarevic, Croatia    
  • Mykola Stetsenko, Avellum, Ukraine  
  • Ron Given, Wolf Theiss, Poland  
  • Hugh Owen, former Allen & Overy Slovakia  
  • Panagiotis Drakopoulos, Drakopoulos, Greece  
  • Besnik Duraj, Drakopoulos, Albania  
  • Alexandra Doytchinova, Schoenherr, Bulgaria  
  • Karl Paadam, PWC Legal, Estonia  
  • Eva Berlaus, Sorainen, Latvia 
  • John Apsouris, General Counsel of Hellenic Petroleum Group, Greece 
  • Radka Sosikova, Legal Counsel at Generali CEE Holding B.V., Czech Republic 
  • Cristina Cretu, Regulatory Manager of UPC Romania, Romania
  • Tereza Simanovska, Head of Legal & Compliance, APS Holding

The wide-ranging Round Table conversation covered topics such as the threat of a bubble in CEE Real Estate markets, leading sources of foreign investment, fragmentation of many CEE legal markets (and consolidation in others), and the potential threat to traditional law firm models represented by the reincarnated Big Four law firms. 

As every year, a transcript of the Round Table will be included, along with essays from participants and photos from the evening, in the special January issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine that ushers in the new year.

The heated emotions expressed during the conversation itself were counterbalanced by networking, good humor, and cocktails both during dinner and after the event.

The editors of CEE Legal Matters, who organized and hosted the event, were pleased with the evening. “This was our biggest End of Year Summit yet,” said Managing Editor Radu Cotarcea with a smile. “And it was, again, a real pleasure to see so many of the leading lawyers of CEE come to one room to help us celebrate the end of another successful year. So many of them have become good friends as well — we’re already looking forward to next year.”

His colleague, Executive Editor David Stuckey, was equally enthusiastic. “This event gets bigger and bigger and better and better each year — tracking CEE Legal Matters’ growth. It’s a real testimony to our ability to bring people together, and to create events and opportunities for networking and exchange that didn’t exist before. We’re honored to have so many prominent experts carve out time from their schedules to join us, particularly during this busy time of the year.”

 

Hungary Knowledge Partner

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. This positions us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

With more than 60 lawyers, including 14 partners, and a staff of over 140, DLA Piper Hungary is one of the largest international law firms operating in Hungary. What makes us stand out is that we offer not only legal services but also tax and business advisory support in a fully integrated manner. We maximize synergies between legal, tax, and business advisory services to offer a unique service for our clients, particularly in regulated industries such as energy, infrastructure, life sciences, banking, and telecommunications.

We are a true full-service firm, providing our private and public sector clients with advice on all aspects of their business. This includes transaction-related advice, people and employment, commercial dealings, litigation, information technology, media and communications, intellectual property, insurance, tax, real estate, and restructuring plans.

DLA Piper Hungary has received numerous professional awards and is consistently ranked among the top law firms in Hungary by international rankings. We are ranked #1 by Mergermarket among the law firms active in Hungary based on the volume of M&A deals handled between 2005 and 2024.

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