Four firms in Central and Eastern European — Pepa & Dobre from Romania, JebwabnyLegal from Poland, Krutak & Partners from Czech Republic, and DKKR Partners from Hungary – have joined forces to create Arcliffe, which they describe as "a premiere legal practice in CEE.” Together, the firm claims 40 lawyers, including 18 partners.
According to a press release issued by the new firm, "Arcliffe has been set up by the first three law practices, with DKKR Partners cooperating on an exclusive basis.” In addition, in Cyprus, Arcliffe will cooperate with the Tornaritis Law Firm.
Tomas Krutak, the Managing Partner of the former Krutak & Partners in Prague, describes the new firm as “an opportunity for us to bring to expanded geography our practice strengths and that’s for the benefit of our clients.”
Tomasz Jebwabny of Warsaw added that “our combination is about the Emerging Europe role in a globalizing economy and the European Union.”
“Arcliffe will focus on Emerging Europe, now a matured and increasingly sophisticated market with more demands on law practices to provide a unified and cost effective platform,” said Steven Pepa, a Canadian lawyer based in Bucharest.
“All our lawyers are well aware of the Anglo-American legal service standards and expanding regionally our local knowledge and expertise was the main drive for our combination,” said Edward Dobre, one of the pivotal lawyers involved in setting up Arcliffe, who is also based in Bucharest. "It happened under the auspices of the big family of international law firms that started to do business in Emerging Europe in the 90s, a venture to which we have all participated in one way or the other.”
DKKR Partners will cover the Hungarian market for Arcliffe. “We are positioned to support and assist the fellow members of the new firm. Our clients and prospective clients are becoming increasingly interested in investing in the Emerging Europe economies.” said DKKR Partners’ Daniel Kaszas.
