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On December 29, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that Selih & Partnerji had advised Supernova on its EUR 220 million acquisition of seven shopping malls and five smaller shopping centers from Centrice Real Estate. Johannes Wurzer, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Supernova, spoke with us about the deal.

On December 11, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that Stanek Vetrak & Partneri had advised the Czech Republic's Franco Real Estate on its acquisition of Vseobecna Uverova Banka's real estate portfolio. We spoke with Vladimir Polacky, Project Manager for the Slovak Republic at Franco Real Estate, about the deal.

Basak Gurbuz, the former Counsel & Director responsible for legal matters in Turkey at The Walt Disney Company, has now joined Visa as its Senior Regional Counsel for South-Eastern Europe, where she will be responsible for nine jurisdictions: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey.

Adrienn Trinn has been promoted to Head of Legal at the TV2 Media Group.

Dominika Niewiadomska-Siniecka has joined Vodeno as General Counsel and Head of Compliance.

CEELM: Can you walk us through your career leading you up to your current role?

Polish lawyer Anna Wawrzynczak spent 14 years in private practice with two highly-regarded international law firms before moving in-house with the Coast2Coast investment fund, where she was Regional Counsel CEE for almost three years. In October 2019 she accepted an offer to become the Legal Manager, Head of the Corporate Division at the Polish Development Fund in Warsaw. 

An interview with the Belgrade-based Senior Counsel CEE at Philip Morris International

An interview with the long-time Head of Legal at Eurostandard Bank in Macedonia

Building a successful in-house legal department involves selecting the right people for the right positions, deciding which lawyers to assign to which tasks, instructing and training them, convincing them to work as a cohesive unit rather than a bunch of individuals, and of course addressing and resolving conflicts and crises – all while fulfilling the critical function of legal advisor to the rest of the company. It’s not easy.

In addition to their traditional role guiding companies through legal and regulatory waters and managing disputes, General Counsels are increasingly called upon to provide input on strategic matters. An expert panel at the second annual Balkan GC Summit considered how this change in the nature of the General Counsel role is manifesting itself in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.

On December 18, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that NSP had advised IBS IT Holding on its acquisition of Aplana Software from the Aplana Group. We reached out to Eugene Peskin, Head of Strategy at IBS, for more details.

Markian Malskyy, who left Arzinger last summer after being appointed Head of the Lviv Regional State Administration by the President of Ukraine, has returned to the firm as Head of its Western Ukrainian office and Co-Head of its International Litigation and Arbitration Practice.

Jozsef Antal, the former Chief Legal Counsel at Unix Auto, has become the new Head of Legal and Compliance at Metro Cash & Carry Hungary.

On December 18, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that Scandinavia's Flugger group A/S acquired a 60% shareholding in Unicell, a paint manufacturer based in Poland. We reached out to Flugger’s Group General Counsel and Vice President, Torben Schwaner Dehlholm, for more details.

Hyprop Investments – South Africa’s largest listed specialist shopping center Real Estate Investment Trust – operates a portfolio of premium shopping centers in South Africa, other countries of sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeastern Europe. Hyprop’s six current investments in SEE include two shopping malls in Zagreb and one each in Sofia, Podgorica, Belgrade, and Skopje. Hyprop is internally managed and headquartered in Johannesburg.

Peter Malovec is the Group Head of Legal at HB Reavis in Bratislava. He joined HB Reavis in 2010 after spending seven years in private practice with the BBH law firm. We reached out to him to learn more about his background, style, and strategies.

Adam Brzezinski has been promoted to to Assistant General Counsel, Global Employment and European Privacy, with MoneyGram International in Warsaw.

Ioannis Giannakakis, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of the G+P Law Firm, has become Group General Counsel at The Andromeda Group.

Former Ramp General Counsel Artur Bilski has joined Poland's Alior Bank as its new Head of Legal.

In the October 2015 issue of the CEE Legal Matters magazine we spoke with Eleni Stakathi, the Head of Legal at Upstream in Greece. We decided to check in with her and see how things had changed in the last four years.

Peter Paroczi, the former Director Counsel for Harman International, has left the Budapest office of the US-based consumer electronics company toa become the Compliance Officer of the Qatar Fertiliser Company in Doha, Qatar.

Burcu Tumer has left Accenture in Turkey, where she was Legal Counsel Associate Manager, to become Public Affairs, Legal and Compliance Manager at the Adecco Group, responsible for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

Andras Levai has become Legal Director at the Market Epito construction company in Hungary.

The Paysafe Group has hired Christopher Fischer, the former VP & Associate General Counsel, Head of Legal Europe & CIS Region at Western Union, as the new Vice President Legal Affairs (Head of Legal) at paysafecard.com in Vienna.

IT company AIGO has hired Milica Topic as its Manager of Department for Legal and Personnel Affairs in Belgrade.

On July 25, 2019, CEE Legal Matters reported that Competera, a Ukrainian pricing platform for e-commerce and omni-channel retailers, had established its headquarters in the United States. We reached out to Competera's Senior Legal Counsel Denis Boshko for details.

Former Cellum Group Legal Director Balazs Ferenczy has joined the Kapolyi Law Firm.

Ukraine is a leading producer and exporter of agricultural products, and agribusiness is the driving force of the country’s economy, as almost 40% of overall foreign currency earnings which come in to the state budget relate to agricultural exporters. The industry grows every day, engaging ever-more investments from both national and foreign participants. Nonetheless, the relevant logistics and infrastructure requires improvement, as does the quality of applicable legal framework.

Igor Andries is the Head of Legal & Regulatory at Orange Moldova.