Riga Now Law

8/8/2019 Riga Now Law

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the insider Law

The recession ended a 10-

year growth spurt in Lat-via. How would you evalu-ate 2009 or the legal ser-

vices business compared to theprevious two years, given that2007 was a record year in termso growth?This is the keyword or the lasttwo years: recession. It has pro-voked a reorientation o key ar-eas o the legal sector. Acquisi-

tions and real estate used to bethe most in-demand part o thebusiness. Then all o a sudden itbecame insolvencies.Some areas have maintainedtheir importance, such as taxplanning, or which I now receiveeven daily requests or advice.But or many companies and in-dividuals the importance o as-

Zelmenis: Legal smust be applied

Created in 2007 when two o the top lawyers rom the auditing company Deloitte Latvia broke

away to set up on their own, Zelmenis & Liberte tackles a wide range o legal services, rom mergersand acquisitions to nance law. It is also possibly the least secretive o Latvias local law rms, andits clients include the Latvian Economy Ministry.

Partner Janis Zelmenis specializes in tax law, but has also helped negotiate prominent M&A deals.He is known or his signicant contribution to the development o the Latvian Tax Law. Beore pur-

suing a career in law, he earned a degree in International Rights at the University o Central Europein Budapest and an MA in Law at the Moscow State Institute o International Relations. He speaks

our oreign languages fuently, and is also the Honorary Consul o Malta in Latvia.

flexibly

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ness This is partly why there Have law frms been orced to eas o the legal proession have

attract a lot o players in the big

league, the sort o internationalnames youll see in Moscow, Par-is or London. But i theyre go-ing to set up in the Baltics thenRiga would be the natural centerwhere they would open an oce.Among local law rms there isan idea that in order to be suc-cessul you have to be pan-Bal-tic, to have oces in all threecountries. But its also true that

each o the Baltic markets ishighly domestic and provincial.Only in a ew cases has pan-Baltic representation been ullyworthwhile in the legal servicesbusiness.I you approach rom the pointo view o protability, there isnot a great need to be present inthe Latvian market. I you areprecise enough to tick all the

boxes and cross all the ts, thenyes, it can make nancial sensein the long-term.For an international companyto be present in Latvia, or or aLatvian law rm to be visible inLithuania and Estonia dependson your clients needs. I they re-quest it, it may be worthwhile.We were on the verge o open-

the insider Law

Janis Zelmenis, Partner, Zelmenis & Liberte

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O.Cers & J.Jurkans, tel. +371 6736 5865

1997 P ar t o f pan B al ti cnetwork HansaLaw Offices,members of MSI

Alliance, BegbiesGlobal Network

100%Latvian

17 totalemployees, 14lawyers

Commercial,litigation real estate,foreign investments,insolvency, construc

tion

R ig a E ng li sh ,Russian,German

100170

70 Latvian Shipping Company, LSFHoldings, Foran Real Estate, HCBetons, Riga City Council, McCannErickson, Gros Auto Grupa

Raidla, Lejins & Norcous, tel. +371 6724 0689

1994 O ff ices i n T al li nnand Vilnius; Roschier in Helsinkiand Stockholmvia RoschierRaidlaalliance

100%Latvian


Fullservice businesslaw firm

R ig a R us si an ,English, German, French,Lithuanian

WND More than250

WND

Skrasti & Dzenis,Tel. +371 6722 6696

2 00 1 Pa rt ne rs hi p wi thHedman Partners,members of Globalaw network

100%Latvian


Commercial,construction, labor,insolvency, banking,litigation, competition

R ig a E ng li sh ,Russian

100150

40 JSC VirsiA, LLC De Laval , LLCeuro AWK, AIBE, Edelman Affiliate(KA/Edelman), Citadele AssetManagement

Sorainen, tel. +371 6736 5000

1 99 7 Pa rt of So ra in ennetwork that operates in Baltics,Belarus

PanBalticownership



Nospecific

HQ

English, Finnish, Estonian,Lithuanian,Spanish,German,Swedish

WND 4 00 AB B, AG A, A IG , Ba rc lay s, BN PParibas, British American Tobacco,Canon, Christian Dior, Citigroup,CocaCola, Credit Suisse, DHL, DZBank, eBay, ERGO, General Electric,Lukoil, Nordea, Royal Bank of

Canada, SEB, Swedbank

Tark Grunte Sutkiene, tel. +371 6788 9999

1 99 2 Pa n Ba lt ic la wfirm

PanBalticownership


Fullservice businesslaw firm; banking &finance, M&A, corporate and commercial,dispute resolution

Nospecific

HQ

Estonian,Lithuanian,English, Russian, Polish,Finnish,German,French

WND WND Roy al Can in, Ce me x, Ap ran gaGroup, ICON, Clear Channel, ERGO,Riga City, Council, Swedbank, Danske Capital, Latvijas Biznesa Banka

LAW FIRMS IN LATVIA

YEARESTAB-LISHED

INLATVIA

INTERNATIONALPARTNERS

PERCENT-AGE OF

LATVIANOWNER-

SHIP

TOTALEMPLOY-

EES/LAWYERS

LEGAL SPECIALI-ZATION

HEAD-QUAR-TERSLOCA-TION

FOREIGNLANGUAG-ES SPOKEN

HOUR-LY FEE

NO. COR-PORATECLIENTS,

2009

MAJOR CLIENTS REV-ENUE,2009

BDO Zelmenis & Liberte, tel. +371 6722 2237

2 00 7 M em be r o f g lo ba lnetwork BDOInternational

100%Latvian

17 employees,12 lawyers

Tax & asset placement, commercial,competition, labor,intellectual property,

dispute resolution,PPP, real estate

R ig a E ng li sh ,Flemish,German,Portugese,

Russian,Spanish,Swedish

Averageof 130

More than150

Grindex, Latvian Shipping Company, Logistics Holding, RietumuBank, Latvian Economy Ministry,Riga City Council, LatRosTrans,

Domenikss, Euroskor, Eesti Energia,Novaturas

1.83million (fy200910,ending

31072010)

bnt Klauberg Krauklis, tel. +371 6777 0504

2 00 3 P ar t o f C en tr al / Eastern Europeanlaw firm bnt

100%Latvian


Commercial,litigation, corporate,finance, intellectualproperty, transport,administrative,inheritance

R ig a G er ma n,Swedish,English, Russian, French

100250

More than100

FedEx, GAMA Power Systems,EPSON, Jungheinrich

WND

Eversheds Bitns, tel. +371 6728 0102

1 99 9 Fu ll m em be r o f Eversheds International Ltd.

100%Latvian


Full service businesslaw firm: commercial& company law,banking & finance,real estate, employment, litigation &dispute resolution,intellectual property

R ig a E ng li sh ,German,Russian,French

100280

164 Parex, Vitol, Samsung, LSF Holdings,Riga City Council, Ventspils Nafta,airBaltic, Riga International Airport,Volvo, Danone, AAS Balta (RoyalSun Alliance)

WND

Gencs Valters, tel. +371 6724 0090

2 00 0 Ow ns of fic esin Estonia andLithuania, mem

ber of Multilawassociation

100%Latvian

14 lawyers Tax, litigation, M&A,corporate, immigration, finance, intel

lectual property

R ig a E ng li sh ,German,Russian,

Swedish

W ND W ND McD on al d s, Gen eral Mot ors, C ocaCola, Statoil, Siemens, Scandlines,LOreal, Firebird Republic Funds,

American Cyanamid Company,Capstone Turbine Corp., Weatherford

WND

Glimstedt & Partners, tel. +371 6780 3380

2 00 1 P ar t of G li ms te dtfranchise withoffices in Sweden,Belarus, Baltics

100%Latvian


Financial, commercial, construction,energy, telecoms

Stockholm

English,Russian,German,French

120180

90110 Tamro, Bosch, TeliaSonera, Financeand Capital Markets Commission,General Motors, Lindex, NCC Konstrukcija, major Latvian banks

WND

Kavi & Slaidi LAWIN, tel. +371 6781 4848

1 99 2 O ff ic es i n Es to ni aand Lithuania;members of LexMundi, WorldServices Group,Energy LawGroup

100%Latvian


Banking & finance,corporate and M&A,dispute resolution,industry & regulatory, real estate, tax,energy, restructuring

R ig a E ng li sh ,Russian,German,French

100and up

At least200

Arcelor, AT&T, CocaCola, DVB Bank,Eesti Energia, EoN Ruhrgas, EBRD,IBM, Renova Group, StockholmSchool of Economics, Swedbank,Unicredit, Vitol

WND

Kronbergs & ukste, tel. +371 6704 3803

2 00 0 Fo un de d B al ti cLegal Solutionswith offices inEstonia, Lithuania

100%Latvian


Corporate, M&A, PPP,energy, utilities

R ig a E ng li sh ,Russian

Discussed

withclient

WND W ND WND

Liepa, Skopia, Borenius, tel. +371 6720 1800

2 00 3 P ar t o f B or en iu sGroup, withoffices in Finland,Estonia, Lithuania

100%Latvian



R ig a E ng li sh ,Russian,German

60 2 80 3 50 A me ri ca n Ex pr es s, G la xo S mi thKline, Deutsche Bank AG, CitigroupGlobal Markets Limited, CreditSuisse First Boston, GE Money, Merrill Lynch International, Depfa BankPlc, Nordea, SEB, Esso Slovensko,Orlen, Scania

WND

MAQS, tel. +371 6731 3315

2 00 4 M emb er of MA QSGroup with offices in Sweden,Denmark, Baltics

100%Latvian


Corporate, M&A,real estate, intellectual property,public procurement,insolvency, litigation

Copenhagen

English,Russian,Swedish,Danish

100200

WND W ND WND

Companieslisted inalphabeticalorder

WNDwilln

YEARESTAB-LISHED

INLATVIA

INTERNATIONALPARTNERS

PERCENT-AGE OFLATVIANOWNER-

SHIP

TOTALEMPLOY-

EES/LAWYERS

LEGAL SPECIALI-ZATION

HEAD-QUAR-TERSLOCA-TION

FOREIGNLANGUAG-ES SPOKEN

HOUR-LY FEE

NO. COR-PORATECLIENTS,

2009

MAJOR CLIENTS

40

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