COBALT

Managing Partners: Jaanus Mody (Estonia), Dace Silava-Tomsone (Latvia), Lauris Liepa (Latvia), Irmantas Norkus (Lithuania), Darya Zhuk (Belarus)
Number of partners: 39 in the Baltics (Estonia - 12)
Number of lawyers: 165 in the Baltics (Estonia - 65)
Languages: Estonian, English, Finnish, German, Italian, Russian

Firm Overview:
COBALT is a closely integrated alliance of top-tier law offices across the Baltics and Belarus uniting more than 200 attorneys and lawyers. The firm’s legal professionals offer leading–edge legal solutions in all key areas of business law: banking and finance, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, EU law, competition, dispute resolution, restructuring and bankruptcy, real estate and construction, energy and infrastructure, employment, IP, IT and regulatory, environmental law, transportation and tax.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance:
2 partners, 9 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising Swedbank on evaluating structural changes at the Baltic level.
■ Advising Luminor Bank on setting up its covered bond programme (as part of its 3 BEUR EMTN and covered bond programme) and the first issue of covered bonds in the Baltic region, in the amount of EUR 500 million.
Key Clients: Luminor Bank, European Investment Bank, Swedbank, SEB Bank, LHV Bank
Contacts: Kristel Raidla-Talur, Marina Kotkas
Emails: [email protected]; marina. [email protected]

EU & Competition:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising Luminor Bank on obtaining an approval from the European Central Bank for carrying out a cross-border merger in the Baltics, which foresees continuing operations in all Baltic countries through Estonian bank and its registered branches in Latvia and Lithuania.
■ Successfully representing UEFA in the dispute between Eesti Meedia (now Postimees Grupp) and the Estonian Competition Authority.
Key Clients: Ragn-Sells, Luminor Bank, UEFA, Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
Contact: Elo Tamm
Email: [email protected]

Corporate & Commercial:
2 partners, 9 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising Utilitas, the largest district heating company and the largest renewable energy producer in Estonia on acquisition of shareholding in AS Tallinna Vesi.
■ Advising Estonian Fortumo on selling its business to London Stock-Exchange-listed leading global mobile payments platform Boku.
Key Clients: First State Investments, BaltCap, TMB Group, Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG, Utilitas
Contact: Martin Simovart, Peeter Kutman
Email: [email protected]; [email protected] cobalt.legal

Dispute Resolution and Restructuring & Insolvency:
5 partners, 27 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Successfully representing an international custom software development company Helmes in a public procurement dispute.
■ Advising publicly listed (at Nasdaq Tallinn Stock Exchange) leading fashion brand house in the Baltics in reorganisation proceedings. This was exceptional as being the only publicly listed company going through such process. In less than 5 months, Baltika announced the entry into force of a court ruling regarding the approval of the reorganization plan. Approximately 500 jobs have been maintained in the Baltics. About 150 partners can continue cooperating with Baltika and a company that has made a great social contribution and has a remarkable heritage remains.
Key Clients: Havas, Helmes, European Commission, Ragn-Sells, Luminor Bank, Port of Tallinn
Contact: Jaanus Mody
Email: [email protected]

Employment:
1 partner, 3 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising Estonian flag-carrier Nordica in civil court proceedings initiated by former employees of Estonian Air, where the plaintiffs claim that there has been a transfer of EstonianAir enterprise to Nordica, therefore Nordica is liable for all monetary claims that the plaintiffs have against Estonian Air.
■ Advising Luminor Bank on reorganising its management structure and cross-border merger, including on corporate and employment law matters.
Key Clients: Swedbank, AbbVie, Goodyear Dunlop, Forum Cinemas, Nordic Aviation Group
Contact: Karina Paatsi
Email: [email protected]

Energy & Infrastructure:
2 partners, 2 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in drafting a model energy performance contract for the public sector
■ Advising European Diversified Infrastructure Fund II on investment in Utilitas, leading private Estonian energy group.
Key Clients: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, First State Investments, Alexela Group
Contact: Aivar Taro, Elo Tamm
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Intellectual Property:
1 partner, 5 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Successfully representing Starbucks Corporation in a trademark case.
■ Serving wide variety of venture capital funds in relation with start-ups (MeetFrank, Taxify, Festivality, Minut, inc, SpectX etc.)
Key Clients: Change Ventures, Karma Ventures, Starbucks Corporation, IBM
Contact: Egon Talur
Email: [email protected]

Real Estate:
3 partner, 5 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising a joint venture of the clients of Partners Group and Northern Horizon Capital in the sale of SEB’s head office to East Capital.
■ Advising French real estate fund Corum Origin on acquiring Harmet’s production facility in Estonia.
Key Clients: Baltic Horizon Fund, Northern Horizon Capital, Corum Origin, BPT Real Estate
Contact: Aivar Taro
Email: [email protected]

Tax:
1 partner, 4 fee earners based in Tallinn, Estonia
■ Advising shareholders of TMB Group on selling its business to Consolis Group, one of Europe’s leading suppliers of precast concrete solutions. Our work comprised of advising the client in all aspects of the transaction, including solving tax matters in transaction.
■ Advising Change Ventures on tax setup of a limited partnership fund in Estonia. The work has so far included advising on and assisting to set up the tax structure and providing detailed overview on the tax related questions.
Key Clients: Change Ventures, Port of Tallinn, Helmes, Fortumo, Mindvalley, Inc
Contact: Egon Talur
Email: [email protected]