Karatzas & Partners

Managing Partner: Catherine-Marie Karatzas
Number of partners: 8
Number of other lawyers: 35
Languages: Greek, English, French, German, Italian

Firm Overview:
Karatzas & Partners law firm was established in 1963, and has since grown and expanded steadily. The firm offers legal services and advice on the entire spectrum of commercial and financial law, including banking and finance, capital markets, general corporate and commercial law, competition law/anti-trust, energy law, project finance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate law, securities law and telecommunications law, with a client base in both Greece and abroad. The firm’s litigation department represents clients in litigation before courts and arbitral tribunals on all the above matters.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking:
Karatzas & Partners advises on all aspects of banking and finance, including project finance, structured finance, secured and syndicated loan transactions, as well as derivatives and other OTC or listed products and securitisation.

Mergers & Acquisitions:
The firm has advised many international clients on M&A transactions in Greece.

Securities:
The firm advises both Greek and international clients active in Greece on all aspects of securities law, such as initial public offerings, regulation of business conduct of securities firms and listed companies, bond issues and takeover bids. The firm routinely represents its clients before the Hellenic Capital Market Commission and the Athens Exchange.

Corporate:
Karatzas & Partners advises on issues such as the establishment of companies and joint ventures in Greece, spin-offs of Greek companies, stock option schemes, marketing law and due diligence. It is also involved in the running of the day to day legal affairs of a number of major Greek companies with international activities.

Competition:
The firm advises international clients on all aspects of Greek and EU competition law such as merger control, vertical restraints, abuse of dominant position and concerted practices. Litigation: The firm represents several national and international clients before international arbitral tribunals and Greek courts and advises Greek or foreign arbitrators on litigation in the fields of banking law and commercial law.

Intellectual Property:
Karatzas & Partners has, in recent years, expanded its practice considerably in the field of intellectual property law. Current activities include trademark portfolio management, registration and litigation.

Clients:
The firm’s clients include foreign banks and multinational corporations such as Barclays, Citibank, Coca-Cola Company, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Goodyear, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Unilever and Wrigley. The firm also co-operates routinely with major legal firms, such as Allen & Overy, Cleary Gottlieb, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Shearman & Sterling, Simpson Thacher and Bartlett, Skadden Arps, Slaughter and May and White & Case.

International Work:
Karatzas & Partners has extensive experience in advising international clients in relation to many different types of transactions and legal fields. The firm has been involved in some of the major transactions in Greece in the last few years with a strong international element.
Examples of recent projects include:
■ The repurchase by the Hellenic Republic of its notes and the issuance of new five year notes
■ The financing of the Regional Airports acquisition by Fraport
■ The establishment by Pillarstone of a platform for NPLs
■ Advising WIND Hellas, one of the major integrated communication providers in Greece, in the issuance of a senior secured revolving bond loan facility up to EUR€30 million
■ Counselling Halcor (today, ElvalHalcor), in the merger by absorption by Halcor of Elval
■ Advising Lamda Development in forming a new subsidiary company and transferring a minority stake to Värde Partners