Hansberry Tomkiel

Managing Partners: Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska, Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel
Number of partners: 2
Number of lawyers: 3
Languages: English, Italian, Polish

Main Areas of Practice:
■ Competition/Antitrust
■ Unfair Competition
■ Litigation
■ Consumer Protection

Firm Overview:
Hansberry Tomkiel is a unique competition law boutique that combines the experiences of former antitrust enforcers with that of former corporate counsel and law firm practitioners. The Hansberry Tomkiel firm offers advice and representation in all areas of competition law, consumer protection law, unfair competition and competition-law related litigation. The firm provides strategic advice and representation in complex competition cases in Poland, Brussels and the US. The law firm works with both Polish and international companies. To ensure a comprehensive and global approach, it cooperates with well-established and respected national as well as international law firms in Europe, the US and Asia.

Hansberry Tomkiel is differentiated from other competition practices in the market by its lawyers’ collective experience of having worked in the offices of Competition Authorities (the Polish Competition Authority and the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice); as a general counsel (UPC Poland); and in other respected law firms. Specifically, the lawyers in Hansberry Tomkiel well understand a regulator’s practice and approach in competition matters such as cartels, illegal horizontal and vertical agreements, abuses of dominance and concentrations. The firm excels in representing its clients before the Polish Competition Authority and other regulatory authorities, as well as before the Polish Competition Court and courts of all instances. Our experience includes representation of a client before the EU Court of Justice. In working with clients, the firm excels in collecting, assessing and piecing together facts that are important for a case. The firm is known for consistently constructing solid arguments and defenses built on the facts, the law, and economics. If a client chooses to cooperate with a Competition Authority (leniency, commitments or a settlement), Hansberry Tomkiel is adept in assembling the relevant facts and explanations to meet the expectations of the Authority and to achieve a client’s chosen goal.

In each industry in which the firm's clients operate (for instance: energy distribution; publishing; banking and financial institutions; retail (supermarkets); television; away-from-home paper products, railway parts), Hansberry Tomkiel encourages and expects its lawyers to invest many hours of the firm's own time to learn and understand deeply the respective industry. Hansberry Tomkiel provides comprehensive compliance assessments with regard to all areas of competition law and consumer protection law. The firm prepares and conducts tailor-made trainings and workshops for its clients. Lawyers in the firm are experienced in lecturing at universities, scientific institutes as well as at conferences organized for practitioners and businesses. It is in the realm of exceptional client service that Hansberry Tomkiel strives to maintain its success and to distinguish itself in the Polish and international legal markets.

Litigation
The Firm represents Mastercard in an ongoing private damage action lodged against the company in Poland.

Hansberry Tomkiel worked on a private damage action claim filed by one of the largest mining companies in Poland. The claim sought damages resulting from bid-rigging among suppliers of the company. Hansberry Tomkiel worked closely with competition economists and the client in assessing and calculating the extent of damages incurred. The firm lawyers primarily responsible for the litigation were Dorota Podsiedzik-Malec and Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel.

With regard to outside activities of firm lawyers:

*Ms. Hansberry-Bieguńska, who is also Irish and Polish, is currently a board member of the Irish Polish Chamber of Commerce after serving as the Chair of the Chamber for five years. In April 2019, the US Ambassador appointed Ms. Hansberry-Bieguńska as a member of the Fulbright Scholarship Board in Poland;

to*Since 2006, Mr Materna has been associated with the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences ("INP PAN"), where he defended his PhD thesis and habilitation on competition law. Since 2016, he has headed the Institute’s Department of Competition Law. An experienced and respected lecturer, Mr Materna leads the postgraduate competition and consumer protection law programs organized by INP PAN; and

*For several years, Ms Krasnodębska-Tomkiel has taught competition and consumer protection law to INP PAN students.