Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak

Managing Partner: Dr. Marcin Olechowski

Number of partners: 33

Number of lawyers: 180+

Languages: English, French, German, Polish, Ukrainian

Firm Overview

Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak, an independent Polish law firm, offers legal services to businesses from Poland and abroad. The firm advises clients on all the legal aspects of their local and international operations and represent them in litigation. SK&S was founded in 1991. Over the years it has won one of the leading positions in the market for legal services. The firm has expertise in all areas of the law that are relevant to business.

SK&S is a team of over 180 lawyers. For many years now, the firm and its lawyers have been ranked highest in Poland (Rzeczpospolita, Forbes, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna), but also by international law journals such as Chambers & Partners, The Legal 500, IFLR1000. The firm is recognised as a leader in the Polish legal services market in the areas of commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, litigation and arbitration, banking and finance, antitrust law, intellectual property, capital markets, tax law and labour law, among others.

Main Areas of Practice

Company Law, Mergers & Acquisitions

Banking & Finance

Securities & Capital Markets

Private Equity

Dispute resolution

International Arbitration

Tax

White Collar Crime

Environmental protection

Real estate & Construction

Intellectual Property

Media & Telecommunications

Competition

State Aid

Public Procurement

Energy

Infrastructure

Labour Law

Life Sciences

Personal Data Protection

Private Clients

Motor Industry

Bankruptcy & Rectructuring

International Work

SK&S has a wealth of experience working for international clients thanks to our close cooperation with numerous renowned law firms. With its foreign colleagues, it can ensure legal assistance on complex multi-jurisdictional transactions and guarantee professional legal assistance in each of them.

The firm is able to work on complex cross-border transactions as its close cooperation with many of the most renowned law firms in the world means it can ensure that the services of specialists from all the relevant jurisdictions are available when they are needed. SK&S prides itself on having advised many international clients.

Company Law, Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions is one of the firm's key practice areas. The transactions team includes 30 lawyers, 7 partners among them, who have accumulated a wealth of experience advising on multi-faceted transactions, takeovers, complex restructurings, day-to-day corporate business, and corporate and commercial disputes. Clients range from large Polish and international corporations, investment funds and private equity funds, to private investors and entrepreneurs, and family firms.

As part of the corporate services the firm supports clients in launching their business activity, advising them on selection of the preferred legal form and organizational structure, adapted to the client’s needs and taking into account tax and business aspects.

Main contact: Mr Robert Gawałkiewicz | Managing Partner, attorney-at-law | [email protected]

Banking & Finance

In the banking and finance practice SK&S combines transaction work (project finance, real estate and company acquisitions, debt restructuring), with the provision of regulatory advice (including advice on the whole range of regulated financial institutions and the acquisition of banks), and general and specialist advice, as well as representing clients in proceedings before banking and financial supervisory authorities. A thorough understanding of the regulatory environment helps it to provide counsel on transactions and contracts, and knowing the business reality, the firm is well equipped to communicate with the supervisory authorities.

Main contact: Dr. Marcin Olechowski | Partner, attorney-at-law | [email protected]

Dispute Resolution

SK&S has had a litigation practice almost from the moment the firm was incorporated. At present, its litigation and arbitration practice group is the largest and one of the best in Poland. It has earned the trust of its clients and reached top positions in the Chambers Global, Legal 500 and “Rzeczpospolita” daily rankings.

SK&S is an expert in winning hard and precedent cases. The firm advises clients in crisis situations and in those where a dispute has already emerged, promoting amicable solutions. Where a dispute is inevitable, it represents clients before common and administrative courts, Polish and international arbitral tribunals and before European courts. It is engaged in several hundred court and arbitration cases each year, and their total value ranges from 1.5 to several billion Zloty.

What unites the members of the SK&S litigation team is a passion for the law, involvement and mutual trust. Many, including all of the current partners, began professional careers at the firm.

The firm's objective is always to secure a win for its clients within a reasonable timeframe. It gives it great satisfaction when a case leads to a precedent judgment that provides some order to practices in the marketplace, as was the case with Supreme Court judgments on the FIDIC contracts, on industrial designs and Community trademarks. Sometimes a winning case happens when the conflict ends before briefs are filed; this is the case when the litigation strategy the firm has elaborated together with the client discourages the opponent from escalating the dispute.

Main contact: Rafał Waszkiewicz | Partner, attorney-at-law | [email protected]

Tax

For many years, the experts from the firm's tax, customs and foreign exchange practice have supported clients’ domestic and international operations. SK&S has a wealth of experience, and approaches new economic phenomena and trends with an open mind. The firm offers effective and innovative solutions that help ensure security in a rapidly changing legal and tax environment, as well as in new sectors of the economy.

Thanks to its commitment to continuing professional development of its experts, the interdisciplinary nature and high quality of the firm's services, SK&S advises clients in the most difficult cases and resolve complex tax issues exposing clients to significant challenges and legal and business risks. In particular, it offers strategic advice comprising development solutions for new and complex tax problems.

Main contact: Jarosław Bieroński | Senior Partner, attorney-at-law, tax advisor | [email protected]