Osborne Clarke hires 30 lawyers

Osborne Clarke hires 30 lawyers

During Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Osborne Clarke's CEO says that Move will help its Polish clients navigate the changing business landscape.

Osborne Clarke, among the top 30 law firms in the UK, has announced it had hired 30 lawyers from local practices to open its office in Warsaw, its first physical presence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), amid increasing tensions of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Managing partners Olgierd Swierzewski and Tomasz Olkiewicz will oversee the new office, which is set to open in the spring. The firm's wider team is expected to include six partners, four from MDDP, as well as 24 lawyers, according to a statement. The newly assembled team includes a majority of MDDP members, while the rest of the team comes from local law firms.

The only two partners not joining from MDDP are Swierzewski and Katarzyna Baranska. Linkedin profiles suggest that both were employed by local giant Kochanski Partners till late 2021.

Baranska is set to lead the decarbonisation group when she joins the firm; Swierzewski will oversee IT and data. Agata Demuth, the former MDDP partner who recently joined the firm, is listed on the company's website as the head of real estate in Poland.

The new Warsaw team of Osborne Clarke will serve both domestic and international clients across a number of key sectors, including technology, media, communications, energy and utilities, as well as real estate and infrastructure, including plans to expand into new ones as the team grows.

Following the launch, Osborne Clarke's Warsaw office will continue to participate in MDDP's mutual referral program.

According to Osborne Clarke's international CEO, Omar Al-Nuaimi, this move is strategic given Poland's position as the fifth largest economy in the EU and the firm's strong position in the CEE region's international market. Additionally, he noted that the Polish legal market was facing mounting pressure due to the "rapidly developing situation in Ukraine" and "other geopolitical factors".

The fact that we will have a team in Poland to assist our clients in navigating a changing business environment has been well received by our clients, he said.

In his most recent role, Olkiewicz served as a corporate partner at MDDP, where he spent almost 18 years of his career. By trade, Olkiewicz is an expert in M&A and tax laws. He handles matters for Osborne Clarke's key industry sectors, for example, health and life sciences. Then in 2004, he joined MDDP. Before that, he worked for Ernst & Young for nine years as a senior tax manager.

"Our teams have never been closer together," Olkiewicz said, adding that MDDP and Osborne Clarke have experience in many of the same key sectors.

"We are advising clients on issues related to the circular economy and waste reduction," he said. "Decarbonisation and ESG have a major role in our strategy for energy and utility companies."

Likewise, Swierzewski focuses on IT issues and matters of data. He served as CEO of Kochanski Partners from 2020 to 2021, and a technology transaction partner between those periods, according to his LinkedIn profile. A year ago, he left Kochanski Partners for a position as vice president of the management board of Lotos Paliwa, one of Poland's largest oil companies.

Additionally, Swierzewski has experience working in-house. From 2008 to 2011, he was the associate general counsel at Dell's Polish operations but he also served as general counsel of Accor Hotels for nearly nine years.

Osborne Clarke will now have 1,300 lawyers across offices in 26 different countries following the move. Besides Belgium and the Netherlands, the firm has 15 other European bases in France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Spain.

As of late, several other firms have expanded in Poland, including top 20 firm Taylor Wessing, which acquired a 10-lawyer Banking and Finance group from Deloitte Legal in December.

Following the November exit of 10 of Greenberg Traurig's Warsaw lawyers, including one shareholder, the firm made a series of lateral moves last year. After hiring seven real estate lawyers from Dentons, Kochanski & Partners, and Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka, it retained ten more during the following few weeks.

Law firms in the region, including Kyiv's Arzinger Law Office, spoke out in solidarity with the Ukrainian legal community last week. In a statement, managing partner Timur Bondaryev condemned the invasion. The following firms closed their offices in Kyiv to ensure the safety of staff: Baker McKenzie, Dentons, CMS and Taylor Wessing.