Erik Steger (Wolf Theiss): “CEE/SEE is an area that requires specialist knowledge and local contacts
Veröffentlicht am 10. Apr. 2015
Thanks to substantial economic growth over the last 15 years, the region of Central and Southeastern Europe (CEE/SEE) has been attracting a number of international investors. Erik Steger, managing partner of Wolf Theiss, the largest fully-integrated law firm in the region, sheds some light on how to gain success in this quickly-developing, complex market.
Erik Steger. Wolf Theiss was founded in 1957 in Vienna as a result of the combination of three medium-sized Austrian law firms, and we started our international expansion in the late 1980s after a wave of political and social events in the CEE/SEE region. Since our clients have been expanding in this region, we have also decided to establish a real presence on the ground so as to accompany them. Today, only 40% of our 340 lawyers are based in Austria, the remaining are present in 12 other countries across the CEE/SEE.
Another key element of our strategy is being responsive to the dynamics of different markets. The economy of Poland has been growing continuously for 19 years, and financial services, TMT, energy and consumer sectors are increasingly active, so our second biggest office is over there. The flexibility of the Slovenian market is also very attractive with some privatization programs being concluded and potentially announced this year. Russia, on the contrary, is a very large market, but the competition is fierce between local and international players, so we are more prudent with respect to this market.
Leaders League. How important is it to have such a broad geographical reach?
E. S. The CEE/SEE region is an area that requires specialist knowledge and local contacts, and a network of local offices is essential to build closer client relationships and a better working knowledge of the multitude of regional jurisdictions. For instance, the state-owned Hypo Alpe Adria’s SEE network, composed of one Austrian banking holding, six SEE banks and three leasing companies in the region, with total assets of EUR 8.4 billion, was recently acquired by US private equity fund Advent together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and Wolf Weiss advised on the buy-side in six jurisdictions. This is a perfect example of work by a fully integrated cross-border team.
Leaders League. How to achieve success in this region?
E. S. You must build your reputation on a combination of unrivalled local knowledge and strong international capability. Workforce diversity and multicultural inclusion are important, because CEE/SEE is a very fragmented region with a total population of close to 100 million, multiple different languages and cultural ties. From a legal point of view, there is not only the difference between EU and non-EU-members, but each country also has its own civil code in place. In the case of our firm, over 45% of our lawyers are women, and currently we have more than 25 different nationalities speaking 30 different languages. On top of that, commitment to excellence is a universal ingredient of success. At our firm, we have continuous training programs so that our lawyers can be business-minded and understand fundamentally what makes a law firm outstanding in the market.
Read more insight regarding CEE legal services markets in our next International Report of Top 100 Law Firms. Publication in September 2015.
J. Y.