The firm begins operating in Warsaw this year with partners from Dentons and DLA Piper
Global firm Pinsent Masons has announced its expansion to Poland, with a Warsaw office set to open in the middle of this year.
Six partners comprise the office’s founding team. They focus on real estate, corporate/mergers and acquisitions, banking and finance, and construction.
Bartłomiej Kordeczka used to lead Dentons’ Warsaw office as co-managing partner; he also co-led its real estate practice. Piotr Staniszewski co-led Dentons’ construction practice, while Bartosz Nojek co-headed the banking and finance practice.
Jakub Marcinkowski co-led DLA Piper Poland’s corporate/M&A team. Maciej Jodkowski was a shareholder in Greenberg Traurig’s Warsaw real estate department, and Błażej Zagórski led the German desk practice at CMS.
Kordeczka and Marcinkowski will lead the Pinsent Masons Warsaw office.
“The Polish market presents a major opportunity for international firms, with Warsaw becoming increasingly recognised as a legal and commercial hub in the CEE region. Pinsent Masons already has a strong network of European offices and this expansion into Poland provides another dimension for supporting the cross-border needs of its clients”, Kordeczka said in a statement.
Marcinkowski added that Warsaw was “a strategic base for managing English-law governed transactions across CEE.”
Pinsent Masons senior partner Andrew Masraf explained that Poland possessed among the “most resilient and dynamic economies” in Europe; thus, establishing a base in Warsaw bolstered the firm’s pan-European offering.
“It is a key market for a number of our clients, particularly those in Western Europe, and remains an important investment destination in Central and Eastern Europe,” Masraf said. “We’re launching with a stellar founding team whose reputation precedes them in the Polish market. They possess an extraordinary breadth of expertise, complemented by a long-standing collegiate relationship.”
The Warsaw office will be Pinsent Masons’ ninth in continental Europe. The firm also announced this week that it was launching an international delivery centre in South Africa’s Cape Town.
