Global Business Magazine 2023 International Awards

Obaidullah Asadi Legal Services Co., ltd.

Haya Rashed Al Khalifa

Advocaat Emiel Haesbrouck

Dentons

ELENA ARGYROPOULOU & ASSOCIATES LLC

KLCCA Legal and Corporate Affairs

PwC Legal Business Solutions

Hannke Bittner und Partner

Kleopas Alliott Business Consultants SA

Hill Dickinson Hong Kong

Samvad Partners

Bagus Enrico & Partners

Sonia McEntee Solicitors

Horev & Co. Monosevich & Co. Izardel Shapira & Co.

Calzolai Law Firm

Studio Alessio

Legal Challenges Group

Kettani law firm SCP

Avillez, Bacar, Duarte& Centeio – Sociedade de Advogados, Lda

ACG-International

Dentons Eric Silwamba, Jalasi & Linyama

Consul Law Firm Poland - Polska

LAW OFFICE OF MARCIN MALINOWSKI

Tonkin Clacey Inc

Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & de los Angeles

Lenz & Staehelin

Deep & Far Attorneys-at-Law

Formosan Brothers

Birungyi, Barata & Associates

ENT Surgeon

LDA Incorporated

Prosperant LLP

Enviroo

Newbould & Co Solicitors t/a Newboulds Solicitors

Open Plan Law Limited

TM Development Associates Limited

People Group Services

Colin David Russ t/a CDR

Quinton Edwards

Alvarez & Marsal Holdings, LLC

Fieldfisher

DMA Economics

Rimon

TSI Legal Enterprises, PC

Kramer Jacobs Search

Steven H. Wilhelm, APC

IP LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - AFGHANISTAN

Abdullah Sadiqi IP officer

Obaidullah Asadi Legal Services Co., ltd.

+93748492601

www.oac.com.af

Sadiqi@oac.com.af

Suite No. L3-107, Daudzai Business Center, Malik Asghar Square, Kabul 1001-Afghanistan

Obaidullah Asadi legal Services Co., Ltd. Was founded by Qazi Azizullah Sadiqi in 2010 with its main office in Kabul & subbranches in 33 provinces of Afghanistan. Two years after of founding OAC lunched it`s aboard branch in Karachi-Pakistan which was specialized in IP Services in Afghanistan.

Currently OAC has more than 300 Clients from all over the world and OAC is a well-known Law Firm in Afghanistan for it`s best services.

The cases handled by our firm frequently involve multijurisdictional issues. They can involve banking and finance, data protection, energy projects, construction and engineering, professional liability, insurance, and commercial transactions. We handle both Domestic and International cases. The firm has a significant presence in all Courts of Afghanistan. We also negotiate, review, and draft contracts, especially contracts involving international commercial transactions. We provide essential legal consultation and devise a legal strategy especially geared toward our foreign clients. We advise foreign clients in matters relating to investment. We also have a worldwide presence and have the ability to present cases in different countries of the world.

Like every good law firm, we rely on the combined experience of our lawyers. We greatly value attention to detail and believe that establishing a good relationship with our clients is the key to success. Therefore, clients who look for legal services comparable to what the best International law firms offer, find Obaidullah Asadi legal Services Co., Ltd.(OAC), to be a reliable International level law firm.

From the moment that we accept a case, clients feel the difference. A strategy unique to each individual case is devised and carefully followed. The level of organization, attention to detail, and ease of communication, has resulted in satisfied clients over the years. Our goal is to provide the best legal representation available at a reasonable and fair cost to our clients. We are proud of the high legal and ethical standards that have been established by our firm and the tradition of excellence which we work to maintain.

Our Law Firm Obaidullah Asadi legal Services Co., Ltd.(OAC), is registered before the Foreign Embassies in Afghanistan, ACBRIP & AIBA.

Obaidullah Asadi legal Services Co., Ltd.(OAC), is engaged in providing international and

local legal services, has the most professional group of highly educated and qualified lawyers and legal experts with extensive experience in various fields of law.

Areas of Practice:

Intellectual Property law|

Commercial law|

Family law|

Licensing|

Business law|

Criminal law | and all Legal Services.

During the past 10 years

Obaidullah Asadi Legal Services Co., Ltd.(OAC), has been engaged in more than 300 local cases 100 international cases in different courts of Afghanistan and have registered more than 50,000 Trademarks in trademark office and commercial court of Afghanistan.

We have successfully overcome the cases related to our client`s intellectual property rights and have turned the verdict for the benefit of our clients. Litigation & raids related to IP law are pieces of cake for our attorneys.

OF THE YEAR - BAHRAIN

Elie Yazbeck Partner

Haya Rashed Al Khalifa +973 17537771

https://www.hraklf.com/ e.yazbeck@hraklf.com

First floor, BDB Building, Diplomatic area, Bahrain

Haya Rashed Al Khalifa is a full service legal practice based in the Kingdom of Bahrain and is regarded as one of the most prestigious and dynamic law firms in the Kingdom. We advise on high-profile and ground-breaking domestic and international transactions and dispute resolution matters. Endowed with a long-standing tradition of excellence, the Firm enjoys a distinguished reputation for the quality of its legal advice, delivering highly professional, responsive and cost-effective services tailored to the needs of those whose interests it represents and serves - everyone that it partners with.

With over 30 years of exceptional dispute resolution and advisory experience, the Firm has proven to be pivotal to the provision of legal counsel to the Bahraini community, especially in regards to major international projects, and has focused extensively on serving as a catalyst to national development.

The Firm is widely retained by the Bahraini Government departments & institutions, international and local banks, investment advisers, international accountancy firms, multinational companies and high net worth individuals from around the world. This distinguished profile has resulted in excellent contacts and working relationships with numerous leading international law firms.

The lawyers engaged at Haya Rashed Al Khalifa Law Firm are highly qualified professionals who bring together an unrivalled depth and breadth of experiences that enable them to better understand our clients’ businesses and therefore better anticipate their needs. The diversity of languages spoken in the Firm has come to include English, Arabic, French and Farsi.

Aspiring for absolute performance, while striving to cultivate meaningful relationships, Haya Rashed Al Khalifa engages in diverse practice areas, including banking, capital markets, commercial, corporate, insurance, investment funds, litigation & arbitration, construction, local regulatory, Islamic, civil and criminal law.

Our masterful capabilities both technical and legal, together with our progressive outlook and enviable business and political connections ensure that our clients receive the absolute edge in legal support, and that their interests are always protected and served.

We firmly believe that our role will always be to go beyond delivering on people’s legal requirements to ultimately contribute to their success and the fulfilment of their aspirations. We have a reputation for providing an exceptional legal service. We are renowned for our commitment to excellence and for our ability to find innovative

solutions to the most complex of legal problems. Our clients recognize and value this, thus our reputation and pre-eminent status has been confirmed in numerous international legal directories.

In every society there are professionals bestowed with the responsibility of leadership, whose duty is to safeguard the standards of their profession and inspire those who follow in their footsteps. In the legal domain, such a responsibility weighs even more upon its most highprofile practitioners as they are inevitably and invariably pushed to the forefront of the practice. Professional mastery determines success and performance in any profession but since legal practice directly affects the destinies of people, so that the position of leadership in this business is truly a manifestation of responsibility and talent.

We firmly believe that our role will always be to go beyond delivering on people’s legal requirements to ultimately contribute to their success and the fulfilment of their aspirations.

Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, Attorneys at Law & Legal Consultants, is on the move and is committed to success, both for itself and for its clients. It is an institution and legal think-tank offering inspiration to today’s professionals on both sides of the aisle.

CIVIL LITIGATION ADVISER OF THE YEAR - BELGIUM

Emiel Haesbrouck

Advocaat

Emiel Haesbrouck

056 74 77 30

advocaat.emiel.f.haesbrouck@gmail.com

Jakob van Arteveldelaan 15, Kortrijk 8500, Belgium

• Started at the bar of Kortrijk as a intern-lawyer in 1970.

• Elected as a town councillor in Kortrijk ( West Flandern ) in 1970 ( till end 1982 )

• Employee of the Department of Foreign Affairs/Development Cooperation ( 1982 - 1983 )

• Employee of the Services of the Prime Minister ( 1983 - 1985 )

• Appointed Clerk Rapporteur of the Dutch-speaking Council of Appeal in the office of the Prime Minister, by decision of the Prime Minister dated April 6th 1984.

• Member of the Council of State of Belgium - Auditors’ Office - ( 1985 - 2008 )

• Researcher at the study department at the ministry of the Secretary for the Reform of the State Ferrdinand De Bondt ( September 1977 - April 1979 ) : preparing laws concerning the reform of the State : first texts concerning the « Arbitragehof « , current Constitutional Court .

• Member of the National Board of the CVP ( political party, 1973-1986 ).

• Representative for Belgium at the first UN Congres on International Law in New York ( 13 - 17 of March 1995 .)

• Grand-officer in the Order of the Crown ( Royal Decree of 29 th of April 2008 )

• Commandeur in the Order of Leopold ( Royal Decree of 11 th of April 2000 )

• Honorary lieutenant in the reserve ( 2 th June 1992 )

• Outright winner of a 2021 Lawyer Monthly Legal Award.

TAX ADVISER OF THE YEAR - CHINA

Sean Wang Executive Chairman of Family Office Legal Center Dentons

+86 136 7123 2807

https://www.dentons.cn; wang.xu@dentons.cn

16-21F, Tower B, ZT International Center No.10, Chaoyangmen Nandajie Chaoyang District, 100020, Beijing, China

Sean and his team specialize and enjoy high reputation in Chinese tax services, crossborder wealth planning, foreign currency control policy services, foreign investment services (in China and HK), domestic and foreign trusts services, general legal counsel services. Sean was invited to provide training and consulting services on trust& tax and cross-border wealth planning to many top-ranking institutions such as the head office of the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Taiping Life Insurance, PingAn Insurance, and CICC, making him highly recommended by these large institutions.

Sean had provided tax services to many foreign/local high-net-worth clients and their companies. The total amount of the tax cases he had dealt with were more than 3 billion RMB. He had successfully help many clients to get more than 100 million RMB tax refund, help them saving more than 1 billion VAT/CIT/INCOME TAX. He is highly recognized by the actual controllers of listed companies and ultra-high-net-worth individuals in China.

Sean had studied both in London and Beijing, he has two law degrees with distinction. He was honored by national full scholarship to study cross-border wealth management law and tax knowledge in UCL (University College London), and obtained

the Master of Laws degree with distinction.

Sean’s working language is English and Mandarin, he is good at providing legal and tax services to international individuals and companies. Corporate tax and income tax, VAT export refund are his major tax practice areas.

Experience:

• Executive Chairman of Dentons (China) Family Office Legal Center

• Senior Lawyer

• Tax Advisor

• TEP: Trust and Estate Practitioners (The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners)

• University College London(UCL) : Faculty of Law LLM (distinction) (Full Scholarship, China Scholarship Council) Dentons Beijing office Trust& Tax Counsel for High-Net-Worth

• Dentons China: Family Trust legal skills mentor for New recruits

• Legal and tax adviser of many top-ranking banks’ head offices and financial institutions, Eg: The head office of Bank of China; Agricultural Bank of China; PingAn Group

• 2023 Chinese Law Business Journal Rising Star of the year

• 2020 Wealth APAC | Asia Pacific Wealth Management Forum: Jinzhen Award winner; First-class excellent private wealth practitioner

• 2022 Wealth APAC | TIPTOP adviser in the family trust sector

• 2021-2022 Wealth APAC | TOP50 Chief Wealth Advisors in China

• Contributor to nationallevel core journals such as The Banker and Financial View

• Commentator of trust law of the Southern Finance

• Mentor of graduate student at the University of Science and Technology Beijing

• The distinguished lecturer of the MBA cross-border law and tax course (USTB)

Services:

• Tax disputes resolutions;

• VAT (Value added Tax) planning and compliance service;

• Income tax planning and compliance services;

• Corporate Income tax planning and compliance services;

• Foreign investment services (in China and HK)

• Foreign currency control compliance services;

• General legal counsel for foreign company or foreign individuals;

• Wealth management;

• Trust services;

• Legal dispute resolutions.

Elena Argyropoulou Founder/Managing Director

ELENA

ARGYROPOULOU & ASSOCIATES LLC

+357 25349949, Mob.: + 35797877821, Fax: +357 25349849

argyropouloullc.com

info@argyropouloullc.com

67

Agias Fylaxeos, Drakos Court, 2nd Floor, Office 4, 3025 Limassol-Cyprus

Elena Argyropoulou & Associates

LLC is a boutique award-winning law firm, headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, also operating a fully fletched office in Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.

Execution is one of the biggest challenges facing law firms today, and with a significant international outlook, Argyropoulou & Associates has successfully positioned itself as a legal strategic partner to its clients, overseeing projects and enquiries from start to finish. Its diverse client base ranging in nature and size, from large multinational publicly owned companies to privately held businesses and high net worth individuals and entrepreneurs, rely on the heavy strategic focus and core competency of the firm to deliver through innovative legal tools and in a consistently timely manner.

People are at the core of the firm; its multi-year, multi-disciplined team comprises of talented and experienced lawyers in their respective legal field, enabling Argyropoulou & Associates to provide streamlined first-class legal services.

Argyropoulou & Associates is not only committed in providing clients with seamless and highquality legal services, but it is also committed in building meaningful client relationships that endure through business cycles and meet clients’ high expectations and changing goals. To build commitment, the firm invests in relationship management as a key value of its procedures.

Established in 2017 and through its five-year life cycle, Argyropoulou & Associates has positioned itself as a true game-changer in the way legal services are delivered in a fast-changing global landscape. Elena Argyropoulou, founder and director of the firm has worked alongside the most notable law firms and legal teams in the region and over her fourteen years of experience has been extensively involved, as a corporate and trust lawyer, in multimillion corporate and financing transactions with indepth knowledge and expertise in providing legal due diligence. She has a rich collection of accolades and awards, being recently awarded by Global Law Experts with the Private Client Advisory Expert of the Year in Cyprus 2022 Award, recognised and awarded

by Leaders in Law in 2021 for outstanding performance on Trusts & Estates Law and awarded by AI acquisition international for 2021 Leading Adviser Awards as their Leading Corporate and Commercial Law Boutique of the Year in Cyprus.

Through its growth, close affiliations and memberships with internationally recognised and celebrated associations, the firm’s ability to rapidly identify and monitor new developments in businesses and regulations worldwide is a key strength to its success and up-to-date knowledge management. The firm’s immediate plans revolve around careful expansion in the UAE, where it already offers corporate services to new and existing clients. With a loyal commitment to changing the face of the traditional law firm into a bespoke legal powerhouse, Elena Argyropoulou & Associates LLC invests in knowledge, technology and training to remain at the forefront of the industry.

The firm has been advising clients on their most important and challenging legal assignments in:

• Trusts & Estate Planning

With the main objective of the accumulation, management, transfer and protection of client’s personal wealth, the firm offers a complete bespoke drafting and advisory service.

• Corporate, Commercial

The firm’s corporate & commercial team has a particular multidisciplinary and focused expertise on establishment, sale/ purchase and dissolution of companies and partnerships in Cyprus and overseas. The team offers management, governance and domiciliation services and personalised support for day-today corporate and commercial matters, assistance with corporate mergers and acquisitions, securities, banking and finance.

• Data Protection

A wide range of privacy and data protection services both to local and international clients.

LAW ADVISERS OF THE YEAR – CYPRUS

• Real Estate & Property

Advice on leasing matters, acquisition and transfer of immovable property and the undertaking of property due diligence

• Immigration

A wide range of immigration services including, advice on Temporary Residence Permits, Employment permits, Permanent residence permits, Citizenship, Immigration permits and Visas.

• Employment Law

Comprehensive and practical solutions on employment matters to local and multinational companies operating in Cyprus.

• Tax and International Tax

Planning

The Firm’s team of tax experts has a strong background and experience that enables it to identify the specific needs of clients and to fine-tune them with the most suitable international tax planning advice.

• Wills, Probate and Administration of Estates

Guiding clients through Wills, Probate and Administration of Estates in a sensitive and timely manner. The team has the expertise and experience to identify assets and beneficiaries, collect and distribute those assets, apply for Grants of Probate and Administration, with advice on tax issues following death including inheritance tax and transfer/sell property.

• Litigation

Providing Local and International Litigation

The firm has a global network of litigants who are specialists in multiple legal practises and are able to undertake local and/or international litigation.

The range of claims and disputes that the firm handles locally is extensive.

Dr. Ahmed Khedr Managing Partner

KLCCA Legal and Corporate Affairs

Tele/Fax: +20 233377100 / +20 233377101 (KSA): +966 566505826 (USA): +1 2018005555

www.klcca.com / www.klccaah.com

akhedr@klcca.com

Head office - 40 El Thawra St. Mohandeseen , Dokki , Egypt

KLCCA for Legal Consultations and Corporate Affairs, is selected for our 2023 Annual Global Legal & Financial Awards as a leading international law firm specializing in Corporate Affairs in the Middle East, an award-winning international firm in law and Corporate Affairs.

KLCCA focuses on Quality, rapidly innovates to offer renewable services for your Business Sustainability. Quality and Commitment are their focus. They make sure to provide their clients a wide bundle of legal, corporate affairs and investment expertise, supported by the best professional practitioners, and at the same time meeting international standards and practices. They follow the principles of corporate governance in their practices while being guided by professional codes of ethics, business standards and innovation.

KLCCA has a successful track record in the Middle East, USA

and Gulf areas in consultation of Corporate laws, Commercial Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Mediation, Corporate Governance, Corporate Compliance systems, Compliance Capital markets, Mergers, Acquisitions, Corporate Restructuring, KPIs, Family Business Succession, and Family Constitution to several multinational and local companies.

KLCCA advises listed companies on many issues related to the suspension of shares and trading, also prepares, and reviews the diverse codes, in addition to restructuring family business and converting many personal institutions into holding companies. They help their customers to invest especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

KLCCA’s team are experts in contracts and negotiations. They have succeeded in the last five years in executing contracts between many foreign companies and companies in the Gulf area and the Middle East. They

P.O.Box: 8 Dokki , Egypt

understand the nature of the matter, the difference in culture and law, and the potential fear that the nature of the relationship between the political systems in your country may raise, however, they are faced with a clear fact that they are in front of an international commercial contract among different parties ‘nationalities, where both parties need this contract in a very critical economic time.

KLCCA believes that “Law must create a value and to be one of the Business resources of your corporate” for instance, clients should not be exposed to future surprises or a ruling by the court. The interest is in merging business and law in the process of the negotiation and formulation of contracts to make them protecting clients’ rights and avoid future risk and make it a flexible tool for developing their business.

KLCCA complements those activities with advisory services in investment, Mergers &

Acquisitions, IPOs , Company Evaluations in cooperation with a sister company specialist in finance services.

KLCCA took advantage of multiple abilities of Dr. Khedr as one of the leaders of Corporate Governance in MENA to be the best provider of Corporate Governance service in MENA especially in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. KLCCA created its own style in Mediation of complex commercial disputes as well as family business disputes in accordance with the rules of (ICC / AAA / WB), that lead clients to praise the professionalism, ethics, speed, quality, and value for money. KLCC became a haven for disputing parties from outside the region with a success rate 100%. Now KLCCA is one of the experts in the Gulf and Middle Eastern Laws on world.

Ahmed Khedr is Advisor of Law and Corporate Affairs, Managing Partner of KLCCA Legal & Corporate Affairs and Chairman

Board of Advice House - KLCCA. He has a mixed background as he was an Assistant Professor of commercial & International Commerce of Taibah University in Saudi Arabia and the British University in Egypt, and he has a background in business administration as a graduate of the continuing and executive education program at Harvard Business School. this background made him aware of business law with a deeper concept that targets corporate affairs services as he merged the law with business for the sake of the continuity and development of companies.

He is the trusted Expert of Gulf and Middle Eastern laws for the big law firms. For example, he dealt with top famous law firms for providing legal opinion as an independent legal expert before the largest arbitration bodies in the world. As an expert, he was recommended by the most famous firms to work on the cases of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince of UAE, and the

Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt in international cases. He presented his opinions as an independent expert of Gulf law upon the request of international arbitration bodies and courts in the USA and England. Ahmed contributed as an expert for measurements of United Arab Emirates in the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index® (The WJP Rule of Law Index 2022 report).

Ahmed is an International legal Author, the New York University and LexisNexis chose him as the legal author and advisor of many Gulf systems such as the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar. He was a member of T20 who participated in the development of the new generation administrative reform, investment policies, corporate and investment laws for the Egyptian government. He was selected to establish one of the important Law Colleges in Saudi Arabia and the BUE in Egypt.

Dr. Michael Huertas LL.M, MBA Partner, Financial Services Legal Leader - Global Legal Network & FS Legal Leader Europe, Head of the Financial Institutions Regulatory Europe Team

PricewaterhouseCoopers

+49 69 9585-3189

Legal AG Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft (PwC Legal Business Solutions)

https://legal.pwc.de/en/services/financial-services; Email: michael.huertas@pwc.com

PwC Legal Business Solutions, Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 35-37, 60327 Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Our more than 20 lawyer strong Banking, Capital Markets and Finance team in Germany handles all aspects of national and international banking law for global and domestic financial institutions, insurance firms, German and foreign investment funds (including private credit funds), payment services providers, alternative lenders and lending platforms and FinTechs as well as advice to EU authorities. Our Financial Institutions Regulatory Europe (FIRE) Team has extensive knowledge of the regulatory environment and risk management, compliance and supervisory culture at global, EU and national level. We not only advise in the context of transactions, but also accompany our clients on a regular/sometimes permanent basis and thus support them in complying with regulatory requirements.

Some of our lawyers have more than 15 years’ experience in their specialist area as well as in-house experience gained at major financial services firms and regulatory authorities, including Michael Huertas’ time at the European Central Bank assisting in the set-up of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and working on other Banking Union and Capital Markets Union projects (such as the Asset-Backed Securities Purchase Programme and the EU Securitisation Regulation in its conception, drafting and implementation).

Our transactional practice is based on the following six pillars in supporting our clients as well as other teams of PwC Legal Business

Solutions and PwC more broadly (whether in Germany, across the EU or further afield):

1. Structuring and documentation of structured finance issuances (in particular securitisations (true sale and synthetic issuances, including on an STS basis) and structured note issuances as well as repack transactions;

2. Structuring and documentation of debt capital market issuances, EMTN programmes and regulatory capital instruments;

3. Derivatives (ISDA (English, Irish and US law) and under the German Master Agreement) transactions as well as securities financing transactions (GMRA for repo and GMSLA for securities lending (both English law) as well as under the German Master Agreement for Financial Market Transactions);

4. Complex lending transactions (LMA and German law) as either lender or borrower/hedging counsel (in particular acting for non-financial corporates);

5. Advice on drafting and negotiation of general trading terms and conditions (in particular prime-brokerage and

prime-custody documentation) as well as regulatory and public reporting requirements; and

6. Advising institutional investors in relation to their legal, regulatory and ESG due-diligence related to various types of financial market transactions and asset-classes.

Our financial services regulatory practice is based on the following four pillars in providing legal and regulatory support to clients as well as other PwC Legal Business Solutions and PwC teams with respect to their pan-EU, German and other multijurisdictional compliance obligations and supervisory expectations:

1. Advice on classic financial market supervisory lawe.g., advice on structural issues in «regulatory change» projects on (but not limited to): CRR III/CRD VI (KWG), Solvency II, MiFIR/MiFID II, IFR/IFD (WpIG), MAR, EMIR 2, SFTR, EU Securitisation Regulation, AIFMD/R (KAGB), EU Money Laundering Directives, Germany’s Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation as well as retail client focused products and consumer protection issues;

BANKING CONSULTANTS OF THE YEAR

2. Transaction-related advice (supporting the six pillars above) as well as legal and regulatory support for clients in their product development and governance relating to structured finance and capital markets issuances, derivatives transactions and lending, including issues relating to regulatory and other reporting obligations and general risk management;

3. Advising national and international clients on German and European supervisory law, e.g. legal entity and natural person licensing requirements, investor and consumer protection considerations, EU Banking Union and Capital Markets Union workstreams, enlargement of the EU and the Eurozone, the monetary policy activities of the European Central Bank (collateral eligibility, open market operations and purchase programmes incl. COVID-19 special programmes), supervisory priorities of the European supervisory authorities (ECB-SSM, EBA, ESMA and EIOPA) as well as representing clients visà-vis supervisory authorities in response to ad hoc reviews including on-site inspections; and

4. Advising on digitalisation and FinTech, in particular in respect of cryptoassets

(both licensing of providers as well as approval of tokens and other fungible and non-fungible digital assets), electronic securities and other alternative financial products (including but not limited to crowdfunding but equally with respect to open finance driven payments and other BigTech services).

PwC Legal Business Solutions’ more than 250 lawyers in Germany along with the more than 4,000 legal, technology and consulting professionals in over 100 jurisdictions operates on a cross-team and crossdisciplinary basis. This offers our clients a truly 360-degree approach including advice that extends “beyond law”. In being able to provide full-scope and multijurisdictional legal expertise from Germany coupled with the multidisciplinary expertise from PwC’s unparalleled breadth we believe (and our clients agree) that this sets PwC Legal Business Solutions firmly apart in empowering our clients to navigate challenges and seize opportunities globally.

Other key differentiators

In addition to a strong base of German qualified lawyers, our team is also composed of US, English and Irish-law trained and qualified attorneys. The

team advises in German, English, French, Spanish and various CEE languages. We are therefore able to explain the intricacies of matters in the client’s own language and in the given context with knowledge of their legal frame of reference. We do this on a daily basis in virtually every matter – be it in relation to complex financial markets transactions, new authorisations, “change the business” and/or “change the compliance” projects through to cryptoasset regulatory support, working with local teams across the PwC and PwC Legal Business Solutions’ network as well as with local counsel firms in select jurisdictions.

Our team has equally been developing a range of LegalTech and RegTech solutions for our clients, in particular Rule Scanner, a regulatory horizon scanning and risk mapping tool that is backed by a knowledge repository and a data lake of 9 million and counting set of enforcement fines and sanctions issued by over 450+ regulatory and supervisory authorities.

Dr. Andreas Peters

Senior Partner

Hannke Bittner und Partner

+49 941 5862090

www.hbp-ip.de/team/dipl-phys-dr-andreas-peters/ andreas.peters@hbp-ip.de

Prüfeninger Strasse 1, 93049 Regensburg, Germany

Zusammenfassung

Wettbewerbsvorteil: Patent.

Ihr Unternehmen arbeitet Tag-fürTag an neuen Innovationen.

Sind diese nicht adäquat geschützt, riskieren Sie von IhrerKonkurrenz kopiert zu werden.

Der Wettbewerbsvorteil Ihres Unternehmens steht auf dem Spiel.

Achten Sie auf:

• den rechtzeitigen Schutz Ihrer Innovationen

• ausgefeilte Formulierungen für optimalen Schutz

• die Auswahl der richtigen Kategorien, um Schlupflöcher zu vermeiden

All das kann schnell sehr komplex werden. Daher unterstütze ich Siegerne mit meiner jahrelangen Praxiserfahrung.

Gemeinsam schützen wir Ihre Innovationen.

Schreiben Sie mir eine kurze Nachricht mit dem Stichwort “Termin”,dann melde ich mich zeitnah bei Ihnen.

In einem Erstgespräch klären wir, wie ich Sie konkret unterstützenkann.

Berufserfahrung

Pixel24 AG - GAD24 App -aicarimage.world Of General IP Counsel, Shareholder

Oktober 2021 - Present (1 Jahr 4 Monate)

Firststrasse 8 CH 8835 Feusisberg, Schweiz

Giving Advice in all IP related matters aside of still being active senior parter atmy law firm.

Hannke Bittner & Partner

11 Jahre

Senior Partner

Juni 2018 - Present (4 Jahre 8 Monate)

Head of Electronics and and Co-Head of Mechanics Division, leading a teamof nine engineers and paralegals.

Main areas of work comprise strategic advice to large and midsize clients to itsfirst to C-Level executives in respect to patent and trademark portfolio work.

Aside of that, my core activities concern all matters regarding industrialproperty rights, in particular patent, utility model, trademark and design patentapplications

Opposition, appeal and nullity proceedings

Patent, trademark and designs infringement proceedings

Development and cooperation agreements

Licensing matters

Employee inventor rights

Due diligence.

Junior Partner

August 2013 - Mai 2018 (4 Jahre 10 Monate)

Head of three paralegas and one engineer.

Main areas of work includes all matters regarding industrial property rights, inparticular patent, utility model, trademark and design patent applications

Opposition, appeal and nullity proceedings

Patent, trademark and designs infringement proceedings

PATENT LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - GERMANY

Development and cooperation agreements

Licensing matters

Employee inventor rights

Due diligence

Associate

Februar 2012 - Juli 2013 (1 Jahr 6 Monate)

Drafting and prosecuting patent application before the GPTO and EPO, as wellas opposition proceedings berfore these two offices.

Epping Hermann Fischer

Patent Attorney Trainee

Juli 2008 - Januar 2012 (3 Jahre 7 Monate)

Drafting and prosecuting patent application before the GPTO and EPO, as wellas opposition proceedings berfore these two offices.

Ausbildung

FernUniversität in Hagen

Recht für Patentanwälte · (20082011)

German National Merit Foundation awarded to best 0,3% of entireGerman student population (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)

(Oktober 2000 - April 2008)

FernUniversität in Hagen

Pre-Diploma, Economics · (20052008)

Universität Regensburg

Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Physik · (2005 - 2008)

Universität Regensburg

Master’s degree, Physik · (20012005)

LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR – GHANA

Kwame Nyampong, Esq. Managing Partner Franklyn and Partners

+233302252015

www.franklyn.law

info@franklyn.law

5 Adenkum Road,

Kanda- Accra

FRANKLYN AND PARTNERS

UNLIMITED IS A FULLSERVICE CORPORATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW FIRM IN GHANA

We specialize, among other practice areas, in the following;

• CORPORATE AND COMMERCIAL LAW

• LITIGATION

• TAXATION

• OIL AND GAS

• DEBT RECOVERY

• FINANCE

• ARBITRATION

• SHIPPING

• IMMIGRATION

• IT

• REAL ESSTATE

• MINIRAL AND MINING

• ADVISORY AND CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Our Mission

To assist in the resolution of disputes of all nature and provide clients’ with the legal confidence in their business transactions and/or dealings through Professionalism, Persuasiveness and Honesty

Our Vision

To become a leading law firm in Africa, with global presence, offering full legal services

FRANKLYN AND PARTNERS is a dynamic and strategic fullservice Corporate and Commercial Law Firm in Ghana. The legal team has a rich experience in the law practice giving us the ability to speak the Ghanaian Law

fluently. We pride ourselves with Professionalism, Persuasiveness and Honest, as our hallmark. We have vast experience in, among other expertise, business arrangements and investment promotions both locally and internationally. We have an excellent specialization in transactional, litigation, corporate and commercial issues.

FRANKLYN AND PARTNERS

is known for its efficiency, promptness, professionalism, integrity and competitive fees in the provision of legal services. We have severally acted for and represented multinational corporations in diverse transactions and negotiations. We recruit and retain well qualified and motivated staff and provide our professionals with the best of continuing legal services and education.

Profile

Kwame has considerable experience across the whole range of corporate transactions and arrangements, including restructurings, corporate reorganizations, demergers and related issues. He advises on schemes of arrangement, capital reductions and share buy-backs, joint ventures and strategic alliances, commercial contracts/ arrangements and corporate governance.

Kwame also has wide ranging experience in corporate disputes in particular shareholder disagreements and breach of

warranty claims; insurance disputes in particular professional negligence claims. He also advises on partnership disputes; planning disputes and compulsory purchases.

Kwame is a highly enthusiastic, affable and professional lawyer with great leadership qualities combined with an attitude to accept challenging tasks. He comes up as a goal-oriented, creative and resourceful person with high problem-solving abilities. He has special expertise in Debt Recovery, having until recently worked as the Managing Director of Direct Debt Recovery Consult Limited. He has also worked at Eagle Watch Limited, a company which specializes in Due Diligence and Personal and Corporate Profiling, as the Managing Director. He has also worked as a Recovery Consultant for over 15 Commercial Banks; and started his legal practice at Adu-Kusi and Associates (formerly Law Bureau).

Kwame had formal education in Economics, Project Management and Finance before pursuing Law.

Kwame serves on several boards in different capacities; which boards include Oil and Gas, Manufacturing and Banking and Finance.

He is also a member of the Ghana Bar Association, International Bar Association, Ghana Association of Restructuring and Insolvency, International Insolvency Association, American Economist Association; among others.

Maria Gratsia Managing Partner

Kleopas Alliott Business Consultants SA

+302109579050

www.alliott.gr

gratsia@alliott.gr

350 Sygrou Ave., 17674 Kallithea, Athens - Greece

The Firm

Kleopas Alliott Business Consultants SA is an independent Greek accounting firm with an innovative international orientation and a unique client focus service approach for more than 30 years.

With more than 40 highly educated executives, Kleopas Alliott is one of the leading accounting firms in Greece.

The firm is servicing a vast number of industries such as energy, hotel and leisure, food and beverage, logistics, real estate, retail, e-commerce, bank and finance, constructions, pharmaceutical and individuals.

Kleopas Alliott is renowned for its values – excellence, trust, & confidentiality – and for building long-standing relationships with its clients, based on a sophisticated way of providing services.

The firm is committed to provide personalized services, to understand clients’ needs in depth, being attentive, responsive, and flexible, in a cost-effective manner.

The use of cutting-edge technologies is integrating these traditional values in a modern and efficient way elevating the added value for the client.

Kleopas Alliott knows how to do the best for its clients. People are the core of the firm and the key to success. The firm is believing in successful and winning teams, investing in its people, encouraging innovative thinking, team spirit, open and trustful communication.

Ethos

Kleopas Alliott is a modern consulting firm with an oldfashioned dedication to client service. We make a point of taking

the time to investigate in depth any requirement, being pride of ourselves on our ability to provide effectively in a timely manner service.

The Services

• Accountancy - (Accounting, Bookkeeping, Financial Statements).

• Taxation, - (Statutory Compliance, Tax Consulting and Planning).

• HR & Payroll – (Payroll Calculation, Statutory Statements, HR Management).

• Corporate, (Start-up business, Secretariat services, M&A).

• Expats Services.

Going Global

Kleopas Alliott understands International Business. It is a long-standing prominent Member of the Alliott Global Alliance an international alliance of independent professional firms, aiming to meet clients’ international business interests around the globe.

As part of Alliott Global Alliance, the firm is providing qualified cross border services in 6 continents, 95 countries and more than 250 locations worldwide.

Business Assurance

Business Assurance is of extremely high importance for Kleopas Alliott. Thus, it has developed and applies rigorous policies to achieve the highest standards to the Personal Data Protection, the Code of Ethical Conduct, and the Anti-Bribery – Anti-Corruption approach, ensuring that its

ACCOUNTANTS AND TAX ADVISERS OF THE YEAR – GREECE

professionals, employees and third parties involved, are acting in compliance with the applicable local and international laws and regulations. The advanced Full Disaster Recovery Plan along with an Annual Penetration Test are completing the comprehensive security strategy of the firm.

Social Responsibility

Kleopas Alliott is taking its commitment to the society seriously, participating in a good number of programs to make the community a better place for all. The firm enthusiastically supports a variety of organizations that help children, the elderly, and the environment.

Locations

Greece: Athens and Mykonos

Romania: Bucharest.

Biography

Maria Gratsia is the Managing Partners of the firm, which she first joined as a trainee back in 1996. She graduated in Business Administration of the Athens University of economics in 1998. Her capability and efficiency to manage projects and her professional skills in problem solving are making her a high value-added professional for the firm and its clients. Maria is the connecting link of the firm with its international partners and regularly participates in conferences and training courses. She is a member of the Economic Chamber of Greece. Maria is fluent in English

Damien Laracy Managing Partner

Hill Dickinson Hong Kong

+852 2525 7525

https://www.hilldickinson.com/offices/hong-kong

Damien.Laracy@hilldickinson.com

33B United Centre, 95 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong SAR China

Hill Dickinson Hong Kong is a leading and award-winning full service international commercial law firm delivering advice and strategic guidance spanning the full legal spectrum, and one of the fastest growing international practices in Hong Kong. Over the last five years the firm has doubled in size, increased its client base threefold and developed new practice areas. Best known for its expertise in commercial litigation, international arbitration, contentious shipping and trade matters, HDHK also has significant non-contentious capability including corporate transactional, corporate finance and regulatory matters.

With a strong international practice and experienced network, the Hong Kong team works closely with colleagues within the Hill Dickinson international network of offices in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Greece, and Monaco to identify and maximise opportunities for clients and to resolve their problems. Our close relationships with other premier regional law firms provide us with legal and procedural capabilities in other jurisdictions, thus enabling

our practice internationally. We draw on long-standing experience in major industry sectors to deliver the highest quality, actionable legal advice and solutions possible.

Particularly, the team works with the firm’s Singapore office to provide combined legal services offering for APAC clients that also accommodates the needs of both offices’ growing nonmarine client portfolios, which span sectors included insolvency and restructuring, banking and finance, regulatory, health and tech, real estate, luxury and leisure, international trade, and construction and engineering.

Insolvency and restructuring

The value of seeking good advice early when your business is in trouble can’t be overstated. Hill Dickinson’s Hong Kong team are experts not only in insolvency and restructuring but in helping clients take steps to mitigate or avoid the failure of their business and protect their assets.

Shipping and International trade

The firm assist and advises banks, brokers, traders, ship owners, charterers, underwriters and the international group of P&I clubs. Hill Dickinson’s wet specialists also assist and advise in relation to marine collisions, groundings, salvage and pollution issues. Specifically, the team handles Admiralty claims arising from collisions, salvage, groundings and pollution; cargo loss and damage claims, mis-delivery claims, ship mortgage enforcement and charterparty disputes, together with insurance and reinsurance matters.

On the non-contentious side, the team handles sale and purchase (including superyachts), corporate shipping, shipping finance, ship leasing, ESG and decarbonisation in shipping, escrow arrangements, pooling agreements, and joint ventures. The firm also represents cruise line operators and high net worth superyacht owners.

Commercial litigation and arbitration

The Hong Kong team is well versed in handling and winning commercial cases at all levels in the Hong Kong courts and before specialist tribunals and boards. It has also embraced the shift towards arbitration as a practical, quicker and often more costeffective route towards dispute resolution.

Long involvement throughout the firm’s 210-year history in transport, trade finance, commodities, financial institutions and construction enables us to combine an understanding of the law, practice and conventions of these industry sectors with our clients’ commercial objectives. We place emphasis on the negotiation of arbitration clauses, and when disputes do arise, we work closely with our clients to achieve an early and satisfactory resolution through mediation and negotiation and are deeply involved in drafting submissions ourselves, while simultaneously providing advice.

FULL SERVICE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - HONG KONG

The arbitrations on which we are instructed include complex, high-value multi-jurisdictional cases. We work alongside teams in other offices in our network and with correspondent law firms whose competence and sustainability we have tested in the past. The majority of our own legal practitioners in Hong Kong regularly handle arbitration, and several of them act as arbitrators and mediators, including a certified adjudicator. The team is familiar with the different sets of rules in arbitration in common use – and several sets of rules that are not. We are accustomed to appearing before tribunals and experienced in conducting advocacy.

Corporate and regulatory

The team handles all aspects of corporate transactional and regulatory work that business owners – from SMEs and start-ups to large international conglomerates – typically require, including complex cross-border deals. The firm’s Asia-Pacific offices are staffed with highly experienced lawyers qualified in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore,

South Korea, India, Australia, New York and New Zealand.

The firm regularly advises stakeholders (debtors and creditors) in distressed situations and related security enforcement and insolvency procedures in Hong Kong, the PRC and other Asian jurisdictions. We also advise on shareholder disputes (including ‘quasi partnership’ disputes), joint venture disputes, investment product misrepresentation/ misselling claims, banking disputes, internet crime (business email compromise scams/ CEO fraud) and more routine debt/asset recovery matters, sale of goods disputes, and employment issues.

Insurance and reinsurance

HDHK also advises on contentious insurance matters including coverage and defence work. It provides audits of insurance policies and advises on policy wording. In a regulatory context, we advise company directors and others involved in the management of listed companies, as well as employers and employees involved in regulatory investigations.

FULL SERVICE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - INDIA

Partners

Samvad Partners

+91 (22) 6104 4000 (Mumbai), +91-(80) 4268 6000 (Bengaluru), +91 (11) 41726200 (Delhi). +91 (44) 4306 3208 (Chennai) https://www.samvadpartners.com/ vineetha@samvadpartners.com, poornima@samvadpartners.com, ashwini@samvadpartners.com, rohan@samvadpartners.com

Address:

Mumbai - Free Press House, 3rd Floor - Office No 39 and 4th Floor - Office No 41, Free Press Journal Marg, 215, Nariman Point Mumbai 400 021 India

Bengaluru - 62/1 Palace Road, Vasanthnagar, Bengaluru – 560 001

Delhi - 10, Sundar Nagar, New Delhi – 110 003

Chennai - 11/6 2nd Floor. Railway Colony, 3rd Street, Nelson Manickam Road, Aminjikarai, Chennai – 600 029

The Firm

Samvad is a full-service law firm providing practical, innovative and quality legal advice. We are a partner-led, solution-focused setup and believe that we deliver cutting-edge transactional work in the most non-transactional ways. The firm is a rich mix of domestic and international experiences, as several partners have worked in various international financial centres outside India, including London, New York and Singapore. Given our multi-discipline and flat structure approach, we work seamlessly across all five offices. We are able to anticipate issues better and apply our cross-practice learnings while advising on any issue. With our strong base in corporate and commercial law, we are able to help a wide range of clients from young startups to established multinational Fortune 500 companies, global private equity and venture funds, Indian

and international banking and financial institutions as well as the government across various commercial and regulatory needs. The Firms’ biggest focus is the ability to deliver quality, across offices, seamlessly and irrespective of where the client is located.

Our partners are highly acclaimed by both Indian and international rankings institutions for demonstrated legal prowess in their respective fields. We have been consistently ranked among the top-tier law firms as a leader in several practice areas. Our thought leadership is reflected through the various publications and articles authored by our team members. Many of our team members are visiting faculty members and guest lecturers in institutes across India. The team at Samvad is consciously and actively involved in policymaking and engages with the relevant stakeholders to this end. We regularly advise clients on issues arising out of corporate governance, domestic anticorruption laws as well as foreign anti-corruption laws such as the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977 and the UK Bribery Act, 2010, in connection with mergers and acquisitions, private equity and financing transactions. The ability to be gender-diverse is hardcoded in the DNA of Samvād: Partners. Our gender diversity ratio is probably the best in the country, with 80% of our partners and 54% of our lawyers being women. This makes us unique among both Indian and global law firms.

Established in 2013

Total number of professionals: 130+ (19 partners)

Principal offices: Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi

Key practice areas:

• Anti-corruption & antibribery;

• Arbitration & ADR,

• Banking & finance;

• Bankruptcy & insolvency;

• Competition & antitrust;

• Compliance;

• Corporate & commercial;

• Corporate governance;

• Data protection and privacy & GDPR;

• E-commerce, fintech, blockchain & cryptos;

• General corporate advisory;

• Healthcare, life sciences & pharmaceuticals;

• Inbound investment;

• Infrastructure;

• Insurance & reinsurance;

• Intellectual property;

• Joint ventures;

• Labour & employment;

• Litigation;

• Licensing & franchising;

• Mergers & acquisitions;

• Microfinance;

• Policy & regulatory;

• Pre-litigation advisory;

• Power & energy;

• Private equity, venture capital & investment funds;

• Real estate;

• Restructuring & insolvency;

• Technology, media and telecommunications.

Vineetha MG (Mumbai), Poornima Hatti (Bengaluru), Ashwini Vittalachar (Delhi), Rohan K George (Chennai)

Bagus Nur Buwono Managing Partner

Bagus

Enrico & Partners (BE Partners)

+62 21 29885959

www.bepartners.co.id

bagus@bepartners.co.id

DBS Bank Tower, 17th floor, Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav.3-5 Jakarta 12940

Bagus is a founding Partner and Managing Partner of Bagus Enrico & Partners (BE Partners). The firm has been recognized by the international and highly respected UK based Legal 500, International Financial Law Review, Who’s Who Legal, Asia Law, Acquisition International, and Global Law Expert for its practices in Corporate M&A, Restructuring & Insolvency, Labor & Employment, IT, Telecom & Media, Construction & Real Estate, Commercial Law.

Bagus Enrico & Partners is the sole representative member firm for Indonesia in the international legal network GLOBALAW, comprising of around 100 independent law firms in 85 countries with 4500 lawyers, making it one of the most global of all legal networks. It has grown steadily and smartly over 25 years with a determined focus on quality rather than quantity. As such we have 76 different legal jurisdictions covered, making us

one of the most global of legal networks.

Bagus’ practice focuses primarily on transactions and advisory works, including merger and acquisition, strategic investment and general corporate/commercial matters across various industrial sectors including banking, insurance, and finance, energy and natural recourses, infrastructure, automotive industry, and construction services.

Bagus has extensively worked on a broad range of cross border transactional, advisory and contentious matters, and regularly advises on regulatory issues on financial industry, energy, manufacture, and infrastructure sectors. His considerable experience in relation to those business sectors has enabled him to steer investors through the inherent practical and regulatory hurdles.

He has also acquired practical corporate, banking and finance experience in various business cycles when working for Bank Mizuho Indonesia and Bank Barclays Indonesia. He was also an independent member of the Audit Committee and the Risk Management Committee of Bank DBS Indonesia. He received several awards for his significant contributions in supporting the business development activities in Bank Mizuho. During his tenure at Bank Mizuho, he attended a Mini – MBA Program held by Mizuho Corporate Bank, Ltd in cooperation with Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan in 2009.

He is also known especially for his experience in reorganizing roles and functions of legal department, setting up various standard legal documents for banking activities, and conducting various legal training programs. He acquired unique experience to support the

process to set up new retail and commercial operation of Barclays Bank in Indonesia, including preparing all legal documents of banking products, procurement documents, legal policies, corporate governance, and the exit process of Barclays from the retail and commercial business in Indonesia.

In recognition of his years of continued excellence work and expertise, some of Bagus’s accolades include: The Asia Pacific Legal 500 - The Guide to Asia’s Commercial Law Firm (2011/2012 - 2022/2023) Editions have acknowledged Bagus as a recommended lawyer in the practice areas of Corporate, M&A, Employment, and the Restructuring and Insolvency; Recognised as a «Leading Lawyer 2014/2015 - 2022/2023» by Asia Law - Euromoney Asia in the areas of Banking and Finance, and Corporate, M&A and as the

BOUTIQUE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR – INDONESIA

expert in the practice areas of Commercial Law; Indonesian Expert and clientele choice for Corporate M&A by Global Law Experts; Commercial Law Award in Indonesia by Legal Finest; Indonesia’s 100 Top Lawyers by Asia Business Law Journal since 2018-2022; Hukum online’s - In-house counsel’s choice survey mentioned Bagus as a Leading Litigation Lawyer in 2021; named one of the top ten most influential leaders in the legal industry by Tycoonsuccess; and also mentioned as a Commended External Counsel according to the research by In-House Community Counsels, where his clients praise him for his business knowledge and legal expertise.

Bagus is also a co-lecturer on Company Law for the International Undergraduate Program and the International Commercial Contract Law for

the postgraduate program –Yogyakarta class at the Faculty of Law of the Gadjah Mada University. In addition, he was a co-author (with Prof. Dr. Sulistiowati S.H. MH) of a book titled, “Running a Company under Indonesian Law” in 2021.

Bar Admittance and Education

Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (1996)

International Business Law (LLM) from the University of Manchester, the United Kingdom (2005) (awarded Chevening Scholarship)

Indonesian Advocate Association (PERADI)

Sonia McEntee Principal

Sonia McEntee Solicitors

012320707

www.soniamcenteesolicitors.ie

sonia@soniamcenteesolicitors.ie

1B

and edel@soniamcenteesolicitors.ie

Elm House, Kinnypottle, Cavan, Co. Cavan

Sonia McEntee Solicitors, incorporating Apartment Law, based in County Cavan, was established in November 2002 and is a multi-award-winning general practice, specialising in all aspects of Apartment Law. In 2022, we expanded our offerings and opened a second branch office in Dublin.

Our practice is a leading legal firm that specializes in providing legal services to clients in the apartment law sector. We provide comprehensive legal solutions that address the complex legal challenges faced by property owners, landlords, tenants, and other stakeholders in the apartment industry. With over 20 years’ experience, Sonia McEntee together with her team possess indepth knowledge and expertise in apartment law and are committed to delivering high-quality legal services that exceed client expectations.

At Sonia McEntee Solicitors we take some of the most commonly asked questions and answer them in plain English, breaking down the jargon. Whether you’re an owner, a landlord or a tenant, we’ll help you get to grips with your rights, as well as your obligations.

Services

Sonia McEntee Solicitors offers a range of services designed to cater to the unique needs of our clients. Our services include:

Estate Planning and Probate Matters:

Estate planning is an essential process that enables individuals to manage their assets and liabilities effectively while they are alive and after their death. It involves creating a comprehensive plan that determines how an individual’s assets will be distributed after their death and who will be

responsible for managing their affairs. In Ireland, estate planning is particularly important due to the country’s complex inheritance laws and taxes.

Landlord-Tenant Disputes:

We offer legal representation and advice to landlords and tenants in disputes involving rent arrears, lease breaches, evictions, RTB matters and other related issues.

Property Management:

We provide legal guidance and support to property owners and management companies and their agents on matters related to multiunit development management, such as lease agreements, the apportionment and collection of service charges, rights and obligations under the Multi Unit Development Act and property maintenance.

Litigation:

Our practice is well equipped to advise and represent clients in litigation matters related to apartment law, including disputes between landlords and tenants, breach of lease agreements, and disputes between co-owners of apartment buildings.

Compliance and Regulatory Matters:

We assist property owners and management companies in navigating complex regulations and compliance requirements, which arise under the Multi Unit Development Act, the Land and Conveyancing Acts, Company Law and Contract Law.

Conveyancing (Residential and Corporate):

Whether you are buying or selling a property, our team will support

SOLICITORS OF THE YEAR - IRELAND

you every step of the way while guiding you through this process and always have the utmost regard for your interest.

Expertise:

Our team possess extensive expertise and knowledge in apartment law and related areas. We have over 20 years of experience working with clients in the apartment industry, and we have developed a deep understanding of the unique legal challenges faced by property owners, landlords, tenants, and other stakeholders in this sector. Our team stay up to date on the latest legal developments and trends in apartment law and related areas to provide our clients with the most effective and innovative legal solutions.

Clients:

Our practice serves a diverse range of clients in the apartment industry, including property owners, management companies, landlords, tenants, property managers, and other stakeholders. We work with clients in both the commercial and residential sectors, and we have experience handling legal matters for clients of all sizes and levels of complexity.

Our law practice is committed to providing exceptional legal services to clients in the apartment industry. We have the knowledge, expertise, and experience necessary to deliver effective legal solutions that address the unique needs and challenges of our clients. If you require legal assistance related to apartment law, contact us today to schedule a consultation with one of our experienced attorneys.

BOUTIQUE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - ISRAEL

Horev & Co. Monosevich & Co. Izardel Shapira & Co.

Tel: + 972-72-2706220; Fax: + 972-3-5098085

https://www.ilcomlaw.com/ office@ilcomlaw.com

Horev & Co. Law Office is a boutique law firm offering its clients individually tailored legal services in various commercial fields. The firm in the last years has grown to become an internationally recognized practice providing a wide range of legal services to a global clientele of local and international individuals and large business organizations. The firm was selected as one of the leading boutique law firms in Israel in the high-tech industry, specifically in technology and international transactions. Our principal areas of practice include corporate and commercial law, primarily representing high-tech and international companies in all stages of operations and providing day-to-day consultation in various areas of the law. We particularly focus on international commercial transactions, licensing and intellectual property, strategic alliances, private equity (representing the company, the founders and the investors, as the case may be), project finance, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, technology and other commercial and corporate matters.

We assist our clients in all aspects of commercial activities by managing each transaction with a well-considered balance of legal and commercial expertise and business creativity. Our knowledge and experience extend for almost 25 years and includes a rapidly-growing client base comprising of reputable

international, high-tech and technology-oriented companies, as well as representing start-up companies from their inception and private investors within their financial rounds. We view our relationship with start-up companies as a long-term strategic partnership, understanding the unique challenges for both companies, founders and investors, and are committed to our client’s short-term and long-term success. We have extensive experience in all aspects of commercial law and have acted as lead counsels in a wide variety of complex international transactions with very large international entities. Our work includes technology based joint ventures and strategic alliances, teaming arrangements and other commercial assistance in a wide range of industries. The firm has extensive working relationships with reputable international firms and has been involved in significant international transactions, particularly representing US based companies in deals within and outside the US.

The firm works at the highest professional standards, and the personal and direct involvement of the firm’s partners ensures the provision of high-quality, responsive, accessible, business oriented and effective legal services.

Above all, our firm combines legal excellence with a practical and

innovative business approach, providing our clients with an advantage within the industry.

UK Affiliation:

Our firm was appointed as the Israeli representative office of Seven Pillars Law Office, a UK law office having offices in London, Kazakhstan, Dubai and Cape Town.

Through our affiliation with Seven Pillars & Co., we have a deep bench for working on a variety of matters and issues affecting Israeli companies both in the UK and abroad.

Our Areas of Practice:

• Corporate Law

• Commercial Transactions

• Private Equity Financing

• Mergers & Acquisitions

• Licensing

• High-Tech and Technology Transactions

• IP Protection

• Employee Benefits (including all stock incentive plans for employees).

24 Raul Wallenberg St., Ziv Towers Build. B, 4th Fl., Tel Aviv 6971922, Israel

Simone Calzolai Founder Calzolai Law Firm

+39 (0)2.82860010

https://www.slclaw.eu/ info@slclaw.eu; milano@slclaw.eu

Via Moscati 8,

20154

Milan MI

The Calzolai Law Firm was founded in 1998 thanks to the professional experience gained over the years in the various areas of civil, commercial, criminal and administrative law by the owner Simone Calzolai.

In addition to the owner, the firm employs four collaborators, including two lawyers and two doctors of Law, who support the research and in-depth analysis of the individual issues, in addition to secretarial and accounting staff.

The Firm also provides high quality legal assistance at international level, representing both companies and individuals.

For several years, a stable collaboration has developed with law firms in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and the United States.

The founder of the firm avv. Simone Calzolai is Senior Associate at Ascheri Nelson LLP in London.

In particular, to better meet the needs of national and international clients and a professional reality in continuous evolution and expansion even outside the national borders, the Calzolai Law Firm has combined its skills in the field of law with those of the tax and commercial firm Ascheri & partners, with which there is a stable collaboration relationship.

Founder and General Counsel of Studio Legale Calzolai. His long career began in January 1994, when he graduated in law with honors from the University of Florence and began his activity as a forensic trainee at the Judicial Offices of the district of the Court of Appeal of Florence, at the same time carrying out an internship at the magistracy of the Court of Prato. Admitted to practice before the higher courts, native Italian speaker, he speaks perfect English, French and German and has a basic knowledge of Spanish and Russian.

He has acquired specific skills in the prevention and resolution of legal problems related to the exercise of business activities also at international level, from the formation of the corporate structure to the management of judicial litigation, including disputes regarding dissolution / incorporation / merger of companies, withdrawal / exclusion of shareholders, liability actions, real estate contracts (with experience in a wide range of commercial transactions), leasing contracts, merchandising and licensing, protection of intellectual property (copyright and trademarks), estate planning and trust law, enforcement of non-competition agreements and labour law issues.

For years he has been providing legal assistance in the field of crimes related to the world of

finance, the market and, more generally, trade, with particular reference to tax crimes.

Over time it has progressively extended its competences to other sectors, including, in particular, building litigation (from an administrative and criminal point of view), energy sectors and litigation in the field of health liability. In recent years he has expanded his training as a jurist to the field of sports law, offering legal advice for all activities involving sports performance, equated in all respects to other forms of work, assistance and advice in the stipulation of the sports performance contract or transfer between companies of sports performance rights, as well as in the conclusion of commercial contracts, such as sponsorship contracts.

Admitted to practice before the Supreme Court, he has also dealt with complex cases of significant media interest. To cope with a constantly evolving reality even outside the borders of the European Union, it has combined its skills and developed them in a stable partnership with Ascheri & Partners Tax and Commercial Firm of London (U.K.). Admitted to practice law also in the U.K. and Wales, as registered foreign lawer by SRA-Solicitors Regulation Authority he participates as Senior Partner in Ascheri Nelson LLP in London, he is an active member of the ABA (American Bar Association).

Avv. Simone Calzolai

ACCOUNTING CONSULTANTS OF THE YEAR – ITALY

Franco Alessio Founder and Partner

Studio Alessio

+39014275733

www.studio-alessio.it

franco.alessio@studio-alessio.it

Piazza

San Francesco

22, 15033

– Casale Monferrato (AL), Italy

Studio Alessio is made up of professionals listed in their related professional bodies and the member and founder Dr. Franco Alessio is listed in the Italian body of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts (CNDCEC), in the Italian Body of Auditors and in the European Register of Tax Advisors.

Studio Alessio was founded in 2003 with the aim of giving accounting, corporate and tax advice to clients based or residing in Italy.

Since 2008, the consulting activity has been expanded also advising clients with foreign headquarters but with business interests in Italy. Initially advising only customers in the European Union and then, from 2010, also outside the European borders.

Through a network of professionals listed in the related bodies (accountants, lawyers, notaries and H.R. consultants), Studio Alessio ensures professional advice to nationally and internationally clients.

At present, we offer, among others, the following services: accounting, auditing, tax law consultancy, both to individuals

and companies, consultancy on double taxation agreements, VAT services, human resources, business consultancy, corporate law and administrative services.

The professionals who collaborate with Studio Alessio also provide advice in civil, criminal, bankruptcy and immigration law (the latter consultancy is often useful in the case of setting up companies with directors and employees who come from countries outside the European Union)

Studio Alessio distinguish Itself from the competitors in Italy thanks to the years had on the international tax law field and to the combination of skills provided on the various accounting, business and legal fields by the professionals who collaborate with the firm.

We identify the growth opportunities and strengths of customers, in order to help them to achieve a process of continuous improvement, profit maximization and tax savings.

We believe it is essential to always be next to the customer wherever they are and the Studio Alessio’s motto is: With us You are always

connected, never alone!

The typical clients of the firm are individuals and companies (sole traders and companies) that have business relationships in Italy and in the rest of the world. At present, most of the clients we have, are based or resident in Italy, Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia

The expertise of my firm and the wide network of contacts around the world gives us a distinct advantage when we work on an international playing field.

In the last 12 months we have improved the sectors related to extraordinary corporate transactions (i.e. mergers and demergers) and, joining two large international networks, Studio Alessio has managed to guarantee professional assistance to the clients in more than 160 countries.

In the coming months we will try to implement the various automated tools necessary to speed up and improve the services provided to our customers wherever they are, making them feel more and more supported in every decision.

Areej Hamadah President Legal Challenges Group

0096599650888

http://areejhamadah.com/ Areejhamadah.law@gmail.com

Kuwait - Kuwait - ALsanee Tower - Sharq- Area 8 - st. 154 - 11th floor

Creating a platform that includes sectors and setting controls for displaying stocks

The lawyer AREEJ HAMADAH launched a specialized incorporation initiative for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with the aim of addressing the situation of stumbled entrepreneurs and those with constructive ideas. During a seminar held at the headquarters of the Bar Association, she presented a draft law on the establishment of the alternative investment market, which is the first experience in drafting a serious law that cares for this group of young entrepreneurs, both men and women.

In the draft, Hamada presented the historical sequence of launching the initiative, which began in 2014 with the initiative to establish a specialized stock exchange as a means of financing. In 2016, she chaired the Economic Committee of the Bar Association and organized an economic forum to discuss the establishment of the relevant stock exchange. In 2017, she published part of the study

that she conducted, comparing it with international experiences.

Caring About the Youth Initiatives

For his part, Areej Hamadah, expressed his happiness that there is a clear interest in this type of initiative wishing for more attendees next time, stressing that this initiative will benefit all young people and entrepreneurs who own small and medium enterprises. Since there are countries, governments, and leaders that have adopted this initiative in pursuit of a real recovery of the national economy in those countries that understand the meaning of small projects and the actions of entrepreneurs.

He also added, «We, in the Bar Association and through the team that will undertake this initiative and with the participation of staff in the Board of Directors, will be supportive of this initiative and we will be confident that the success of this initiative will only be through pressure groups. As well as through a voice emanating from the initiators and project owners until we achieve the difficult

equation, we will be a voice heard by the political leadership and the executive and legislative authority, which must adopt qualitative projects that advance economic work.»

Step on the right course

that economic studies confirmed that the Corona pandemic contributed to providing job opportunities of different shapes and sizes. Referring that small and medium enterprises are initiatives undertaken by individuals that turn into economic entities, whether companies, organizations, commercial or industrial projects. Hence, it is necessary to provide means for the development of small enterprises in order to strengthen the economy, and we are working to support the initiators through concerted efforts, whether from the efforts of initiators, government agencies, or civil society agencies, to encourage this group to work in the market and achieve its goals. And if there are obstacles, time will tackle them.

The stock exchange creates new liquidity

the capital markets in general, before classifying them, are mainly aimed at creating liquidity, which reflects positively on the improvement in the performance of the economy, and since it is customary to divide and classify the markets in Kuwait into a primary market and other markets. In addition, the types of markets vary according to the liquidity of the stock itself, whether issued or available shares. In addition to the existence of certain requirements for the inclusion of this type of company in the stock exchange.

with the development of economies and the diversification of legal entities, and there is a need to create secondary markets, which will help in revitalizing the economic cycle in the country that depends on entities.

the markets are no longer only for companies, but include commodities and bonds. There is no doubt that there are emerging companies, but they are no longer able to exist for trading.

LAWYER OF THE YEAR - KUWAIT

Areej Hamadah

CEO of Shanghai Kuwait Business Management and Consulting (China); Practical experience of more than 21 years in the commercial field, corporate , contracts, acquisitions and mergers, banking, labour, civil and administrative cases.

The founder of Legal Challenges Group Law Firm work in the State of Kuwait since 2017.

Editor-in-chief of Legal Challenges Magazine - an international journal specializing in law and economics since 2019.

Vice President of the crossborder of Investments Committee at the Commercial Lawyers Organization for Asia and the Pacific (IPBA) from 2020 to 2023.

Member of the Chinese European Arbitration Centre - Hamburg CEAC.

An assistant at the team working with the World Bank Group to prepare a report on the business environment in the State of Kuwait, as a representative for

the private legal sector in the State of Kuwait since 2020.

Awarded the Medal of Honour as Inspirational Female Entrepreneur for the year

2020/2021 from the International Small Enterprise Organization ICSB

Recognized as an internationally distinguished attorney in commercial, banking and mergers and acquisitions for the year 2020/2021 by IFLR1000 -Eruomoney

She has several legal studies and publications.

She investigated several judicial precedents in Kuwaiti courts.

Winner of the Creative Lawyers Award from Al-Jahra Governorate in the State of Kuwait.

Former lawyer for Ahli United Bank - Kuwait branch for 13 years

DISPUTE RESOLUTION FIRM OF THE YEAR - MOROCCO

Kettani law firm SCP

Tel : +212 522 438 900

Fax : +212 522 205 925

http://kettlaw.com/ k@kettlaw.com

8, rue Lahcen El Basri -ex Boileau - 20100 Casablanca

Mediation and arbitration are now the most effective means of conflict resolution, by the speed of their procedures, their costs, or by the confidentiality that is increasingly sought by the parties.

The Moroccan legislature has, by various texts encouraged the use of this alternative means of dispute resolution that has also the benefit of releasing the courts’ workload.

KLF, through its founder, was among the first professionals to be interested in it, and initiates numerous cases before various authorities, in which it provides its clients with a legal representation by specialized lawyers in this area.

Beside the role of KLF as a lawyer or counsel for the parties, Professor

Azzedine Kettani

is also widely recognized as arbitrator both nationally and internationally.

He is a member of the Moroccan Court of Arbitration of the ICC Morocco and was recently ranked as the president of the Mediation Centre of this chamber in 2013.

He is frequently named as sole arbitrator, as well as member or chairman of arbitral tribunals, and is a chartered arbitrator of the Court of appeal of Casablanca.

Internationally, his recognized expertise allowed him to be appointed by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Paris) as an arbitrator for many years.

Professor Azzedine Kettani has also been appointed by the ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment

Disputes) as an arbitrator or chairman of arbitral tribunals for many years.

In September 2011, he was named for six years by the President of the World Bank, acting as the ICSID’ s Chairman of the Board of Director, as a member of the panel of 10 international arbitrators.

He is also a member of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre panel of arbitrators and as such, he was named as sole arbitrator or chairman of the arbitral tribunal on many occasions.

All these activities reflect favourably on KLF, which reputation in the field of domestic or international arbitration is well established.

BANKING LAW ADVISER OF THE YEAR

Álvaro Duarte Partner

Avillez, Bacar, Duarte& Centeio – Sociedade de Advogados, Lda +258 84 580 1194

https://www.abcc.co.mz/en/ aduarte@abcc.co.mz

Avenida Kenneth Kaunda, no. 660, Maputo/Mozambique

Álvaro Duarte has been a Lawyer in the area of banking and finance for about 13 years. Before working at ABCC, Álvaro worked for Vieira de Almeida e Associates (leading law firm in Portugal). Álvaro has also worked in various M&A operations, conducting due diligences of documents and negotiating relevant contracts and

agreements. Álvaro has worked in the Mozambican market since 2014, where at the time he joined Guilherme Daniel & Associates (exclusive member of Vieira de Almeida in Mozambique) as the main International Advisor. In Mozambique he has worked in the first administrative dissolution of a commercial bank in Mozambique.

At ABCC he has actively worked in various operations, with emphasis on the assistance to Companies’ project and finance regarding coal concessions, and financing of the migration from analogic to digital and other relevant loan operations

Edith Nordmann Attorney at Law / Managing Partner

ACG-International

+31 20 800 64 00

www.acginter.com

enordmann@acginter.com / info@acginter.com

Atrium Amsterdam, Strawinskylaan 3051 1077 ZX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Edith Nordmann is Managing Partner and Attorney at Law at ACG International. She is an experienced corporate and commercial litigator, has an expert qualification in employment law and is an international ADR-certified mediator. Edith is specialised in cross-border business transactions taking into consideration not only the different legal systems but also being acquainted with the various cultural differences that can make or break a deal. As a public speaker she has shared this knowledge on various international conferences. As Managing Partner of Attorney Consulting Group International (ACG International), Edith can combine all these skills and expertise for the benefit of her international clients. By using deep-seated local knowledge and proven (international) networks across practice areas and borders, she assists her clients in getting

deals done and finding solutions that achieve the best results for their actual needs. Being fluent in German (as a native speaker), English, Dutch, French and Italian and understanding difference in mentality, culture and legal systems across many different cultures and countries, she is able to help her clients in a unique way. Aside from her professional career, Edith engages in many charitable and social organisations using her professional expertise, not only helping others but also empowering them in their endeavours. In addition, as of 2023, Edith has been appointed as member of the Task Force Future of Work, Skilling and Mobility under the Business 20 (B20 (of the G20 2023)) – meeting with esteemed professionals from around the world specialised in the field of employment. The B20 is the official G20 dialogue forum representing the global business community. Established

in 2010, the B20 is among the most prominent Engagement Groups in G20, with companies and business organisations as participants. The B20 leads the process of galvanising global business leaders for their views on issues of global economic and trade governance and speaks in a single voice for the entire G20 business community. India is presiding the G20 in 2023. B20 will host a series of discussions and policy advocacy forums, across India, covering the identified industry priorities, with the aim to realise the B20 strategic vision and translate it into concrete and actionable policy recommendations.

Attorney Consulting Group International (ACG International) is a full-service law firm focused on companies that are engaged in international trade and innovation. ACG International is based in Amsterdam, and active around the globe keeping in mind that a

good (personal) match between the client and his legal service provider is very important. ACG’s attorneys are known for being individual experts in their fields and for their ability to join forces across practice areas and borders, to get deals done and to find solutions that achieve the best results for the clients’ needs, helping them mitigate risks and navigate the pitfalls of crossborder transactions.

ACG’s fields of expertise are Employment Law, Corporate Law and Business Structuring, Business and Commercial Law, Contracts, International Private Law, Litigation and cross-border business transactions, supporting international clients in entering and doing business in the EU market with a perfect tailor-fitted legal structure.

ACG’s lawyer’s also assist Dutch businesses on the Dutch market as

FULL SERVICE LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR - NETHERLANDS

well as abroad with a wide range of services. ACG International is the experienced partner when it comes to doing business in the Netherlands.

What clients say about ACG International:

“We have been working with ACG on recommendation of a business friend; in the meantime, we have maintained a long-term relationship with the lawyers of ACG. They are hands-on, can always be reached and know our business and way of working well, allowing us to just send them matters at hand and they will ask the right questions to advise proactively and based on a complete picture of our business. This saves a lot of time and hassle!

We are very happy with their approach in not only allowing us to solve problems tailor fit in consultation with us, but also

considering not only our business and legal aspects, but also corporate culture and reputational risks.

Our experience with ACG is that we are assisted by the specialist or team that matches our specific challenge - for each case, we discuss expertise and budget with them upfront. What is also very useful is that ACG also looks at partnerships with other colleagues and firms (they have a tremendous international network!) – to get an ideal team that gets the job done - transparently and without surprises, including billing.

It’s always a pleasure to have the lawyers of ACG on the job, it feels safe and we know that we get excellent service for a fair prize, this is very important to us.”

Eric Suwilanji Silwamba Principal Partner

Dentons Eric Silwamba, Jalasi & Linyama

+260977756206 / +260 211256530

https://www.dentons.com/en/global-presence/africa/zambia; Email: eric.silwamba@dentons.com

Plot No. 12 @ William Burton, Chilekwa Mwamba Road, Off Lubu/ Saise Roads, Longacres, Lusaka, Zambia

Mr. Silwamba is the Principal partner of the firm Eric Silwamba, Jalasi & Linyama Legal Practitioners and is a vastly experienced Practitioner who has been conferred with

the rank and dignity of State Counsel. Mr. Silwamba has had the opportunity of attending to some of the most complex cases with respect to High profile Criminal matters, constitutional

and Administrational law. He has stronghold in areas of litigation and has contributed to ground breaking decisions relating to Dispute Resolution, Constitutional and Administrative Law

Slawomir Ligecki Managing Partner

Consul Law Firm Poland - Polska

+48 537 768 513

https://consullawfirm.pl/ office@consullawfirm. pl

Consul Law Firm Poland, Ul. Truskawkowa 11, 66-415 Klodawa-Gorzow Wlkp, Poland

Consul Law Firm is a universal law firm, based in the west of Poland, which provides highquality legal and tax services in all the fields of the Polish legal and business system. We realize, that companies and individuals want to obtain real value for their money, and for this reason we always try to provide to each client the best possible results in their individual cases.

We strive to give to each client a full list of legal and tax solutions to the problem and we also advise each client which option will be the best one and most costeffective in his individual situation.

We have been providing legal services to both Polish and international clients since 2002. Since that time we got to know many concerns and problems that individuals and companies encounter when they start and conduct their business operations in the Polish jurisdiction.

This is why we know how to solve those problems in a fast and effective way.

Consul Law Firm Poland has been providing legal and tax services to both domestic and foreign clients

for more than 20 years. We have worked both for individuals, small and medium-sized companies from Poland, Europe, USA, Canada, South America, Asia and Australia, as well as big multinational corporations.

Mr. Slawomir Ligecki is the founding partner of the Consul Law Firm Poland. He received a law degree from the University of Gdansk in 2002 and passed Polish Bar Examinations for Prosecutors and Attorneys.

He focuses mainly on civil and business law and is responsible for providing legal services to international clients from Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia. He is fluent in French, ltalian and German.

We focus mainly on civil law and business law as well as civil/ business litigation.

Our practice areas also include:

• banking law;

• registration of companies;

• medical malpractise;

• transactions;

• tort law;

• cornpany law;

• family law;

• employment law;

• financial regulations;

• immigration law;

• inheritance law;

• EU and international law;

• tax law;

• administrative law and administrative proceedings;

• antitrust and competition law;

• real estate;

• intellectual property law;

• government regulation;

• bankruptcy law;

• insurance law;

• debt collection law;

• criminal law;

• Polish citizenship law

Marcin Malinowski LAW OFFICE OF MARCIN MALINOWSKI

+48 514 513 259

https://marcinmalinowski.pl/en/main/ ADWOKAT@MARCINMALINOWSKI.PL ul. Gajowa 8, 04-691 Warszawa, Poland

Advocate Marcin Malinowski specializes in providing services to entrepreneurs and management staff, also helping private individuals.

He specializes in providing assistance to clients in court and control proceedings, also at the pre-trial stage (preparatory, settlement, business), preparing and conducting comprehensive tactics, including trial and defense tactics.

He advises and creates solutions in business that minimize legal risk.

The law firm also provides permanent legal services to enterprises.

Professional skills, often supported by measurable effects, are manifested in the representation of clients before state authorities, including law enforcement, fiscal, control, tax, as well as those related to the verification of expenditure of public funds – preparing large and small companies, as well as individuals to face the challenges legal proceedings in court and

preparatory proceedings.

Advocate Marcin Malinowski does not avoid the sphere of tax issues, advising clients on issues that they have to deal with in everyday life and business – which is often combined with professional support in inspections and providing defense.

The lawyer also successfully advises foreigners in developing and securing business ventures in the field of broadly understood legal compliance, i.e. compliance and adaptation of business to applicable law, including supporting foreigners in matters of residence in Poland.

The advocate’s developed specializations also include representation of clients in proceedings:

• penal – fiscal;

• criminal;

• tax and administrative, including European funds, with particular emphasis on tax carousels and VAT challenges;

• civil, including economic (e.g. construction, transport, development, unfair competition law);

• white-collar worker crimes and related matters…

• High communication, negotiation and mediation skills.

• He is fluent in English, German and develops the knowledge of Chinese.

• Experience in representation, assistance and in establishing professional contacts between clients and state authorities, tax and fiscal authorities, public offices and chambers.

• Continuously actively practicing the profession. Member of the Bar Association in Warsaw.

• Cooperation with an experienced and valued team and recognized lawyers.

• Experience gained in the Big 4 and the European Parliament.

• Legal services for foreign clients in the areas of compliance with Polish law, foreign trade services, in particular the correctness of transactions – export, import, intra-Community acquisitions and supplies of goods and services, implementation of legal security systems, including tax security.

• Several years of experience in litigation in common and administrative courts, and before enforcement and control authorities.

• Legal, financial and tax education, including in the field of International Business.

• Professional qualifications of a lawyer.

• Education and legal and financial qualifications, including in the field of International business, finance and accounting.

• Trial experience, including in common courts, administrative courts and state authorities, including units of the prosecutor’s office, tax offices, national tax administration, customs offices, the Police Central Investigation Bureau, the Internal Security Agency, EU Program Implementation Units, Border Guard, Customs and Tax Service and the Police.

• Academic teacher in the field of law, including procedural, criminal and penal-fiscal law in public universities.

• Experience in solving pre-litigation and pre-inspection disputes.

• Service and understanding of foreign and domestic Customers.

• Experienced in resolving disputes at pre-litigation and pre-control stages, including the preparation of a comprehensive strategy for proceedings and client defense.

• Synergy of knowledge and experience in procedural law, including criminal law, and tax law.

• Experience gained in international and reputable Polish law offices and production companies under the supervision of the best.

• First contact services covered by legal and defense secrecy. Ensuring professional anonymity and discretion of customers.

JACO LöTTER Director

Tonkin Clacey Inc

+27 (0)11 880 6695

https://www.tcinc.co.za/ JACO@TCINC.CO.ZA

105 Corlett Drive (entrance in Fort Street), Birnam, 2196

As one of the few specialist property law firms in Johannesburg, Tonkin Clacey Inc. has earned a formidable reputation for integrity, professionalism and skill in our niche areas of expertise.

Notwithstanding our history of almost 30 years in the property sector and a solid network of relationships forged over many years, our ability to respond with creativity and adaptability to a challenging and ever-changing environment is a keystone of our success.

Grounded in established values, always responsive to our changing environment and with a modern vision for our future, our team is a uniquely diverse but complementary resource of experience, knowledge and skill, able to provide the highest level of service to our clients.

Our firm was established as a partnership in July 1988. The firm commenced practice as

an incorporated company in 2014. Michael Clacey, one of our founding partners, retired at the end of February 2018 after 39 years of practice.

After many years as a partner, Anton Theron took over the firm’s Pretoria office, Tonkin Clacey Pretoria, in 2013, where he still practises for his own account and acts as a consultant to the firm. Furthermore, Jaco Lötter was appointed as partner in 2000 and Caroline Leppan in 2003. In 2007, Michael Pinnock, a former president of the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, and Samantha Farren, joined the firm from Webber Wentzel Bowens. Mike recently retired from practice after 53 years.

Reneilwe Mokone and Lucian Companie were appointed as directors in 2015, and later that year Dave Pennington joined us from Hogan Lovells. Our team was further strengthened by the highly experienced Johan Jacobs who joined us in 2017.

Our newest director, Wilco Hefer, has been with us for most of his professional career.

Tonkin Clacey Inc., as a socially responsible firm, is committed to improving the lives of South African citizens by making positive contributions to organisations in need.

Therefore, we are involved with the following organisations:

1. My Career Corner

2. Sunlight Safe House

Tonkin Clacey Inc. is the proud recipient of the New Breed Law Firm Platinum Award 2021/2, which has been awarded to our firm by the Phatshoane Henney Group in recognition of our above 90% compliance with the Group Standards in 2021 and 2022. The Platinum Award is the highest award of the Phatshoane Henney Group to a member firm.

The Phatshoane Henney Group has well-established Group Standards to which all member firms must aspire and which underpin the vital Group Values member firms must adopt to be recognised as a New Breed of Law Firm™.

Only members of the Phatshoane Henney Group can be a New Breed of Law Firm™ as it personifies the drive of the Group to position each member firm not only as a leading law firm in its region, but also as a compliant, well-managed and diversified South African law firm - a New Breed of Law Firm for South Africa.

To claim the status of being a New Breed of Law Firm™, member firms must progressively implement best practices at their firm, ranging from client service, marketing, strategic planning, staff satisfaction, firm practices, training and development, regulatory compliance, risk

management, transformation and more. These best practices have been meticulously designed by the Group to provide a robust foundation for the practices needed by a leading law firm.

To establish compliance, the Phatshoane Henney Group conducts a comprehensive survey of each member firm every two years, measuring compliance with over 60 best practices using an evidence-based audit to determine the individual Group Standards Scorecard for each firm.

To reward firms that excel in their annual audit, the Group has introduced its New Breed Law Firm Awards. These awards reward firms for exceptional results with recognition and the opportunity to showcase their exceptional performance to staff and clients. Each award is valid for two years from date of award and confirms to the public the quality of firm they are working with.

The New Breed Law Firm award is centred around the 5 Group Values of Caring, Standards, Innovation, Expertise and Diversity, with each colour in the award logo reflecting a related value, and by award to a firm, confirming that the firm has fully adopted these values and is worthy of being recognised as a New Breed of Law Firm™.

“We congratulate Tonkin Clacey Inc. on their outstanding compliance with the Group Standards and on receiving our highest accolade, namely to be recognised as a New Breed of Law Firm. We are proud to have Tonkin Clacey Inc. as a member firm of the Phatshoane Henney Group and believe the award confirms their status as a leading law firm and one of the best firms in our Group,” says Douglas Henney, Phatshoane Henney Group Chair.

OF THE YEAR - PHILIPPINES

Atty. Rogelio Nicandro Senior Partner, Head of the IP Department

Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura

Sayoc

&

de los Angeles

Tel: +(632) 848-0114 / 555-9555; Fax: +(632) 810-3110 / 815-3172

www.romulo.com

romulo@romulo.com

21stFloor Philamlife Tower, 8767 Paseo de Roxas, Makati City 1226, Philippines

Romulo offers a full range of legal services with its team of talented and experienced lawyers who are experts in their own fields.

The Intellectual Property Department of Romulo is engaged in the full spectrum of intellectual property practice in the Philippines. It is involved in protecting patents, trademarks and copyrights, and in negotiating and registering licensing and technology transfer agreements.

Founded in 1902, Romulo is a pioneer in IP practice. It has had considerable experience in prosecuting applications and maintaining registrations before the Intellectual Property Office, as well as in pursuing civil and criminal cases involving infringement and unfair

competition. It has successfully handled landmark cases in Philippine IP jurisprudence, among others, Pag-asa Industrial Corporation vs. The Honorable Court of Appeals, Tiburcio S. Evalle, Director of Patents and Yoshida Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, G.R. No. L-54158, August 31, 1984; Shangri-la International Hotel Management Ltd., et al vs. Developers Group of Companies, Inc. G.R. No. 159938, March 31, 2006; Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide vs. W. Landholdings, G.R. No. 222366, December 04, 2017; Cymar International Inc. vs. Farling Industrial Co., Ltd., G.R. Nos. 177974, 206121, 219072, 228802, December 16, 2022.

Romulo has also been consistently honored by various IP organization for its outstanding IP work. Thus, it has garnered,

among others, the following awards: Patent Law Firm of the Year (2023), Advisory Excellence; Best Full Service IP Firm 2018 – Philippines – Acquisition International IP Excellence Award; Best IP Law Firm 2018 – Philippines – Acquisition International

Romulo was the number one filer of patent applications for the year 2022, hence recognizing and giving credence to its patent expertise.

Upon request of clients, the IP Department monitors potentially infringing IP applications and may also liaise with different government agencies such as the Bureau of Customs to protect its clients’ IP rights.

TAX ADVISER OF THE YEAR - SWITZERLAND

Jean-Blaise Eckert Partner

Lenz & Staehelin

+41 58 450 70 00

www.lenzstaehelin.com

jean-blaise.eckert@lenzstaehelin.com

Route de Chêne 30, 1208 Geneva

Jean-Blaise Eckert is considered as a leading lawyer in tax and private client matters in Switzerland. He is the co-head of the tax group of Lenz & Staehelin. He advises a number of multinational groups of companies as well as HNWIs.

Jean-Blaise Eckert is a frequent speaker at professional conferences on tax matters. He is secretary general of the IFA. He sits on the board of several public and private companies, including Compagnie Financière Richemont SA and Stellantis International SA.

Jean-Blaise Eckert studied law at the University of Neuchâtel and was admitted to the Bar of Neuchâtel (1989) and the Bar of Geneva (1991). He acquired an MBA at Berkeley, Haas Business School (1991), a diploma as a certified tax expert (1994) and a diploma as a certified specialist SBA in inheritance law (2016). He joined Lenz & Staehelin in 1991 and has been a partner since 1999. He speaks French, English, German.

Our excellent connections – both in Switzerland and internationally – mean faster, smoother transactions. And whether you need corporate or private tax

planning and advice, we take the same approach: always working to devise practical strategies that take on board multiple perspectives. We’ve evolved a fully comprehensive tax portfolio in all fields of Swiss and international tax law. This includes forwardthinking planning strategies that enable you to achieve your personal and business goals tax efficiently. We also have the agility and insight to act quickly if you’re facing urgent demands.

Specialisms:

• Tax structuring of M&A transactions, restructurings and buyouts, relocations to and from Switzerland

• Estate and tax planning for high net worth individuals, artists and sportsmen

• Tax planning and support on financing

• Tax planning for executives and transferees at international companies

• Advice on and structuring of real estate transactions (acquisition, development and disposal)

• Tax planning for private equity funds, their owners and investors

• Expert advice on executive compensation, employee share and stock option plans

• Tax litigation, arbitration, mutual agreement procedures and exchange of information

• Advice on structuring of financial products and derivatives

• Retirement planning, social security and pension plans

• Value added tax, customs duties

With over 200 lawyers and offices in three major economic centres, Lenz & Staehelin is one of the largest law firms in Switzerland. Known for its high professional standards, the firm provides its domestic and international clients with a full range of services in the main areas of law. It is ranked amongst the leading practitioners in business law.

Yu-Li Tsai Partner Deep & Far Attorneys-at-Law

886-2-25856688 #8139

http://www.deepnfar.com.tw

email@deepnfar.com.tw

13th Floor, 27, Sec. 3, Chung San N. Road, 104, Taipei, Taiwan

Deep & Far attorneys-at-law was founded in 1992 and is dealing with all phases of laws with a focus on the practice in separate or in combination of all aspects of intellectual property rights (IPRs) including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, unfair competition, and/or licensing, counselling, litigation and/or transaction thereof.

Deep & Far prosecutes worldwide patent matters for local clients. For international or foreign clients, Deep & Far prosecutes patent matters mainly in Taiwan, significantly in China & Hong Kong, and with minor representation in Macau, Singapore, Korea & Japan. Deep & Far prosecutes in every field, such as mechanics, chemistry, pharmacy, biology, electronics, optics, telecommunications, and computer sciences.

The patent attorneys and patent engineers in Deep & Far normally hold outstanding and advanced degrees and are generally graduated from the top three universities in this country. Our prominent staffs are dedicated to provide the best quality service in IPRs in this country. As a proof, about one half of top 100 incorporations in this country have experiences of seeking patented their techniques, but more than one fifth of the top 100 incorporations has ever used services of this firm.

Furthermore, Hi-Tech companies in the science-based industrial park located at Hsin Chu had ever played the most important role in booming the economy of this country. About one half of them has experiences in seeking patented their techniques, and out of more than 50% of the patentexperienced companies in that park have ever entrusted their IPR works to this firm. Certainly, we must also represent international giants, e.g. Armani, Baidu, Beckhoff, BYD, CICC, Chep, Cypress, Dr. Reddy, Gleason, Grenzebach, Haribo, H & M, Infineon, Intercept, InterDigital, Lenovo, Lupin, Motorola, MPS, NovaLED, Oppo, Piramal, Schott Glas, SeeReal, Sun Pharma, Teva, Torrent, Toyo Ink…

We are confident in and proud of our competence, and welcome to be challenged to so prove or show by, e.g. 1) sending us a pending or granted patent for our comments about how we can improve the claims, 2) sending us a pending patent specification without the claims for us to draft the claims for the client’s comparison with the original claims, or 3) sending to the firm the client is currently using and this firm at the same time an initial disclosure so that the client can compare and find out which firm can provide the better claims.

We are not just reporting but analyzing an OA. We are not

just receiving instructions but proposing how to react. We are not just transferring official opinions but pointing out how and why the official opinions may be wrong and correctible. We are not just following official requirements but suggesting how they can be overcome without sacrificing the protecting scope. We always force the IPO to change their practices directly upon making a response. We either indirectly force IPO through making a precedent in the IP court reversing the IPO’s incorrect or improper practices.

It is our philosophy to provide competent legal services that other firm cannot comparably provide. The necessitated ensuing problem is how we can so provide? Deep & Far so achieve by selecting, edifying and nurturing peoples who have the following personalities: learned in expertise, morally earnest and sincerely behaved in mind and strictly disciplined between give and take. It is well-believed that such properties are key factors for peoples to properly and competently behave themselves.

By the perseverance that we only do what and only perform works which enable this firm to be deep and far, Deep and Far can then equate the reality with its name.

More information regarding this firm could be found from the website above-identified.

Li-Pu Lee Managing Partner Formosan Brothers

886 2 2705 8086 ext 515

https://www.fblaw.com.tw/ lipolee@mail.fblaw.com.tw

16F-6, No. 376, Sec. 4, Ren-Ai Rd., Taipei 106434, Taiwan

Who we are

Formosan Brothers Attorneysat-law was founded in 1997. The Chinese characters represent the land and the ocean respectively. Taken together, the characters symbolize the universe. Our name is a reflection of Formosan Brothers’ vision: to recruit the best legal talent, and with our team, provide worldwide services to our clients both domestically and abroad.

Since our founding more than twenty years, Formosan Brothers has always fueled our exceptional legal services through our passion and empathy. We have always been committed to providing the highest quality legal services to our clients through our teamworkoriented professional philosophy. Our unrelenting dedication received high recognition across wide-ranging sectors. To us, our clients are also our partners; we strive to remain vigilant about the

most cutting-edge technological issues and global trends. This way, we can combine our perspective and unparalleled legal services to form a tailor-made team to fit our client’s ever-evolving needs.

How we work

Aside from our efforts to cultivate and service the domestic legal market, Formosan Brothers also achieved significant success internationally. Many of our attorneys are licensed to practice both in Taiwan and foreign jurisdictions; contributing to our deep knowledge of international legal matters. What sets Formosan Brothers apart from our competitors, especially other international law firms, is that our team of attorneys and consultants also receive legal training in Taiwan. As such, our team understands Taiwan unique cultural and business nuances. Our international clients take comfort in knowing that we

will combine both international knowledge and domestic understanding to craft the most suitable solutions to transnational matters. This unique offering remains one of Formosan Brothers’ most acclaimed advantages.

Our Professionals

Ninety percent of our attorneys and consultants have earned a doctorate or master’s degree in law, while the rest hold a bachelor’s degree in law. In addition to law, members of our team are also qualified in accounting.

As a full service law firm, our expertise covers litigation, nonlitigation, foreign-related and intellectual property business, and we keep abreast of social pulse, industrial development and legal trends. Our goal is to meet the various business needs of our clients and provide a full range of legal services.

Belinda Lutaya Nakiganda Partner

Birungyi, Barata & Associates

+256782933456

https://www.taxconsultants.co.ug

info@birungyibarata.com/bnakiganda@taxconsultants.co.ug

Plot 14 Archer Rd,

Kampala, Uganda

The making of Uganda’s Premier Tax Law Firm

Birungyi, Barata & Associates (BBA) was established in 2003 by Birungyi Cephas Kagyenda and Enoch Barata whose paths crossed at a coincidentally convenient time, one of them, a Deputy Commissioner retiring from a long career in tax administration and the other, an ambitious young lawyer, both pursuing a Diploma in legal practice. They dived into a highly competitive world of legal practice forming what has since been recognised as the pioneer specialist tax law firm in Uganda

BBA was founded in 2003 as Birungyi, Barata & Co. Advocates and in 2016, the firm became Birungyi, Barata & Associates after being joined by Associates Jacob Ngobi, George Twinomujuni, Juliana Semakula and later Robinah Lutaaya Lubwama.

The vision behind creating the firm was that it would provide efficient, professional, result oriented, expert tax and legal services and with time, it indeed developed into a renowned tax advisory, consultancy, Legal and litigation firm recognized both locally and internationally by the Uganda Law Society, East African Law Society, IFLR and Global Law Experts.

With the growth and development of the Ugandan commercial industry and the dynamic legal environment, the firm has also expanded its areas of practice into Intellectual Property, Insolvency, Banking, Arbitration, Construction Law and Oil and Gas industry.

A Combined Effort of the Firm

in Taxation, Commercial and Corporate Law, Construction Law, Arbitration and Litigation. She heads the firm’s Business Development and Arbitration departments but also attached to the firm’s Tax, construction, Commercial and Corporate departments.

Birungyi, Barata & Associates has perhaps the single biggest collection of persons who have worked more than 20 years in the tax industry, combined over 150 years of experience.

Birungyi Cephas, the Managing Partner of the firm has been described by Chambers and Partners as an expert who has cultivated an impressive reputation on the Ugandan market as a very highly specialised and well-respected tax practitioner.

Enoch Barata, co-founder and Senior Partner, has 17 years’ experience in tax, legal advisory and litigation. Together with Two Associate Partners, Four Partners, an Associate Partner, 2 Senior Legal Associates, three Legal Associates and 5 legal Assistants, they provide a specialised, thorough and diligent Tax and Legal Service.

BBA describes itself as a onestop centre for Legal, Tax and Consultancy Services that provides exceptionally innovative and highly resourceful legal solutions to its clients and this is one of the reasons that the firm’s slogan is “Game Changers”.

Belinda is a Partner at Birungyi, Barata & Associates specialising

She has over ten years’ experience in tax and legal practice and is a registered Tax agent with URA. Belinda has represented clients during tax audits, compliance check, tax examination with the Uganda Revenue Authority specifically in analysis of tax computation, negotiations, consultancies and litigation before the Tax Appeals Tribunal. Belinda has vast experience in arbitration both as an arbitrator and arbitration lawyer. She has also handled several of the firm’s construction cases before dispute boards, arbitration and negotiated on behalf of clients in contract, and settlement of debts among others. She also has experience in commercial and corporate transactions specifically re-organisation of companies, negotiations in loan agreements, company secretarial works among others.

Belinda has been a team leader for four major consultancies of the firm with international clients which were executed to the client’s satisfaction.

CONSULTANT

PAEDIATRIC

AND ADULT OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGIST OF THE YEAR - UK

Mr F Javed Uddin ENT Surgeon fjuddin@doctors.org.uk Leicester, LE2 2FF

I completed my training in all aspects of ENT disease and undertook fellowship training in thyroid and head and neck disease.

I was awarded the prestigious Gold medal from the Royal Society of Medicine for my performance in the national final surgical exams prior to my consultant appointment. In 2012 I was appointed to the post of ENT Consultant at the University Hospitals of Leicester. My practice covers all aspects of ENT disease and includes specialist clinics for children’s disorders and a dedicated neck lump clinic.

I have a specialist practice in advanced sinus surgery and uses state of art equipment for diagnosis and treatment. I am a council member of the Midland Institute of Otolaryngology and am actively involved in lecturing and teaching medical students, general practitioners and trainee surgeons on nationally held courses.

My medical research is currently based on the growth of new blood vessels in tumours, as well as patterns of sinus disease. I have extensive experience in endonasal surgery for nasal obstruction and use 3D navigation systems for advanced sinus surgery.

I am passionate about excellent patient care and I performed the first ever EXIT procedure in Leicester on a baby who was still in the womb and this was covered in the national press.

For my passion and innovation in my work, I was awarded the esteemed Caring at its Best award

from the University Hospitals of Leicester.

Since completing his training in all aspects of ENT disease, Dr Uddin undertook a specialist fellowship training in advanced thyroid and head and neck disease, and has worked in NHS university teaching hospitals for more than twenty years. He has been awarded the prestigious gold medal from the Royal Society of Medicine for his outstanding performance in the national final surgical exams, prior to his consultant appointment. He was appointed to the post of ENT consultant at the University Hospitals of Leicester in 2012, and is the current head of the ENT service in Leicester.

Dr Uddin delivers a superspecialist practice in advanced sinus surgery and diseases of the nose. He also offers specialist clinics for children’s disorders and has a keen clinical interest in thyroid disease and head and neck cancer, and has set up a dedicated neck lump clinic to study his interest further. More recently, his current medical research is based on the growth of new blood vessels in tumours, as well as observational patterns in sinus disease and the link between the nose and the lungs. With extensive experience in endoscopic (keyhole) surgery for nasal obstruction, and his desire for innovation and surgical advancement. Dr Uddin is truly a master of the endoscope and uses it in ear, nose and throat surgery.

Fundamentally, it is Dr Uddin’s specialist care and knowledge

along with his detailed diagnostic skills that have enabled him to become East Midland’s foremost ENT surgeon and specialist. His dedication to delivering quality care for patients with his friendly and personable manner, whilst training the next generation of doctors and surgeons, this medical specialist is at the forefront of his field and is delivering top-quality care on a daily basis.

Special interests

• Hearing loss

• General ear, nose and throat conditions in adults and children

• Voice disorders

• Thyroid disease

• Sinus disease including allergy and nasal polyps, hearing loss, snoring and neck lumps

Personal interests

He is married with three children and plays squash in his free time.

Treatments

and tests offered by Mr Javed Uddin at Nuffield Health

• Rhinoplasty (or nose reshaping)

• Adenoidectomy

• Functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS)

• Adult audiology hearing aid provision

• Antral washout

• Balloon Sinuplasty

• Grommet insertion

• Tonsillectomy

• Middle ear surgery

• Frenotomy

OF THE YEAR - SOUTH AFRICA

LDA Incorporated

Tel: 011 268 6512

Fax: 086 266 0233

https://www.ldalaw.co.za/ tumi@ldalaw.co.za

C2 Northview Building, 1st Floor 57 6th Road, Hyde Park

Labour

Our team is highly specialised in labour relations and employment law.

We can assist with all of your needs including preparing your tailor made workplace policies, disciplinary hearings, advising on of your any necessary retrenchment processes and restructuring needs.

Our attorneys are highly skilled and often frequent the CCMA, Bargaining Councils, the Labour Court and the Constitutional Court. We have faced a number of skilled opponents (including the «big 5») and we are proud that our team has succeeded in many such matters.

Employment Equity

We offer assistance to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act. We have the requisite experience to assist with the preparation and implementation of your employment equity plan, the monitoring and reporting thereon and we are able to assist with auditing your company to advise on where your employment equity is and how to improve it.

We are also able to attend to your employment equity committee meetings with the consultative forum and facilitate the process with the implementation of revised policies and procedures in line with the Act.

Commercial

Our attorneys can advise on any commercial transactions and contracts needed.

We have negotiated and successfully concluded various commercial transactions with listed entities, private companies and individuals.

Examples of such agreements include sale of businesses (incorporating S197 provisions for staff), sale of shares, NDA’s and confidentiality agreements, tailor-made MOI’s, shareholder agreements and lease agreements for commercial and residential property.

Conveyancing

Contact us for all conveyancing needs whether commercial or residential property.

General

We can assist with all your collection, litigation, family, deceased estate matters.

Litigation

Be sure to contact us for all your litigation needs whether labour or commercial related.

Our experience in litigation ranges from the magistrates courts to labour courts up to the Constitutional Court and private

arbitrations.

Examples of matters that we have succeeded in include reviews of arbitration awards, enforcement & opposition of restraints of trade, contractual breaches, delictual claims, evictions (commercial and residential), urgent applications, Anton Pillars, delinquency applications and liquidations.

Training

We offer training in labour law and industrial relations

What we stand for

Our relationship with you comes First

Our business is based on relationships. Our success as a firm has been as a result of the long-lasting relationships that we have nurtured, honoured and maintained over the years.

Our clients are returning clients and the new clients are mostly gained through word of mouth. We believe that this is the biggest testament to what we are about.

To always act in your best Interests

As a firm, we will always put your best interests first. Our advice will always be candid and honest. You can rely on us to look after your needs.

MOST INNOVATIVE FIRM IN THE LEGAL WORLD

Prosperant LLP

07958752755

prosperant.co.uk

charlotte.gardner@prosperant.co.uk

20 North Audley Street, Mayfair, London W1K 6WE

PROSPERANT is a partnership that’s designed reinvent the world of law. Founded in 2020, our team brings true strategic consulting capabilities to legal services, from top-tier private practice to the most progressive models for the English Bar. We source capital solutions, launch and support extraordinary new businesses and technologies, and add strategic momentum and purpose to leading firms with a serious growth and change agenda. We also partner with leading organisations in finance, HR, technology, legal operations, regulatory and brand to deliver truly global support services. When it comes to growth in law, we are the people you need to know.

We are designed to find answers to some of the legal world’s toughest challenges; how to launch, how to survive, how to grow and how to win. Our projects are delivered by people with decades of experience in the market and valuable networks. It’s why the world’s leading global law firms and boldest start-ups come to us to help them build compelling directions and purposeful destinations.

LAUNCH

We can help you fund, design, develop and deliver the practice you’ve always dreamed of. All with a simple, discreet and

proven methodology that has helped hundreds of lawyers and barristers create the businesses their clients deserve to be served by. We start with helping you map the fundamental frameworks of the business: its propositions, capabilities and the essential commercial characteristics that help underpin any business plan. We map key competitor brands, buyer demand dynamics and emerging trends in service design. We build your revenue projections and profitability forecasts, with defined performance standards, and can help you identify the right business structure, alongside regulatory authorisations and timeframes.

A world-class design team handles every aspect of your brand identity. We also introduce potential launch funding and capital for ongoing growth, completing the process with project plan and timeframe for design, development and deployment, plus considerations for management support to accelerate your growth. Put simply, everything you need to get you to a go-live date. It all starts with a conversation about what’s possible.

Explore PERFORM

Over the past decade we’ve developed a range of performance

programmes for leading law firms, fresh start-ups, barristers’ chambers and law tech to make the most of new opportunities. We help shape identities, manage reputations, develop strategies, redefine cultures and support operational excellence. From our office in London, we work with clients in the UK, the Americas, Continental Europe, Asia and Australasia, and our advisors are often embedded at the highest levels of the organisations they serve.

GROW

Our networks and access to sources of capital are peerless. That’s why some of the world’s leading practices and technologies chose us when they seek investment to help them grow and flourish.

With our strategic partners, we also support the leading litigators and corporates find the right funding solutions for their disputes, or indeed to finance growth and expansion.

PEOPLE

Our team brings diverse handson consulting capabilities to law; at the bar, in private practice, throughout legal finance and, increasingly, in a new wave of fresh operating models for the industry.

Ahmed Detta CEO & Founder Enviroo

07393192938

https://enviroo.co.uk/ ahmed@enviroo.co.uk

85 Great Portland Street, First Floor, London W1W 7LT

The Enviroo Story

Enviroo provides a solution to post consumer plastic waste. We recycle 100% of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic waste and create ‘food-grade’ polymers that are used to recreate food packaging and plastic bottles. We have created a closed loop recycling method, with long term viability as it ensures transparency, circularity and sustainability.

It is our responsibility to engage and unite all stakeholders in the recycling journey which will provide a solution to single use plastic. We are working with a plastic stream that impacts everyone thus enabling us to collaborate with government agencies, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) brands, consumers and charities.

The executive team at Enviroo is adept at identifying opportunities where plastics recycling can be accelerated or improved from current processes and has developed local market insights to support the ever-growing plastic waste problem.

We use innovative technology that segments PET plastic from other supporting components through a highly sophisticated synthesised washing process, coupled with a world class extrusion process. The end result is the creation of polymers that can be used in direct food contact packaging. Our recycled polymer blends perfectly with virgin PET polymers or can stand alone in the production process.

We build and operate our own PET recycling facilities.

Our Mission

Enviroo’s mission is to change behavioural habits of plastics users to ensure plastic does not enter oceans and landfill. We advocate responsible recycling that creates unity amongst all circular economy stakeholders, thus ensuring 100% of PET plastic waste is recycled.

Our Vision

Enviroo’s vision is to provide recycling solutions for PET plastic waste across the United

Kingdom by creating vitreous recycling protocols that encourage commitment from all stakeholders.

Technology Implementation

We implement innovative technology to create plastic pellets and mono-sheets that will be used locally in their respective region, minimising the importation of recycled materials and reducing carbon generated from logistics and transportation.

Enviroo is focused PET packaging recycling which is reflective of the consumption habits of the fast pace of modern life we have become accustomed to. This also means throw-away packaging is here to stay. Recent research shows that more than 40 percent of consumers are snacking while on the move at least once a week (Reference: Roper Reports Worldwide https://www.gfk.com/ home ) Enviroo is focused on providing sustainable recycled material for food packaging which meets society’s demands.

SOLICITORS OF THE YEAR - UK

Sophie Newbould Managing Director

Newbould & Co Solicitors t/a Newboulds Solicitors

0800 019 6793

www.newbouldslaw.com

sophie@newbouldslaw.com

The

Hermitage, 15A Shenfield Road, Brentwood, Essex CM15 8LT UNITED KINGDOM

Welcome to Newboulds Solicitors.

Our commercial practice was established in 2017, following instructions from our first client, the then called Police ICT Company to advise on digital policing matters.

Our portfolio of clients has grown to support a mixture of corporate organisations, large technology providers and high growth businesses.

We specialise in advising clients on any commercial related matters, from business transactions and regulatory compliance to complex litigation and alternative dispute resolution.

We provide end-to-end support on any project or business instruction. We pride ourselves on our clients’ success.

Bio

Sophie Newbould, founder of Newboulds Solicitors and innov8law, is an award-winning global law expert for data and innovation solutions, having spent 24 years working on public sector

contracts and business ventures (some worth >£1 billion spend, e.g., Met Office Supercomputer 2020+ Programme).

Sophie began advising start-up tech and other companies since she began her practice in 2008 as part of a larger business law firm. Since then, Sophie’s projects have grown to multimillion pound tech and connectivity contracts with local Government, to multi billionpound infrastructure as a service contracts for Central Government with global organisations such as Microsoft and CGI.

The most important experience and advice Sophie can offer clients now relates to the lessons learned from complex disputes that she has negotiated on behalf of UK Government, the Police Forces, Foreign Office, Justice, Defence and Transport departments and industries.

In 2017, Sophie began working with a UK defence consultancy that had developed software to improve UK Ministry of Defence’s navigation of complex programme documentation. The savings in time, costs and

energy significantly mitigated risk and improved collaboration across complex multi-supplier programmes. This revelation experience became the pivot for Sophie to turn her role in to a much greater opportunity for the data, digital and technology industries.

Through the UK’s technology association, techUK, Sophie proactively supports contracting authorities such as the UK Crown Prosecution Service and Met Police in their technology roadmaps. Leveraging her skills to centralise feedback from her vast network of lawyers, engineers, financial experts, innovation suppliers and project managers, Sophie can offer and support Clients with complete solutions to meet full requirements suites.

Sophie works to ensure that Client investments in any data, digital and technology project are secure, trustworthy and resourceful.

For Newboulds Solicitors, and Sophie in particular, successful collaboration is queen, robust due diligence is king.

IP LAW ADVISERS OF THE YEAR

Sarah Hadland Director

Open Plan Law Limited

07855 185517

www.openplanlaw.com

sarah.hadland@openplanlaw.com

Prama House, 267 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7HT

Sarah Hadland is a Director of Open Plan Law. Over 25 years, she has established a leading IP practice acting for a number of high-profile clients including Gü Desserts, Ty Inc (the makers of Beanie Babies) and Next Retail Ltd, as well as smaller businesses and individual designers. The firm’s clients cover a broad range of sectors, including the Arts and Heritage sector, publishing, technology, media, fabric and clothing designers, food manufacturers and restaurants, scientific enterprises, authors and financial services providers.

Ms Hadland has acquired a significant reputation in IP law focusing on design rights, trademarks, copyright and confidentiality. She is listed in both The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners as a leading

individual who “continues to command the respect of peers and clients”. One client enthused: “It’s great to have someone like Sarah – you can have complete faith in everything you need to have faith in: her judgement, her acumen and her ability to get a good result” (Chambers and Partners).

She advises on the protection of IP rights including dispute resolution, civil litigation in the High Court and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, criminal matters such as counterfeiting and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs seizures, and trademark and design right portfolio management. She also assists clients in the negotiation and drafting of agreements including development, maintenance and licensing of software, global licensing of

IP rights and publishing and merchandising contracts. Her notable cases include Teleworks Limited v Telework Group, Gucci v Next Retail and Unilever Plc v General Housewares Corp, and clients have said that “she seems to know instinctively when to fight and when to settle” (ILO Client Choice Awards 2013).

Open Plan Law is dedicated to understanding its clients’ businesses and providing solutions which are proportionate and relevant to their commercial imperatives.

Ms Hadland has been awarded the 2021 Lawyer Monthly Women in Law Award for copyright.

She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Trademark Attorneys.

Anthony Munday Chief Executive Officer

TM Development Associates Limited

(44)7905868058

www.maverickmediator.co.uk

tony@achievesuccess.org.uk

14, Crossways, Hemel Hempstead, Herts, HP3 8PU, England

About Anthony Munday

An independent ACAS accredited workplace mediator. Accredited with the Civil Mediation Council as workplace mediator. A 2021 ACAS Report estimated the cost of workplace conflict in the UK to be £28 Billion per year. The human cost and brand reputational cost are incalculable.

The pain of workplace conflict can be felt in the costs of litigation, resignations, recruitment of replacement staff, sickness absence, Employment Tribunals, quiet quitting, misconduct investigations, grievance procedures.

Workplace Mediation is a cost -effective and sustainable process that repairs fractured business relationships.

The benefits of conflicted persons working together to repair their fractured relationship and creating sustainable, positive outcomes are profound. These benefits extend into their private lives.

Anthony founded his company in 2006.

As a senior leader, he saw the impact and importance of the need to train managers to manage people effectively and fairly. He minimised the incidence and impact of workplace conflict as a direct result.

He was considered a maverick because he adopted coaching as a leadership style in contrast to the still prevalent ‘Command and Control’ culture.

He developed high performing quality people.

He says, “Leadership is knowing ourselves and those we are responsible for, as people, and behaving accordingly.”

You can read about his leadership expertise in his first book ‘The ESSENTIAL Heart of a Leader’.

The focus of his mediations is conflicted senior teams. The impact on organisations and their people are significant. These conflicts are invariably complex and sometimes have persisted for years.

The strapline of his process is ‘Delivering Tranquillity out of Trauma.’ It recognises the traumatised nature of people whose conflicted relationships have lasted years.

Anthony created His Signature Chrysalis Method

This unique methodology helps create authentic trust and rapport with participants. This ensures the best opportunity for successful outcomes.

He often undertakes complex mediations amongst senior Leadership teams of up to six members during a single mediation process.

Anthony also reviews the process to confirm sustainability of the agreed outcomes.

Organisations benefit from a structured process that ascertains the root causes of conflict and he

facilitates their resolution. It is not unusual for senior managers to be fearful of accepting that they cannot be omnicompetent and authentically delegating responsibility.

The process is unique in that all relevant people, from, the operational, tactical, and executive levels are gathered to share their perspectives, expertise and insight concerning workplace conflict. The Senior Decision Maker and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) are also present.

The process provides a real opportunity for effective teambuilding.

This wonderful learning opportunity includes both the SDO and the CEO.

They realise that not only do they not need to know everything about everything, but it is also evident that they do not know everything.

The beauty of the debrief lies in the range of information and intelligence gleaned from and by the attendees. This intelligence is highly unlikely ever to have reached the SDO or CEO.

This results in a subtle massaging of the information, so that by the time it reaches the executive level it is almost meaningless.

The report that results from the debrief is created entirely from the data at the meeting. The resultant action plan is therefore better prepared and more credible than by the traditional manner.

Anthony has written a second book, ‘The Maverick Mediator’ which will be published in March 2023

His strategic purpose for clients is to provide an intelligence -led approach, tailored to the organisation to develop managers to manage effectively and fairly. They will understand the critical importance of knowing your people in conflict resolution.

The role is not the person.

Anthony had developed strategic partnerships with Employment Law Teams at Chambers of Barristers and Firms of Solicitors and is hoping to work with more Chambers.

Working together, in a symbiotic way, the employment law lawyers can deploy their litigation expertise where it is most needed. The client benefits from a workplace mediation process that is cost -effective, timely and produces sustainable, positive outcomes.

Anthony can empathise with senior managers, therefore creating that necessary trust and confidence in his neutrality, impartiality, objectivity, and fairness.

Executive Summary

• Elimination of the causes of highly damaging conflict amongst your Senior Teams.

• Your Senior Team is re -established as a cohesive, high performing unit.

• Your managers manage people effectively and fairly.

• The brand reputation of your organisation is enhanced.

• Employment Lawyers enhance their range of service delivery to their clients.

• The conflicted parties are facilitated by the mediator to design their own future.

• The repairing of fractured business relationships has a positive impact upon the private lives of your people.

Client Quotes

“

… The mediation process must be sensitive, supportive and in some cases, independent.

The ‘icebreaker ‘provides the opportunity to address an anxiety, develop confidence in the process and the mediator, most importantly establish the process as a safe place.

The mediator ensures the participants are ready and trusting in ENTERING THE PROCESS which will deliver a positive outcome for both parties, not a right or wrong. It enables time to reflect and be open –minded.

Being able to communicate to the organisation while maintaining confidentiality is not easy.

• Employment Lawyers focus on matters of concern to their clients that are more relevant to their litigation expertise.

• ACAS accredited workplace mediation is a cost -effective, timely and sustainable solution for seemingly intractable workplace conflict.

“The mediator of choice for Towerview Care is Tony Munday“

People Group Services

0345 034 1530

https://peoplegroupservices.com

hello@peoplegroupservices.com

People Group House, Three Horseshoes Walk, Warminster, Wiltshire. BA12 9BT

People Group Services is a familyowned business with a long history of providing compliant payroll services to recruitment agencies and their contractors.

It all started by CEO Terry Hillier in 2007, following an extensive career in the financial sector where he excelled in both sales and management.

Visionary and dynamic, Terry identified a gap in the market whereby supply teachers required a compliant payroll solution when working through legislation. Government legislation accelerated the need for an outsourced payroll solution and RACS Group began to grow.

Terry grasped the opportunity and for over 15 years has led the company to its current position. He’s grown the business to be a shining light of compliant payroll within the industry, picking up a number of business awards along the way.

In 2017, as the market around us evolved, Terry took the decision to rebrand the business, branching out with a fresh new look. That’s when People Group Services was formed and so the story continues.

We constantly review our payroll processes, working to streamline and automate, where possible, to provide a slicker and improved agency and candidate experience. The most recent innovations and improvements, to enhance client experience and improve efficiencies, inc:

- A 24-7 tech system that allows us to onboard new candidates within minutes of being informed of their weekly pay, ensuring we can pay them that same day.

- Seamless integration of compliance checks including ID and RTW checks.

- Full transparency and ease-of-use for viewing payslips, benefits and claiming holidays.

- Onboarding that is sped up by 70%, driving performance and satisfaction for clients.

- An end-to-end process of less than 3 minutes (if documentation is complete).

Customer feedback is resoundingly positive, summed up in the testimonials.

We’re focused on helping agencies maximise efficiencies and contractor satisfaction.

CEO Terry Hillier often leads the field with innovation, ‘We are seen as market leaders within product development, breaking new ground and pushing the envelope.’

Launching People PEO payroll solution is an example of this. It was a first for the payroll sector. There are now copycat products, but the solution remains unique in the efficiencies it can bring, agency Educated Recruitment highlighted they’ve seen enquiries reduce by 90% since adopting PEO.

The innovation isn’t just around new products – we’re constantly improving our processes.

With an in-depth knowledge of employment law and tax legislation, and remarkable technical ability, Terry drives People Group with fast-paced innovation and tech updates, proven in our response to the COVID19 crisis (ref answer to Question 3), when we received

huge amounts of positive feedback from customers:

“People Group are such a ‘guiding light’ for our temps and ourselves during this time. The transparency, clarity and regularity in updating us and our temps, has been exemplary.”

Kirsty, Director, Tara Professional Recruitment

An example of one of our recent process improvements is to enhance our Agency Portal, giving agencies a live view of the onboarding process – so they can see exactly what stage their candidates are at, without having to get in touch.

And our Contractor Portal allows 80% of candidates to navigate through the onboarding process themselves, in their own time, without taking time from their daily work to speak to someone on the phone.

Not only are our solutions the most innovative on the market, but the drive and passion from our CEO, pushes the company to be fast-thinking, flexible and action-oriented. Which means we react quickly to market forces, delivering new solutions to challenges.

PAYROLL SERVICES OF THE YEAR

When the pandemic hit in March 2020 our expertise and diligence allowed us to implement a system, with new tech, within days, to allow us to make full 80% Furlough payments from day 1 of the Corona Job Retention Scheme.

We managed the scheme throughout to ensure all clients and contractors received excellent communication and service levels during this difficult time.

“I was emailed by yourselves regarding Furlough payments. To enable it, all I had to do was a few clicks and I was done. Amazing! I wish all my online interactions were as easy.” – Contractor. “Other umbrella companies need to learn from you. Your response to furlough made a big difference to the most vulnerable people in employment, and it makes me feel far more valued. Thank you.” Emma, Teacher from the Midlands

Importantly our response to the Covid crisis also gave our agency clients time to focus on their immediate business needs.

The growth for People Group Services has been in our People PEO product.

Since its launch in 2018, we’ve seen our business shift to over 60% of the payroll products we provide being PEO.

We believe that the PEO model is the future of outsourced payroll. When we asked over 600 contractors if their net take home pay were the same would they prefer an umbrella or PAYE model: only 16% of people would stick with their umbrella product.

This is demonstrated by the improved client satisfaction we’ve experienced and the positive word of mouth for our brand.

Even in these unprecedented times, when businesses are struggling to survive, our innovative PEO product and strong reputation have seen growth. We’re operating predominantly in the Education and Healthcare sectors, both of which are experiencing severe staff shortages and budgetary issues. Hence, any efficiencies that can made or candidate loyalty that can be built, for our agency clients, drives growth for both them and, in turn, us.

Colin Russ Commercial Mediator

Colin David Russ t/a CDR +44 (0)7816 782 434

www.colindavidruss.com

colin@colindavidruss.com

Rosebank, Wharf Lane, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire,SL8 5RU

Colin Russ is leading, independent commercial mediator in the UK. He is a Top Ranked Mediator in Band 1 of the Chambers UK Guide 2023 and is a Top Tier Mediator in the Legal 500 Guide 2023. Chambers writes: “Colin is an exceptional mediator, arguably the best» and Legal 500 writes: “The highly recommended Colin Russ is efficient, sensible, highly personable and most importantly, very effective”.

Originally qualified as a lawyer, Colin practiced as a commercial litigation lawyer for over 20 years, ultimately as Head of Litigation at the Birmingham office of global law firm DLA Piper. After his interest in the mediation process grew, Colin gained his Mediator Accreditation and left DLA (as it was then) to set up his mediation practice. Over the last 22 years Colin has built up a thriving, independent commercial mediation practice in the UK.

His clients include many of the UK’s leading law firms and he

has considerable expertise in high value multi-party mediations, involving complex multi-issue disputes.

Highly focused on the quality of the mediation process and to ensure the mediation has the maximum chance of success, Colin guarantees not to accept another mediation appointment the day before or day after an existing mediation commitment. This ring-fenced approach to bookings ensures full preparation ahead of the mediation and allows time to be available the next day, should the mediation overrun.

Colin has mediated disputes across a broad range of subjects and has developed particular expertise in relation to disputes arising out of:

• Defective Cladding Claims

• Insolvency Issues

• Construction Disputes

• Professional Negligence

• Commercial Contracts

• Shareholder/Partnership Disputes

• Real Estate

• Intellectual Property

• Financial Services

With his background as Head of Litigation at DLA, Colin uses this knowledge and experience to maximise the chances of a successful resolution on the mediation day. When asked about this in a recent article for Lawyer Monthly, Colin answers:

“It is important to understand how everyone involved is seeing and feeling about the dispute. My background as a litigation lawyer enables me to understand the lawyer’s perspective and speak their language. Mediating for 22 years has helped me understand the way in which parties bring different motivations

and interests to their dispute. It also means I can speak from firsthand experience about the risks and uncertainty of litigation and the benefits of achieving a certain outcome through negotiation at the mediation.

Understanding the way in which legal costs, CFAs, legal cost insurance and litigation funding works is also helpful, as these aspects are frequently an important dynamic in any negotiation. My familiarity with legal issues and litigation processes also helps me to read and understand the mediation statements and mediation bundle - which in many cases have grown over the years to more resemble trial bundles - far more quickly than would otherwise be the case.”

Colin is known for being one of the most technology-embracing mediators in the UK. He launched CDR Remote at the start of the COVID pandemic. This pioneering service enabled Colin to deliver effective mediation remotely using a secure video conferencing platform. Proving to be hugely popular with both law firms and

their clients, even after in-person mediators were allowed again, Colin continues to run many of his mediations online each year.

Colin’s ability to embrace technology doesn’t just stop at online mediations, he also has his availability calendar in real-time on his website. This enables clients to check if he’s available and send a booking request via the website. Plus, he is completely transparent about his fees - clearly listing his rates on the website. Even though Colin has offered these additional services for many years, and they work well for both Colin and his clients, he remains one of only a small handful of meditators to do so.

Colin has been described as a ‘calming presence’ and having a ‘knack for building rapport’ with both lawyers and their clients during the mediation process. Colin believes the key essentials to being an effective mediator are preparation, managing the process and allowing room for emotion.

Proper preparation ahead of the mediation day ensures effective communication and enables Colin to question and challenge positions effectively and accurately as he is across all the details of the case. Equally, managing the process well is crucial to avoid losing the opportunity that mediation represents to achieve a successful resolution. Colin believes it is vital to not lose sight of the commercial outcome and to instil energy into the process when it is needed. Allowing emotion and managing this calmly means that the parties feel respected and listened to. This encourages them to acknowledge the flexibility that will be needed to get to a resolution.

In the recent article in Lawyer Monthly, Colin is quoted as saying: “I think it is important to recognise that, like everything in life, mediation is an evolving process and mediators need to be alive to this. It is not just the parties who need to be flexible in their approach; this is also a key requirement for mediators.”

PROPERTY ADVISERS OF THE YEAR - UK

Simon Quinton Smith Director

Quinton Edwards

01635 551441

www.quintonedwards.co.uk

simon@quintons.co.uk

Bartholomew House, 38 London Road, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 1JX

Quinton Edwards offers specialist property advice to garden centres, nurseries and horticultural businesses and farm shops throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. This also includes pet and aquatic centres and other concessions, and associated businesses such as mushroom farms, vineyards, farm shops, soft fruit/top fruit and landscape companies.

We buy, sell and value garden centres, nurseries and horticultural businesses for proprietors, banks and financial institutions. We are favoured as valuers over many because wherever possible our valuations are based on comparable transactions which go back many years.

When one considers the value of both large garden centres and horticultural nurseries, there are in general relatively few purchasers for any one specific opportunity. Therefore, detailed knowledge of the industry is important in order to understand who could be interested.

Simon Quinton Smith was formerly Managing Director of a four garden centre group – two freehold and two leasehold in the south of England and thus has more detailed knowledge of the running of garden centres than any other Chartered Surveyor currently offering advice to the industry.

As an Expert Witness we provide detailed advice, generally on

values, but on other areas where required.

Simon Quinton Smith has been the leading specialist in offering property and business advice to the horticultural industry for over 35 years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a specialist panel valuer for the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation and other lending institutions as well as a Certified Expert Witness.

We are Associate Members of the Horticultural Trades Association, Garden Centre Association and Farm Shop Association.

To learn more about us, please visit our website at www. quintonedwards.co.uk

Alvarez & Marsal Holdings, LLC

917-438-9698

www.alvarezandmarsal.com

gcapati@alvarezandmarsal.com

600 Madison Ave, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10022

ABOUT A&M

When Tony Alvarez and Bryan Marsal joined forces in 1983, it was with the intent of seamlessly linking operations, performance improvement and value creation to best help companies turn areas of stagnation into growth to achieve sustainable results. This ethos remains at the core of our firm.

We are the consulting firm known for asking tough questions, listening well, digging in and rolling up our sleeves. A global top ranked consulting firm by Vault

recognized for challenging work, we are fact-driven and actionoriented. We move our clients forward, to where they need to be. We are A&M.

What we do

Uncover and implement the right solution, at the right time, in the right way.

A&M provides global leadership, problem solving and value creation for companies across industries and around the world. We work as advisers, interim leaders and partners who tell you what you need to know, not

always what you want to hear.

How we help

Rapid diagnosis, exacting action, practical solutions and on-site leaders. Complex problems, shifting demands and tumultuous business environments make today’s high stakes even more dangerous. Our operational heritage helps us decipher your challenges, as our commitment to value creation identifies new opportunities. Always at the ready, we stand with you.

Paul Lanois Director Fieldfisher

+1 650 313 2361

www.fieldfisher.com

paul.lanois@fieldfisher.com

2650 Birch Street, Suite 100, Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA

My practice focuses on advising companies on data privacy and cybersecurity matters drawing on my international experience, having lived and worked in the United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Hong Kong and the United States. I help companies – ranging from startups to large Fortune 500 multinationals across a range of industries – to develop data protection and privacy strategies for new products and services. I advise clients on complying with evolving global privacy and data protection laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the ePrivacy Directive, as well as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) / California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and similar data privacy laws passed in Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah.

In particular, I advise clients in relation to their cutting-edge B2B and B2C offerings, such as connected products and services (Internet of Things) including virtual reality, mobile apps (including augmented reality apps), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) as well as cloud-based integrations. I also advise on cybersecurity matters, including

on data breaches and incident response, risk assessments, policy development and compliance with industry standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). I also coordinate large projects spanning privacy law requirements in a large number of countries to provide clients with a consolidated advice that is practical and actionable.

In 2018, I was selected for inclusion on the list of arbitrators developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the EU Commission and the Swiss Federal Administration as part of the Privacy Shield Framework Binding Arbitration Program. Before joining Fieldfisher, I was Vice President and senior legal counsel at a leading international bank, Credit Suisse, at its headquarters in Switzerland as well as its Hong Kong office. Before that, I worked on technology transactions at large international law firms in London (UK) and Luxembourg, and was an Associate Professor at the University of Cergy-Pontoise Law School in France.

I have written extensively on current developments in relation to cybersecurity, as well as American and European privacy

law. For example, I was one of the lead authors of the Cloud Security Alliance’s guidance «Observations and Recommendations on Connected Vehicle Security» published in 2017 which covered vehicle security connectivity, possible attack vectors of concern, and recommendations for securing the connected vehicle environment. I was also one of the lead authors of the Cloud Security Alliance’s guide on «Future-proofing the Connected World: 13 Steps to Developing Secure IoT Products» published in 2016 and which provides a comprehensive guidance for product designers and developers. I currently co-chair the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Privacy Workforce Public Working Group’s Data Processing Ecosystem sub-group.

I frequently speak at conferences around the world and lead industry committees and organizations. For example, within the American Bar Association’s Science & Technology Law Section, I am a member of the Book Publishing Board and am the co-chair of the E-Privacy Law Committee. I am currently a member of the CIPP/US Exam Development Board at the International Association of

Privacy Professionals (IAPP). I was previously a member of the IAPP’s Education Advisory Board, European Advisory Board as well as the CIPT Exam Development Board. I am a member of the California Lawyers Association’s Privacy Law Section Executive Committee.

Recent industry recognition include:

• Selected as a winner of the 2022 California Legal Awards in the category of ‘Lawyers on the Fast Track (under 40)’ by The Recorder (2022);

• Listed in the ‘Sports/ Gaming/Entertainment Law Trailblazers’ by The National Law Journal (2021);

• Named in the Global Data Review (GDR) ‘40 under 40’ (2021);

• Named in the list of ‘2020 Most Influential People in Security’ by Security Magazine (2020);

DATA PRIVACY ADVISER OF THE YEAR - USA

• Won the ‘Rising Star Award’ from AIIM Association of Information Professionals (2019);

• Selected as ‘General Counsel of the Year’ by The American Lawyer / Legalweek at the Transatlantic Legal Awards (2018);

• Won the ‘Innovator Award’ from CompTIA Association of IT Professionals (2018);

• Listed in the list of ‘Top 10 30-Somethings’ by the Association of Corporate Counsel (2018);

• Won the ‘Advocacy Award’ from the Association of Corporate Counsel (2017);

• Named ‘Innovative Corporate Counsel’ by Law 360 (2016);

• Listed in the ‘Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Trailblazers’ by The National Law Journal (2016);

• Listed in the ‘GC Powerlist: France’ (inaugural issue) by The Legal 500 (2016).

I regularly teach courses on data privacy at the University of California (UC) College of the Law San Francisco (‘UC Law SF’, formerly known as ‘UC Hastings Law School’), as well as the Law Society of Ireland’s Certificate in Data Protection Practice program.

I am a Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) from (ISC)², the world’s largest non-profit association of cybersecurity professionals, and I am also a Payment Card Industry Professional (PCIP). In addition, I am a Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP) of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and am a Certified Information Privacy Professional, with concentrations in Asian law (CIPP/A), US law (CIPP/US), European law (CIPP/E) and Canadian law (CIPP/C). I am also a Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) and a Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT). I also hold the Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE) certification from ISACA.

I am fluent in both English and French. I also have an intermediate level of German.

RESEARCH & ANALYSIS FIRM OF THE YEAR

Don May Managing Partner

DMA Economics

1-212-390-0595

www.dmaeconomics.com

dmay@dmaeconomics.com

Don May is Managing Partner at DMA Economics LLC and possesses over 30 years’ experience in consulting, valuation, and litigation support as well as researching, publishing and teaching at the university level. His experience includes implementing a broad range of damage analyses and valuations for businesses of various sizes and in numerous industries. Prior to founding DMA Economics in 2015, Dr. May was Managing Director at Berkley Research Group and the Principal in charge of valuation and litigation support services for a regional accounting firm, a Managing Director for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Sloan School of Management.

Dr. May has prepared expert reports and testified in federal and state courts as well as AAA, JAMS, and FINRA arbitration hearings and has effectively communicated as an expert witness testifier and consultant in several multimillion-dollar cases.

Dr. May has been published in several distinguished academic and practitioner journals such as The Journal of Finance, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Hedge Fund Law Review, and is currently an editorial board member of The Journal of Business Valuation and Economic Loss Analysis.

Some examples of recent matters

Dr. May has been asked to evaluate, analyse and/or opine on include the valuation of damages related to:

• ERISA and shareholder portfolio mismanagement and fraud damages calculations

• Lost profits and enterprise value resulting from product defects

• Lost profits and enterprise value resulting from breach of contract

• Theft of trade secrets, trade dress and other intellectual property

• Hedge fund valuation and hedge fund member interest valuation

• Product mislabelling and false advertising Accounting misstatements for private and public businesses

• Securities fraud under SEC Section 10b-5 and Section 11

• Post-Merger valuation disputes

Additionally, Dr. May has also performed valuations of over 200 closely held businesses and interests in those businesses across numerous industries for financial reporting and estate planning.

M&A ADVISER OF THE YEAR

Frank Vargas Partner Rimon +1 650.352.3932

frank.vargas@rimonlaw.com

Frank Vargas is a partner at Rimon Law. Mr. Vargas has been a lawyer for more than 36 years focusing on Technology transactions including mergers and acquisitions. He has completed more than five hundred transactions during his career ranging from a few million to over a billion dollars of transaction value. Mr. Vargas also held executive leadership positions at several investment banks where he headed up Corporate finance including Mergers and Acquisition advising. Mr. Vargas has lectured lawyers on Mergers and Acquisitions and other topics and is an adjunct professor at Santa Clara law school where he coteaches a course in Start Up Law and Business Organizations. Mr. Vargas received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University with honors and his JD and MBA from the University of California Berkeley. Mr. Vargas has been a member of the Hispanic Bar Association in Minnesota and mentored Hispanic and Native American lawyers throughout his career.

Mr. Vargas, completed more than forty transaction in the last four years, including projects ranging from a few million to several hundred million dollars. For example, Mr. Vargas recently completed a complex multinational transaction where his client sold some assets to one buyer and sold its stock to another buyer in two transactions which closed within weeks of each other with combined value of approximately ninety million dollars. He also completed another multinational transaction involving a multinational holding

company with an aggregate value in excess of two hundred fifty million dollars involving companies in six countries.

Mr. Vargas is part of Rimon’s robust Mergers and Acquisitions practice. Rimon’s M&A attorneys advise clients on mergers, acquisitions, sale of control transactions, business combinations, takeover defenses, and joint ventures. We advise our clients through all stages of their transactions, from initial structuring through negotiation and close.

We work with clients to create innovative solutions for all types of transactions – from routine to complex, local to cross-border, and for both public and private companies. Many of our clients are startup and high-growth companies with which we have had relationships, representing them in their formation, operations, and the financing that helped bring them to successful exit. With attorneys located in key financial markets around the world, we are a truly global team and can provide informed counsel on domestic and cross-border transactions, wherever they may be.

Our clients span a broad range of industries, including financial services, engineering, telecommunications, media, aerospace, healthcare, cannabis, software, and biotechnology. We have provided counsel on mergers and acquisitions ranging from small business sales and combinations to multi-billiondollar transactions.

Rimon is a tech-enabled, highly selective, global law firm, consistently recognized for its excellence, innovation, and teamwork throughout its 47 offices in 11 countries and five continents. Rimon’s streamlined and distributed model allows for greater efficiency and collaboration to better serve our clients. Rimon was designed to optimize quality, teamwork, and innovation, without the usual inefficiencies of the conventional law firm model. We removed the bureaucracy, politics, wasteful spending, and internal conflicts that came with the old pyramid model. Instead, we focused on recruiting top-tier legal talent, giving them the freedom to serve our clients with ease, and equipping them with all the resources they need to work closely together as a team.

Conan J. Higgins President & Founder

TSI Legal Enterprises, PC

+1 202-798-4822

conan.higgins@tsilegalenterprises.com

1113

Mayflower Rd NE, Townsend, GA 31331

- Company name

TSI Legal Enterprises, PC

- What year was your company founded and by who?

The company was founded in January 2012 by Conan Higgins, a decorated combat veteran, who wanted to create a vehicle for expeditionary legal work.

I am a licensed attorney, admitted to practice in California, Washington, D.C., and the Court of International Trade. I am a Certified Project Management Professional as well as being certified in SCRUM Fundamentals and as a Human Trafficking Investigator. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management and an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in the United Kingdom. I have been recognized as a subject matter expert in the field of international business

entity creation and regularly contributed to the World Bank/ International Monetary Fund’s annual “Doing Business” report covering business best practices in 189 economies. I have been selected for High Honors recognition by the Washington, D.C. Bar for my pro bono work during 2021. I served for 6 years as the Vice Chair for the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law Middle East Committee and previously as Vice Chair for the International AntiMoney Laundering Committee. Education credentials include a B.A. in Organizational Leadership from Chapman University, a Juris Doctorate from Concord Law School, an LL.M. with Merit in International Business Law from the University of Liverpool, numerous graduate certificates in mediation and negotiation mastery from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, and I am currently pursuing a doctorate (Ph.D.) in International Law and Treaty

Law through Euclid University. My published works include a dissertation on “Improving Corporate Governance Education in Emerging Markets in SubSaharan Africa” and a review on anti-money laundering practices in Afghanistan for the American Bar Association.

- Please outline your company

TSI Legal Enterprises, PC focuses on International Business law, specifically in emerging markets and under-served economies, by providing legal and business advisement on subjects ranging from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Import/Export Compliance and International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to international mergers/ acquisitions, contract negotiations, drafting, and execution, legal project management, and corporate governance.

- Are there any challenges you have had to overcome and how did you overcome these?

Each country presents unique and singular challenges based on cultural differences, local customs and practices, industry standards, and of course, that country’s laws. Learning to navigate these differences by studying the country allows for more meaningful guidance and representation. By working together with host-national attorneys and business leaders, I have been able to quickly understand the nuances of the local legal/business environment, which has enabled me to better develop a plan to advise my clients successfully.

A major challenge which recurs frequently is avoiding running afoul of the FCPA or similar laws such as the UK Bribery Act 2010 or the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign

BUSINESS LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR FOR EMERGING MARKETS

Public Officials in International Business Transactions. At times, the speed of business appears to grind to a halt, waiting for permits or licenses to be issued by local government. By examining what payments are required versus requested, I have been able to steer my clients through potentially problematic situations, avoiding legal and ethical pitfalls.

- In which country/countries do you reach?

I have worked extensively in the USA, UK, Ukraine, Romania, Ireland, Serbia, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar as well as Brazil, Costa Rica, and Panama. In Africa, I have worked in Libya, Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Botswana, Ghana, and Liberia.

- Why do you think your company has reached this success?

Success invariably results from effort, determination, and persistence. I have transferred a quarter century of US Special Operations into a mindset which enables me to rapidly adjust to fluid and dynamic situations, in less-than-ideal conditions, with minimal guidance or feedback. Having an expeditionary mindset means that I have been successful despite elements of uncertainty and incomplete information. I have made a career working in semi-permissive environments or in situations where hostilities threaten to endanger operations, negotiations or other aspects of business and credit my experience working individually or as a member of a small unit with providing me the abilities to succeed in situations where the solution may not be readily obvious or easily achieved.

Ann Jacobs Principal

Kramer Jacobs Search

(301) 237-6316

https://www.kramerjacobssearch.com/ annjacobs@kramerjacobssearch.com

8307 Rising Ridge Way, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA

There’s nothing more exciting than finding a job that perfectly suits your goals and lifestyle. However, without the proper support, making a career move can be intimidating—especially in the legal field.

Switching from one legal firm to another or choosing an office to start your career at is a major decision that is best made with as much insight and preparation as possible. On the firm’s end, it is crucial to have full confidence in whoever ends up filling an opening, whether it is an internal hire or an external hire.

At Kramer Jacobs Search, we offer legal recruitment services tailored to the unique needs of each individual candidate or firm. With our team on your side, finding the right position or candidate is easier. Reach out to our legal recruitment firm in Bethesda, MD, to learn more about how we can simplify your search.

Distinguish Yourself from the Crowd

With more than 30 years of experience, our firm is prepared to assist with any legal career move. We work with associates, counsels, partners, and other legal professionals, with a special focus on tax and employee benefits attorneys.

Our services range from providing general advice and recommendations to legal interview preparation. Since we have connections with firms across the East Coast, we provide the insights you need to distinguish yourself from other applicants. Discuss your goals and needs with our team to learn more about how we can serve you.

Find the Right Fit for Your Position

No matter what size your office is or what position you are trying to fill, finding the right fit is difficult. Our recruitment firm assists with both internal and external hiring processes to ensure you find

the best possible person for the position. We have a large pool of talent, putting you in immediate contact with eligible professionals. Schedule a meeting with us to discuss your particular goals with a legal recruiter and explore how we can assist with the search.

Kramer Jacobs Search is a boutique recruitment firm in Bethesda, MD, that specializes in the legal industry. Operated by long-time recruiter Ann Jacobs, our company is dedicated to placing attorneys of all levels with law firms and corporations throughout the East Coast.

As our founder and principal legal recruiter, Ann works tirelessly to serve each and every client to the best of her ability. Ann holds a law degree and previously worked as a paralegal for the Department of Justice, where she amassed an in-depth understanding of the legal field. Today, she uses that knowledge to provide prompt, confidential job placement and interview preparation for legal professionals.

Our recruitment firm in Bethesda, MD, has a deep understanding of the legal community and we strive to put the needs of our candidates and clients as our priority. We have a deep understanding of the legal community and we strive to put the needs of our candidates and clients as our priority.

What Our Mission Means for Candidates

Finding the right job is difficult, especially in a competitive industry like the legal field. Fortunately, Kramer Jacobs Search is here to guide your job search and help you secure a position that fits your specialties, your level of experience, and your goals. It’s our mission to always put your career needs first so that you thrive in your new role.

Our legal recruitment services in Bethesda, MD, extend throughout the East Coast thanks to our vast network. With our deep understanding of the legal community, we have connections and helpful information for you no matter where in the East Coast you

are looking for work. Reach out to our staff today to discuss your goals and begin narrowing down your job search.

What Our Mission Means for Employers

Hiring people for a project or position can be a tenuous process. You need to be confident in your choice for the role, but few people have the resources or time to conduct a truly thorough candidate search. Instead of combing through resume, get the help you need from our recruitment firm.

When you work with Kramer Jacobs Search, you can rest easy knowing that your new hire is qualified, passionate, and a good fit for your organization. We always screen candidates with your group’s needs and culture in mind, locating the most ideal applicant. Our team always meets the person in person or conducts a phone interview before recommending them to you.

Furthermore, our process is tailored to your needs. We can

handle the entire hiring process from start to finish on your behalf or we can lend our expertise in key areas. Give us a call to learn more about how we handle legal recruitment on your behalf.

How We Work Towards Our Mission Each Day

As long-time recruiters, we have an in-depth understanding of the challenges faced by candidates and employers. Likewise, our team is composed of people with handson legal experience.

We utilize our industry knowledge to anticipate your needs and provide effective solutions to every issue raised. Whether you are a candidate fresh out of law school or a firm seeking a seasoned attorney, you can rely on us to connect you with the right opportunities.

Contact us for further information on our legal recruitment services and our mission. We are located in Bethesda, Maryland, and serve clients from throughout the East Coast.

Steven H. Mr. Wilhelm Owner, President, Attorney, and Business Advisor

Steven

H.

Wilhelm, APC 619-239-0687; 1-800-959-0687

http://stevenhwilhelm.com/ 1950 Fifth Avenue, Suite 100, San Diego, California 92101

Inclusion with the International Association of Top Professionals is an honor. Only ten IAOTP members are inducted into the exclusive Hall of Fame. These special honorees are distinguished based on their longevity in their fields, contributions to society, and impact on their industries. The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) recently selected Steven Wilhelm for the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. This December, Mr. Wilhelm will be inducted into the exclusive Hall of Fame at IAOTP’s 2023 Annual Awards Gala. www. iaotp.com/award-gala

Mr. Wilhelm has received this honor for having close to five decades of experience practicing law. Mr. Wilhelm has proven himself an accomplished professional and expert in his field. With various firms in his past career, Mr. Wilhelm began his practice, Steven H. Wilhelm, A.P.C, in 1980. Currently offering multiple services in business, real estate, and estates trust, with its primary focus on business transactional work and business litigation across the entire business spectrum. The firm employs a passionate approach on behalf of its clients while remaining rational and experienced to achieve the best possible results in each case.

Steven, a former Olympian alternate (1972), has demonstrated his intense drive and determination personally and professionally. He spent his first year of law school splitting his time between studies, a part-time

job, and training for the Olympics.

Before embarking on his legal career, Mr. Wilhelm defied family tradition by attending the University of Kansas on academic and athletic scholarships rather than Stanford. In 1976, Mr. Wilhelm took a holiday to Kansas to get a license to practice law there. Upon his return, he joined the Law Offices of Joseph St. John, handling complex civil litigation and creating the commercial and business litigation section’s infrastructure.

Throughout his illustrious career, Steven has been acknowledged for his outstanding leadership and dedication to his profession. His firm has been voted one of the best business law firms in San Diego County by peers for numerous years. In addition, they have received recognition from the Leading Lawyer Association, Lawyers of Distinction, and

Steven H. Mr. Wilhelm, Owner, President, Attorney, and Business Advisor of his firm Steven H. Wilhelm, APC, will be inducted into the exclusive Hall of Fame by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP). His expertise and extraordinary talents have afforded him this distinction.

Who’s Who of Top Attorneys in North America. In 2022, Steven received the exclusive Lifetime achievement award from IAOTP. In 2021 Steven was featured in TIP (Top Industry Professionals) Magazine by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP). Also, in 2021 he was honored at IAOTP’s Annual Awards Gala for his selection as Top Attorney of the Year 2021, and he was featured on the famous Reuters Billboard in Times Square NYC. This year he will receive IAOTP’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas in December 2022. He is a member of the California Bar Association, the San Diego Bar Association, Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, and the Kansas Bar Association. Mr. Wilhelm has an AV Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell since 1980 and has been recognized worldwide in numerous magazines and publications.

ESTATE LAW ADVISER OF THE CENTURY

Mr. Wilhelm attributes his success to his perseverance and staying passionate in all his business endeavors. When not working, he enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. In the future, he plans to continue to help businesses and individuals.

For more information on Steven, please visit http://stevenhwilhelm.com/

Watch his video: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_nM7dNs9Oqg

About IAOTP

The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) is an international boutique networking organization that handpicks the world’s finest, most prestigious top professionals from different industries. These top professionals are given an opportunity to collaborate, share

their ideas, be keynote speakers, and help influence others in their fields. This organization is not a membership that anyone can join. After a brief interview, you must be asked by the President or nominated by a distinguished honorary member.

IAOTP’s experts have given thousands of top prestigious professionals worldwide the recognition and credibility they deserve and have helped build their branding empires. IAOTP prides itself on being a one-ofa-kind boutique networking organization that handpicks only the best and creates a networking platform that connects and brings these top professionals to one place.

For More Information on IAOTP, please visit: www.iaotp.com