PL

B2RLaw as an official legal advisor and partner of the Polish Paddle Tennis Federation

According to the wording of the agreement signed on September, 2022, the B2RLaw law firm has become the official and exclusive legal advisor to the Polish Paddle Tennis Federation.

The the Polish Paddle Tennis Federation is an organization of sports enthusiasts, sports innovation and, above all, paddle tennis lovers. Its main goal is to promote the game of paddle tennis and a healthy lifestyle. The federation supports all those interested in developing the sport and advises those interested who see business potential in it.

Paddle tennis is currently considered one of the fastest growing sports in the world. It originated in Acapulco, Mexico, and in Spain it is the second most popular sport after football. It is a racquet sport, incorporating elements of tennis and squash. Paddle tennis is a doubles game. It is a sport with no age limits and a team game for both advanced athletes and amateurs. According to the official website of the Polish Paddle Tennis Federation, currently already approx. 10 million people are actively involved in playing the sport.

B2RLaw’s close relationship with the Polish Paddle Tennis Federation stems primarily from its love for paddle tennis games, but also from a healthy lifestyle. We believe that the promotion of physical activity and nutritional awareness, which determines health at the same time, are equally important elements affecting our well-being and efficiency.

Bartłomiej Jankowski will be the partner responsible for supporting the client. He will be supported by Paulina Wyrostek and Krystyna Jakubowska. During the meeting, PPTF was represented by Marcin Potrzebowski, President, and board members Jakub Słowiński and Jakub Oraczewski.

More information:

+ about our Partner – Polish Paddle Tennis Federation,

+ hot to start,

+ what equipment,

+ paddle map of Poland.

B2RLaw announces lawyer promotions

B2RLaw has announced nine lawyer promotions, including Piotr Leonarski to Counsel and Head of B2R’s Tax Practice in its 2021/2022 promotion round. This represents the greatest amount of promotions that have been made in one year.

The lawyers that have been promoted are:

+ Piotr Leonarski to Counsel,

+ Krystyna Jakubowska to Senior Associate,

+ Radosław Kowalski to Senior Associate,

+ Dawid Malinowski to Senior Associate,

+ Ewelina Chabowska to Associate,

+ Maria Markowska to Junior Associate,

+ Karolina Szybińska to Junior Associate,

+ Filip Wójtowicz to Junior Associate,

+ Julia Bujkowska to Paralegal.

In a joint statement, Senior Partners Bartłomiej Jankowski, Rafał Stroiński and Rafał Zięba advise, “This past year has been full of transition for B2RLaw, Poland and the world as a whole. Our firm continues to grow and thrive based on the contributions, loyalty and energy of our employees. Each of our promoted lawyers has already made tremendous contributions to the firm and to the clients we serve. We congratulate all those promoted and are extremely enthused about each and every one of them. We very much look forward to growing together within B2R”. 

Piotr Leonarski is an Advocate and a Tax Advisor. Piotr advises clients from various sectors on daily tax matters He focuses mainly on indirect taxes (especially VAT), tax disputes, tax matters related to mergers and acquisitions, and real estate tax.

Krystyna Jakubowska is an Advocate and a member of the Corporate & M&A Practice Group. She focuses her practice on advising corporate clients on mergers and acquisitions, with a focus on the private equity sector. Krystyna participates in M&A transactions at all their stages, particularly on drafting transaction documents and providing opinions on Warranty & Indemnity policies. She has participated in a number of M&A projects acting for both buyers and sellers.

Radosław Kowalski who has just passed his Attorney-at-law trainee Bar exams, is a member of the Employment and Commercial law Practice Groups. Radosław specializes in providing ongoing services to Polish and foreign entrepreneurs in matters related to employment law. His experience includes ongoing legal advisory, drafting and issuing opinions on civil and commercial law cases, including contracts.

Dawid Malinowski is an Advocate and a member of the Disputes Practice Group. Dawid has experience in representing clients in matters of commercial criminal law, under which he participates in the preparation of pleadings, develops strategies and arguments in pending proceedings, represents clients before law enforcement authorities and the courts. Dawid takes part in the work of teams involved in resolving commercial disputes. He prepares pleadings and actively participates in the development of procedural tactics, in particular in the field of unfair competition and corporate disputes.

Ewelina Chabowska is an Attorney-at-law trainee and a member of the Real Estate and Construction practices. Ewelina advises on real estate transactions and takes part in due diligence exercises. She advises on construction projects, in particular on the assessment of construction contracts and participates in the resolution of construction disputes.

Maria Markowska is an Advocate trainee and a member of the Disputes and Corporate Finance Practice Groups. Maria participates in the conduct of multi-faceted corporate disputes, in particular in court proceedings concerning appeals against the resolutions of bodies of capital companies and in disputes between shareholders and partners. Maria also has experience in financing transactions, with a focus on acquisition and asset financing.

Karolina Szybińska is a member of B2RLaw’s litigation team. She deals with broadly understood civil law and disputes between business entities, in particular in the field of disputes regarding the protection of personal rights and claims for payment.

Filip Wójtowicz is an advocate trainee and a member of B2RLaw’s litigation team. He advises on civil law projects, including in particular commercial litigation, corporate disputes and labour law proceedings. He also advises on criminal and criminal-fiscal litigation, as well as administrative and tax litigation and arbitration. Filip develops litigation and negotiation strategies, drafts pleadings and provides ongoing legal services of clients’ disputes.

Julia Bujkowska is a third year law student at the University of Warsaw. She has an interest in EU Law, Administrative Law and Civil Law. Julia supports the real estate team on a daily basis, assisting in conducting due diligence and providing comprehensive support to lawyers in handling cases and transactions.

B2RLaw’s statement on events in Ukraine

We stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbour and friends.

In the face of an unlawful attack on our neighbour, we are saddened, powerless and terrified. As a modest gesture of solidarity with our good friends from the Ukraine, and with law as our only weapon in the fight against every iniquity, we invite Ukrainian citizens who come to Poland in search of peace for themselves and their loved ones, to use our lawyers free of charge in all legal matters related to their settlement in the territory of Poland. We are with you!

Edyta Zalewska joins B2RLaw’s Partnership, and six lawyers are promoted

B2RLaw has announced Edyta Zalewska as Partner in its 2021 promotion round, effective as of 1^st May 2021. B2RLaw is also pleased to announce the promotion of the following lawyers:

+  Anna Grochowska–Wasilewska to Counsel
+  Marcin Malinowski to Counsel
+  Radosław Minh Nguyen to Senior Associate
+  Tomasz Michalczyk to Associate
+  Inka Kalista to Associate
+  Małgorzata Tomaka to Junior Associate

Edyta Zalewska is a member of the Dispute Resolution team and manages the practice of corporate disputes. She advises and represents clients in all phases of proceedings, both before arbitration and public courts. She specializes in resolving disputes in the field of commercial law, unfair competition and commercial criminal law. She represents Polish and foreign clients before courts and law enforcement agencies at all levels in Poland. Edyta also has wide experience in conducting white collar crimes cases, both acting for defendants and as a representative of victims. Edyta joined B2RLaw legacy firm JS Legal as an Associate in 2014 and for many years has been developing her career at the Firm, proving each day that she is a person of immense worth, winning the trust of her clients and colleagues.

Anna Grochowska–Wasilewska is an Advocate and a Doctor of Law, part of the Disputes team and also one of the leaders of the Business Criminal Litigation team at B2RLaw. Since 2014, she has been lecturing criminal procedure at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. Since 2021, she has been a Deputy Disciplinary Spokesman of the Warsaw Bar Association.

Marcin Malinowski is an Advocate and a member of the Dispute Resolution and Tax teams. He has worked with JSLegal for many years, prior to its merger for form B2RLaw, helping lead the Tax Litigation and Administrative proceedings practice. He represents clients in all kinds of civil, commercial and criminal disputes, specializing in tax, fiscal criminal and administrative proceedings.

Radosław Minh Nguyen is a trainee Attorney-at-law, and is admitted to practice law in the State of New York. He is a key member of B2R’s Transaction team specialising in finance, corporate and M&A. Of late, Radosław has focused on finance transactions, advising on a variety of domestic and international finance transactions including project finance, real estate finance and acquisition finance.

Tomasz Michalczyk is an Advocate trainee based in B2R’s Krakow office and a member of the Transaction and Commercial Practice teams, focusing on corporate advisory, M&A, competition, IP and data protection.

Inka Kalista is a trainee Advocate and a multi-disciplinary lawyer that advises clients in respect to corporate and M&A, commercial law, employment and disputes.

Małgorzata Tomaka joined the B2RLaw team in mid-2020. Prior to this she practiced at law firms in Warsaw and Katowice. She specializes in intellectual property law.

Senior Partner Rafał Stroiński advises, “We are incredibly proud of the talent, skill and dedication of all of our people. The firm’s commitment to provide its clients with innovative, solutions-based legal services lies at the core of our business. Now, more than ever, developing talent that supports this is critical. All our promoted lawyers have continued to apply B2R’s values to achieve the best results for our clients. We thank them for their hard work and dedication and congratulate all on their well-deserved achievement.”

Senior Partner Bartłomiej Jankowski further states, “Edyta exhibits all the attributes that we would hope for in a B2RLaw partner, whether that be professionalism, hard work, loyalty, personal growth and a firm believer in long-term relationships. She is an excellent lawyer, an extremely good manager, and a fantastic mentor to the B2R team. We are very proud to have Edyta amongst our team, as well as all our promoted lawyers who make B2RLaw the firm it is.”

Promotion in B2R’s Contentious Practice Group

Edyta Zalewska, a member of B2RLaw’s Contentious Practice Group, has been promoted to Counsel.

Edyta advises and represents clients in all phases of proceedings, both before arbitration and public courts. She specializes in resolving disputes in the field of commercial law, unfair competition and commercial criminal law.

Her experience includes independent and comprehensive handling of proceedings from various sectors of the economy, including the preparation of comprehensive procedural strategies and defense lines. She also advises clients at pre-trial stage and participates in settlement negotiations.

Edyta represents Polish and foreign clients before courts and law enforcement agencies at all levels in Poland in the field of commercial disputes, in particular in the scope of disputes arising from the performance of commercial agreements and regarding corporate disputes and acts of unfair competition.

Edyta also has wide experience in conducting white collar crimes cases, both as an defendant and a representative of the victim. She advises and represents clients (including collective entities) on matters related to the risk of criminal liability and advises entities injured as a result of a crime.

Edyta also has wide experience in representing entities from the FMCG industry in cases concerning acts of unfair competition. She also advises entrepreneurs on matters concerning breach of business secrets and other acts of unfair competition, committed by both former employees and associates of companies, as well as their competitors. In addition, she provides legal assistance in relation to compliance policy, including conducting internal audits and forensic investigations, including irregularities and abuse of managers, actions to the detriment of companies and support in other crisis situations.

B2RLaw takes leading role on multi-party video and computer games industry transaction

B2RLaw represented SuperScale Poland and Ivan Trančik in a multi-party venture capital transaction related to the investment of Level-Up First S.àr.l. (a Luxembourg venture capital fund) and a number of international angel investors into SuperScale. Before the transaction, Ivan Trančik and BoomBits (which is listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange) held 100% of shares in SuperScale, a Polish company financing the operations of its 100% owned Slovakian subsidiary. Ivan Trančik is also Founder and CEO of SuperScale in Poland and Slovakia. SuperScale is a fast growing video and computer games market consultancy with a growing portfolio of international clients. SuperScale, in particular, provides services related to mobile game business analytics, game design consulting, and mobile game user acquisition, with creative production services.

On behalf of SuperScale and Ivan Trančik, B2R took a leading role in respect to the transaction, negotiating the investment from Level-Up and angel investors into SuperScale; advising on restructuring of debt, and the sale of part of BoomBit’s shares; as well as advising in respect to the new shareholders’ agreement with the new lead investors, the current shareholder (BoomBit) and minor co-investors. Negotiations were complex in view of the various party interests.

As a result of the transaction, SuperScale will issue 712 new preferred shares with a nominal value of PLN 50 each, which will be offered for subscription and subscribed for by Level-Up First S.àr.l. and other minority investors. The transaction also included the drafting and negotiation of a share purchase agreement, pursuant to which SuperScale sold to investors jointly 150 shares in SuperScale for the price of EUR 3,150.07 for each share.

In this transaction B2RLaw worked alongside the London Office of Fieldfisher which brought to the table valuable international expertise of the computer and video games industry demonstrating B2R’s capability to support Polish computer games companies locally and internationally. This also underlines B2R’s strong relationship with international and foreign law firms, and its capabilities in managing international transactions. This deal is in line with B2R’s objective of connecting Polish and CEE start-ups with international investors who bring not only capital, but support and know-how.

Corporate partner Brian Chadwick, who led the Fieldfisher team advising SuperScale, said:

“We were delighted to work with the brilliant team at B2R and lead the client and investor relationship aspects of this deal, providing crucial industry and commercial expertise along the way.

Together, we delivered a combination of legal, commercial and industry expertise distinguishing us for our unique ability to support Polish/CEE games companies locally and internationally and connect local companies with international counterparts and investors.

The mobile gaming industry and the surrounding service sector continues to be a strong growth area in Europe and globally and we look forward to closing further deals for clients in this exciting market.”

B2R’s team was led by Partner Aleksandra Polak, who was supported by Partners Szymon Syp, PhD; Przemysław Krzemieniecki and Marcin Huczkowski; and Senior Associates Iga Wojtczak-Opala and Piotr Leonarski; Associates Krystyna Jakubowska and Teresa Pilecka; and Junior Associate Martyna Szpakowska. Fieldfisher’s team was led by Partner Brain Chadwick, one of the most renowned video and computer games experts globally. Slovak aspects of the transaction were managed by Jakub Berthoty from Digital Legal in Bratislava.

B2RLaw appoints Computer & Video Games expert and at the same time bolsters Corporate & Capital Markets offering

Leading Polish law firm B2RLaw has appointed Angelina Stokłosa as Counsel to establish a specialist Computer & Video Games practice, and as a key addition to its growing Capital Markets practice.

Angelina is one of a small handful of lawyers in Poland that has several years experience in advising companies in the computer and video games industry, ranging from small independent (indie) studios to larger established multinational companies. She has been associated with the video & computer games industry as a legal advisor since 2015. In 2015-2019 and again since 2020, she has led the in-house legal team at one of the first and largest computer games companies in Poland, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange – CI Games, S.A. She is also the Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of United Label, S.A. – a publishing company for a premium indie games segment.

This in-house experience means that Angelina combines the technical expertise of an external adviser with the commercial understanding of an in-house lawyer. 

In addition, for over ten years, Angelina has been advising public and private companies as well as public institutions, including providing ongoing legal services. She supports stock exchange issuers from the regulated market and Alternative Trading System in performing their information and notification obligations on the capital market. She has participated in proceedings before the Polish Financial Supervision Authority Office, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, and in issuing processes (in the scope of shares and bonds, IPOs and SPOs), as well as carrying out public tender offers for shares, delisting proceedings, compulsory buy-out proceedings, the implementation and audits of implementation of MAR regulations by stock exchange issuers, corporate disputes and restructuring processes of companies. 

Senior Partner Rafał Stroiński comments, “We welcome Angelina to the B2R team. B2R is a go-to firm for supporting Polish and international companies operating in innovative and advanced technology industries such as AI, Fintech, E-mobility and legal cannabis-based products and applications. It’s no secret that the video and computer games industry is leading the global charge for Poland, and as a firm we work with a number of companies that are involved in the sector. Angelina’s knowledge and understanding of the specifics of the industry, our existing transaction and regulatory team, and our best-friends relationship with the pre-eminent international advisors to the computer games industry and international investors in the sector means that no other firm in Poland or the wider CEE is so well equipped to support video and computer gaming companies. Angelina also adds considerable expertise to an already very strong Capital Markets practice consisting of four partners.” 

B2RLaw supports CEE startups as a partner of the CEE Startup Challenge

B2RLaw is proud to be a partner of the CEE Startup Challenge where participants compete for the attention of investors, as well as a number of prizes, including a Q&A session with B2RLaw covering legal issues. Adam Piwakowski, a Partner at the Law Firm, will sit on the competition jury.

The Vestbee CEE Startup Challenge is one of the most important and largest online startup events in Central and Eastern Europe. It brings together startups from the ICT, AI, fintech, trade, transport and many other sectors, all seeking to attract the attention of investors and media.

For more details: https://vestbee.com/cee-startup-challenge

B2RLaw will support the top 10 startups by providing a free Q&A session, where participants will learn how to prepare for negotiations with Venture Capital funds.

The winners will be selected by the jury, which will include Adam Piwakowski, who for many years has been supporting investors making their first steps in the Polish market, as well as helping Polish companies entering foreign markets.

The Vestbee CEE Startup Challenge is just one startup initiative supported by B2RLaw. Our team, as a supporter of the CEE startup community, regularly takes part in events of this type. The team has already helped the founders of dozens of startups set up, develop and scale up their businesses.
More information about the Vestbee CEE Startup Challenge can be found at: www.vestbee.com/cee-startup-challenge

B2RLaw recognised in the Legal 500 EMEA

B2RLaw was ranked Tier 3 in the Legal 500 ranking in Construction, Real Estate & White-Collar Crime and Tier 4 in Private Equity. The leaders of these practices, Paweł Gunia, Rafał Zięba, Bartłomiej Jankowski and Rafał Stroiski respectively, were also highlighted.

The Legal 500 EMEA is a prestigious classification of law firms, which includes law firms from all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This year, 2,700 law firms from 88 countries were evaluated. The classification is based on the experience and skills of the teams, but above all, on the opinions of 300,000 clients.

Below we present some of the opinions of our clients included in the ranking:

“I find working with the firm very satisfying. They tend to have a very commercial approach to problem-solving, a good speed of services and a willingness to help.”

“A great team with an open approach towards new projects.”

“Top quality and professional approach confirmed in every business case conducted. Very direct and transparent communication.”

“The company provides international level assistance and I have recommended their services to many business partners.”

“The real estate practice has deep knowledge and wide experience in advising Polish and foreign clients. The team is very dedicated to provide best advice in the necessary time-frame, and committed to provide useful and practical advice to the client, finding solutions that would be acceptable from the business perspective.”

“A diverse and stable team, experienced, always available.”

“Rafał Zięba proves to be a good team leader caring about the clients but also its employees, which translates into positive work attitude and devotion.”