Mr Pantazis Karamanolis > Bernitsas Law > Athens, Greece > Lawyer Profile

Bernitsas Law
5 LYKAVITTOU STREET
106 72 ATHENS
Greece

Work Department

Banking, Finance & Capital Markets; Corporate & M&A

Position

Of Counsel

Pantazis is a senior practitioner with over 30 years of experience in banking, capital markets and corporate transactions. He has vast expertise advising Greek and foreign clients active in a variety of sectors including banking, real estate, industry, construction and services.

Pantazis has led pioneering, market first transactions and has a recognised expertise in large scale merger and acquisition transactions, buy-outs, hostile take-overs and public tender offers. He specialises in structuring innovative and complex deals on a turnkey basis.

Pantazis served in senior roles such as General Counsel of Alpha Bank, Country Legal Counsel of JP Morgan Chase, Country Legal Counsel of Arthur Andersen, of counsel to the Greek Minister of National Economy and the Governor of Emporiki Bank, and various corporates and state institutions.

Pantazis held a Fulbright Scholarship, he taught at the Athens University of Economics and the Business School of the University of Piraeus. He has written “The Legal Implications of Sovereign Lending Through Syndicated Loan Agreements” (Oceana, New York, N.Y., London, Rome, 1992) and has contributed to collective works. He has been published on directors’ liability, ESOP’s, derivatives, taxation of M&A’s and other topics.

Career

He is admitted to the Athens Bar.

Languages

Greek and English

Education

Pantazis holds a Degree in Law (Summa cum laude) from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, an LLM from Queen Mary College, University of London, and a PhD in International Financial Law from Magdalene College, Cambridge University.

Lawyer Rankings

Greece > Banking, finance and capital markets

The ‘very experienced‘ team at Bernitsas Law provides an ‘innovative and commercial approach’ to lenders and borrowers across a broad swathe of transactional and regulatory work in the banking and capital markets sphere. Although it handles some more commoditised mandates, the team is best known for its aptitude at providing ‘solutions-oriented’ advice on complex transactions, including as it relates to work in the secondary market for non-performing loans (NPLs) and the structuring and implementation of securitisation transactions. The ‘exceptional’ Athanasia Tsene, who is lauded as a ‘true business partner’ as a result of her ability to provide ‘sharp and practical advicehas been pivotal to the firm’s success in the NPL field, work which she combines with other, often highly structured finance transactions. Nikos Papachristopoulos has ‘extensive exposure and experience across all areas of banking, finance and capital markets’ and co-heads the team alongside Tsene. The team was strengthened at the beginning of 2024 by the arrival of fintech and payments expert Anastasia Mallerou and Pantazis Karamanolis, who adds tremendous gravitas to the practice in light of his vast in-house banking experience, from their own practices.