GC Summit Poland 2023

The role of general counsel and senior in-house legal advisors is constantly evolving to meet the rapidly changing demands of organisations in today’s business world. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day legal challenges affecting the business and managing legal staff, in-house lawyers are expected to diversify their service offering in order to overcome a growing list of commercial challenges. Whether it is managing internal investigations, defending their company in cross-border disputes, handling complex data or adapting to the shifting trends in M&A, the required skillset of the profession is developing at an exponential rate.

Between comprehensive panel discussions, presentations and the opportunity to meet and engage with fellow in-house counsel, GC Summit Poland promises to be a practical, forward-looking event bringing together the region’s top legal minds.

Agenda

12.00pm – 1.00pm Registration and Welcome Lunch

1.00pm – 1.05pm Opening remarks

1.05pm – 1.55pm Technology Regulation: Impact of upcoming EU regulation on technology megatrends (DORA, AI, MICA)

Counsel Łukasz Łyczko at PriceWaterhouseCoopers sits down with Michał Kurowski, Group IT Transformation Leader, Raiffeisen Bank International; Katarzyna Urbańska, Director of the Legal and Legislative Team, Związek Banków Polskich; and Karol Zieliński, Member of the Management Board, mPay, to discuss the impact of upcoming EU regulation on technology megatrends. This discussion will be of immense interest to all GCs operating in the tech sector, as well as GCs keeping abreast of major changes in EU regulations.

• Łukasz Łyczko, counsel, PwC
• Michał Kurowski, group IT transformation leader, Raiffeisen Bank International
• Katarzyna Urbańska, director of the legal and legislative team, Związek Banków Polskich
• Karol Zieliński, member of the management board, mPay

1.55pm – 2.45pm M&A transactions: a way to strengthen companies forming a group – key opportunities and challenges to take into account during a due diligence, negotiations and post-closing transaction phases

A wide-ranging discussion between General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer Agnieszka Skowronek of Grupa Eurocash, Chief Legal Officer Marek Szydłowski of Żabka Group and General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development Dawid Radziszewski of Selvita. This panel is a must-see for GCs that want to stay abreast of advancements in M&A transactions.

• Agnieszka Skowronek, general counsel/chief legal officer, Grupa Eurocash
• Marek Szydłowski, advisor to the board, Żabka Group
• Dawid Radziszewski, general counsel and head of corporate development, Selvita
• Łukasz Dunaj, general counsel, Atrium / G City Europe
• Anna Dąbrowska, partner, Wolf Theiss
• Krzysztof Libiszewski, partner, Wolf Theiss

2.45pm – 3.05pm Coffee Break

3.05pm – 3.25pm Share deal vs. Asset deal in distressed assets investments in Poland

Tartara & Partners Founder and CEO Karol Tatara and Head of International Desk Paweł Kuglarz sit down to discuss pertinent future prospects for Polish restructuring. This discussion will be of relevance to all Polish GCs.

• Karol Tatara, founder and CEO, Tatara & Partners
• Paweł Kuglarz, head of international desk, Tatara & Partners

3.25pm – 3.55pm New competition law rules for on the exchange of confidential information – what risk do companies now face and how can they comply with the new rules?

The exchange of confidential information between competitors or business partners, such as suppliers or distributors, may be treated by the competition law as anti-competitive collusion. Since July of this year, the European Commission’s Guidelines on horizontal agreements are in force. The Guidelines’ extensive reach includes the topic of exchanging confidential information and the related business risks. We will discuss a number of serious risks posed by the new Guidelines. Our discussion will include how electronic platforms and algorithms may facilitate an exchange of confidential information. We will also focus on the ways to mitigate such risks.

• Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, partner, Hansberry Tomkiel
• Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska, partner, Hansberry Tomkiel

 3.55pm – 4.15pm Dispute prevention through effective collaterals

Founder and Managing Partner of Viroux & Partners Elżbieta Viroux-Benmansour provides key insights into dispute prevention through effective collaterals, a relevant topic to Polish GCs interested in avoiding disputes.

• Elżbieta Viroux-Benmansour, founder and managing partner, Viroux & Partners

4.15pm – 4.20pm Closing remarks

4.20pm – 5.30 pm Drinks and canapes

Speakers

Aleksandra Bańkowska, counsel, PWC Legal

Aleksandra Bańkowska is a counsel responsible for banking at PwC Legal. She specialises in regulatory issues connected with the establishment of banks, transformations of banks into branches of credit institutions, mergers and acquisitions of banks and connected thereto proceedings before the Financial Supervision Commission. Her experience includes advising in domestic and cross-border finance transactions. She has represented both banks and borrowers.

Łukasz Łyczko, counsel, PwC Legal

Łukasz Łyczko, counsel at PwC Legal, specialises in payment services law, banking law and capital markets law. Łukasz provides regulatory advice to financial institutions and entities related to the financial market. He has experience in projects concerning the implementation of the Act on payment services, mobile payment systems, payment cards, electronic money, licensing proceedings before the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, and outsourcing of banking activities.

Agnieszka Skowronek, general counsel/chief legal officer, Grupa Eurocash

Agnieszka Skowronek is General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer at Grupa Eurocash. She is an expert in M&A transactions, group restructuring, strategic negotiations and projects, compliance/regulatory requirements implementations. She has completed dozens of complex strategic projects, including M&A transactions and group reorganisations (local and international), due diligence processes, mostly in leading roles. Strong skills in integration processes – both from legal and business perspective. She is a certified attorney-in-law; Executive MBA and Business Valuation studies graduated with distinction. Involved in initiatives and organizations focusing on women leadership & education – ambassador of Girl MOVE Academy and the MOVHERS program; mentor in Women in Law mentoring program (mentorka wspierająca) and Kozminski University mentoring.

Marek Szydłowski, advisor to the board, Żabka Group

Marek Szydłowski is an experienced Chief Legal Officer at Żabka Group with a demonstrated history of working as general counsel of listed companies and in the media industry. He is skilled in M&A, Media Law, Privacy Law, Corporate Social Responsibility, Governmental Affairs, and Government. He also has extensive government affairs and lobbying experience. Marek has a Polish license to practice law and an MBA focused in Management from Warsaw University of Technology Business School.

Elżbieta Viroux-Benmansour, founder and managing partner, Viroux & Partners

Elżbieta Viroux-Benmansour is the founder and managing partner of Viroux & Partners. Elżbieta has valuable experience in multi-level deal structuring in international transactions, M&A and company transformations. She represents clients in international litigations, including EU competition law disputes. She is an accomplished mediator, successfully acting as a leading counsel in international arbitrations (ICC, LCIA, UNICITRAL, VIAC, SCC, AAA, ICDR, SAKIG, Lewiatan).

Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, partner, Hansberry Tomkiel Law Firm

Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, a solicitor and a doctor of law, is a partner in the Hansberry Tomkiel law firm, which specializes in Polish and European competition and consumer protection law as well as litigation. For sixteen years she worked in the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and from 2008 to 2014, she served as the President of that Authority. Ms Krasnodębska-Tomkiel is the author of numerous publications concerning Polish and European competition laws.

Dawid Radziszewski, general counsel and head of corporate development, Selvita

Dawid Radziszewski LL.M. is the General Counsel and Head of Corporate Development at Selvita. He joined the company in 2015 and was assigned to build and manage the company’s legal department. Currently, he oversees a group of experienced lawyers and is personally engaged in complex corporate issues (including matters related to the stock exchange) and collaboration and IP licensing transactions in the life science sector.

Karol Tatara, attorney, Tatara & Partners

Karol Tatara is an attorney-at-law and a qualified restructuring adviser who specialises in insolvency and restructuring proceedings, including advising on the first pre-pack (prepared liquidation) in Poland. He also offers legal advice on all new proceedings introduced by the Restructuring Law, as well as arrangement approval proceedings. Karol lectures on bankruptcy law at the Bar training programme of the Krakow District Chamber of Attorneys-at-law, and is a vice-president of the INSO Section of the Allerhand Institute, a member of INSOL Europe and vice-dean for legislative matters of the National Chamber of Restructuring Advisors. He is also an expert for the World Bank Doing Business report and Global Indicators analysis as well as author of the commentary to Polish Banking Law – on Banks’ insolvency.

Paweł Kuglarz, head of international desk, Tatara & Partners

Paweł Kuglarz is an attorney-at-law with over 30 years of professional experience working as a partner for international law firms, such as Beiten Burkhardt and Wolf Theiss and Taylor Wessing. He is currently head of the international desk at Tatara & Partners. He is a Director of the Austrian Law School at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, a European Commission expert for preparing a new directive for the harmonisation of insolvency and restructuring law, Vice-president for International Matters of the INSO Section of the Allerhand Institute, and Poland’s representative at INSOL Europe Council. He is an author of commentaries on bankruptcy and real estate-related law, incluidng “Commentary to the Act on land register and mortgages”, “Consumer bankruptcy” and “Bankruptcy of a developer”.

Łukasz Dunaj, general counsel, Atrium / G City Europe

Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska, partner, Hansberry Tomkiel

Dorothy Hansberry-Bieguńska is a partner in the Hansberry Tomkiel firm. The Firm represents clients before Competition Authorities and courts in complex competition cases in Poland, Brussels and the US. Previously, she worked as a senior trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division as well as an advisor to competition authorities in Eastern and Central Europe. She was the general counsel of UPC Poland and went on to manage another Polish media company. She has overlooked damage actions in Poland from the plaintiff as well as the defence side.  Moreover, she has brought her experience to defending clients in cartel matters, including building Article 101(3) TFEU defences. With regard to her involvement in organizations outside the firm, Ms Hansberry-Bieguńska served as the Chairman of the Irish Polish Chamber of Commerce for five years and continues to be involved the Irish business community as a Board member. In May 2019, the US Ambassador appointed Ms Hansberry-Bieguńska to join the Board of Directors of the Polish-U.S. Fulbright Commission. In May 2022, the current US Ambassador, Mark Francis Brzezinski, renewed Ms Hansberry-Bieguńska’s term for an additional three years.

Anna Dąbrowska, partner, Wolf Thiess

Anna Dąbrowska, partner leading the Corporate M&A team at Wolf Thiess in Poland, specialises in local and international acquisitions and divestments in a variety of economic sectors including manufacturing, FMCG, technology and private equity. She has taken part in many mergers and transformations of corporate entities, as well as share purchase transactions and business acquisitions. Anna is the Senior Vice-Chair of the European Regional Forum in the IBA, and she serves as a Commissioner in the IBA Future of Legal Services Commission. She also co-chairs the Polish Chapter of the International Section of the New York State Bar Association. In addition to her qualifications as a Polish attorney-at-law, Anna is also admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales (currently non-practicing).

Krzysztof Libiszewski, partner, Wolf Thiess

Krzysztof Libiszewski, partner leading the Corporate M&A team at Wolf Thiess in Poland, specialises in cross-border M&A transactions, takeovers, joint ventures, distressed situations, as well as corporate restructurings. He has a strong focus on the private equity industry, but his clients also include strategic and various financial investors. He regularly advises corporate boards on governance issues and publishes on general corporate, M&A and selected capital market topics. He has participated in many complicated domestic and international transactions involving share and asset disposals, asset restructuring and reorganisation of companies.

Michał Kurowski, group IT transformation leader, Raiffeisen Bank International

Michal Kurowski is Group IT Transformation leader at Raiffeisen Bank International. He is an experienced management consultant, practice and team leader and project manager with a focus on financial institutions. His main specialties include management and transaction consulting (strategy definition, operating models, restructurings, DD & PMI, process redesign etc.), IT & Digital transformation (Cloud, CBS, delivery centres/ TOM, APIs/ Events transformation, data governance/ mesh, ITSM, modern workplace etc.), and governance (strategy definition, OKR/ goals setup, projects portfolio, monitoring etc.).

Katarzyna Urbańska, director of the legal and legislative team, Związek Banków Polskich

Katarzyna Urbańska is Director of the Legal and Legislative Team of the Polish Bank Association, attorney-at-law, graduate of law at the University of Lodz, as well as the Lobbying Study at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. She has worked in the financial market for many years. Currently, she is a member of the Presidium of the Banking Law Council, as well as a member of the Legal Committee of the European Banking Federation (EBF). She has participated in parliamentary work on many draft legal acts, including in the field of banking law and financial market regulations. She has been the coordinator of numerous interpretative works in the banking sector in the field of new and amended regulations and projects of implementation of sectoral solutions.

Karol Zieliński, member of the management board, mPay

Karol Zieliński is Member of the Management Board at mPay. He has been associated with the FinTech industry for years, mainly through PayLane Sp. z o.o. President of the Management Board continuously from 2012 to 2021. Previously, he held the position of project manager at PayLane and since 2011 managing director. In 2018, he led to the acquisition of a strategic investor for the company and the sale of 100% of shares to CRE Polskie ePłatności SA. In 2020, he participated in the largest M&A transaction in the history of the payment market in Poland – the sale of the Polskie ePłatności capital group to the Danish Nets group. He also participates in the development of other business projects and supports entrepreneurs on their way to the top. He is actively involved in the world of VC funds, where he tries to help in the selection of portfolio companies and investment portfolio management.

In association with...

Viroux & Partners is a small but talented law firm, based in Warsaw, Poland, providing legal services for local and international clients. Our team consists of highly regarded lawyers, having previously worked at major international law firms and earned their reputations by executing exceptional and high value transactions and settling disputes for clients. We have brought our knowledge and ability to build relationships to Viroux & Partners. Our lawyers have represented some of the biggest companies and participated in some of the most high-profile and complex transactions and disputes across Europe.

We consider ourselves lawyers as business partners, seeking to strengthen our relationships with clients and provide the most efficient and innovative solutions by looking at problems from a business perspective. We are direct and straight-forward in our communication. Rather than weigh you down with legalese and telling you what you can’t do, we work to enable you and your business. We embrace difficult negotiations and in depth, technical discussions because understanding your business in detail allows us to serve you better.

Hansberry Tomkiel is a unique competition law firm that combines experience of lawyers who worked previously in competition authorities (the Polish Competition Authority; Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice); as a general counsel (UPC Poland); and in other law firms (Wardynski & Partners).  Specifically, we well understand a regulator’s practice and approach in competition matters such as cartels, illegal horizontal and vertical agreements, abuses of dominance and concentrations.

In working with our clients, we construct solid defences built on facts (and we excel in analysing and uncovering facts), the law, the market, and economics.  If a client chooses to cooperate with a Competition Authority (leniency or a settlement), we are adept in assembling the facts and positions to meet the expectations of the Authority and to achieve a client’s chosen goal.

In each industry in which our clients are involved (for instance: energy distribution; publishing; banking and financial institutions; retail (supermarkets); television; away-from-home paper products, railway parts), we invest many hours of our own time in learning the industry deeply.

We are extremely experienced in litigating competition cases before courts of all instances and work well with economists and industry expert witnesses when appropriate. We are well experienced in litigating private damage actions, both on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants.

In short, we aim to be a “sure thing” for clients and potential clients who expect and need excellent representation. It is here, the aspect of quality of services, that we strive to succeed and to distinguish our firm from others.

For more information about our team, its experience and our offer, please vist our website: https://hansberrytomkiel.com/en/

Tatara & Partners is a boutique law firm focused on restructuring and insolvency as well as distressed asset and related litigation.

We combine expertise knowledge with wide range of experience, highly qualified team and network of partnership organizations and entities (including qualified restructuring advisors, experts, economists, valuers and other professionals), allowing us to provide highest quality, tailored and made-to-measure legal assistance.

Tatara & Partners and its Lawyers are ranked within i.a. the Legal 500 EMEA Restructuring and Insolvency, Chambers Europe R&I and Rzeczpospolita.

The Managing Partner, Karol Tatara, is also active within legislative procedure, serving as Vice-President for Legislative Matters of the INSO Section of the Allerhand Institute and Pro-Dean of the National Chamber of Restructuring Advisors (Insolvency Practitioners) in Poland.

International Desk of Tatara & Partners is headed by Paweł Kuglarz – attorney-at-law having over 30-years of professional experience, active especially within German speaking Clients.

PwC Legal Poland offers comprehensive support in areas of law relevant to the business. Mergers and acquisitions, contracts, employer-employee relationships, functioning on a competitive market – all these aspects of business activities call for expertise in legal matters.

Our lawyers are experts who combine their knowledge of law with their experience of its application in business. Cooperation with PwC consultants from other service lines (tax advisory, business advisory, cybersecurity, audit) enables us to offer comprehensive services to businesses, including legal matters.

We combine our knowledge of law with a broad business awareness which takes into account the specific characteristics of our clients’ industries. And all under the name of PwC – a recognized firm which provides comprehensive professional services.

Wolf Theiss opened its first office in Vienna in 1957 and soon established a reputation as one of the region’s leading law firms. The firm has since grown into a multinational team of approximately 360 lawyers, making it one of the largest integrated law firms in the region. It has offices* in Albania, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Ukraine.

This presence on the ground is one of the firm’s key strengths. It works in a fast-moving part of the world that requires deep local knowledge and experience. By combining expertise with a strong international network, the firm is well-placed to handle complex cross-border transactions with a high degree of speed and flexibility.

Apart from its local offices in 13 CEE/SEE countries, Wolf Theiss also offers extensive regional experience in other countries in the region, such as Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Networking Sponsors

We at Ligit assist international and domestic enterprises in navigating through the Polish legal system.

We combine attention to detail and to quality – traditional characteristics of premium law firms – with a modern approach to team culture and work organization.

Foreign clients value our ability to translate Polish legal reality into their framework, language and culture. Our international network ensures that we can assist Polish businesses in multi-jurisdictional matters.

Our clients come from a range of industries around the globe. We have a track record in assisting businesses operating in financials, healthcare and life sciences, consumer and retail, energy and utilities, technology and innovation and industrial sectors. We also undertake work for high-net-worth individuals.

Traple Konarski Podrecki and Partners is one of the largest law firms in Poland with a particular focus on domains like intellectual property, copyright, new technologies, media, telecommunication, IT, FinTech, competition and antitrust, cybersecurity, data protection as well as corporate law, life science and real estate. The Firm has established a reputation for meeting the most sophisticated demands and expectations of our Clients, which is confirmed each year by the most prominent Polish and international law firm rankings (Chambers Europe, Chambers Global, Chambers Fintech Legal, IP STARS, WTR 1000, The Legal 500, Rzeczpospolita, IAM Patent 1000, and IFLR).

Our Law Firm has established a well-deserved reputation for combining practical skills with theoretical knowledge of the law. Many partners and lawyers are lecturers and academics at renowned Polish universities and research institutes (including the Jagiellonian University and the Polish Academy of Sciences), as well as authors of publications, monographs, and commentaries (on topics such as copyright and related rights, industrial property law, and personal data protection law) and the regime of private law. We believe that the market position of any firm is determined not only by knowledge of the law but, above all, by the Firm’s experts’ knowledge of its clients’ industries and economic sectors. Therefore, the Firm’s partners and other lawyers are working with industry-specific and commercial organisations, engaging development of good practices and legal solutions to match the needs of businesses and their customers.

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