Defense & Aviation
Panayotis Bernitsas
Managing Partner
Panayotis is the Managing Partner of the Firm and a leading legal practitioner, with an active, broad-based commercial practice incorporating more than 35 years of experience in transactional, advisory and litigation work.
Panayotis is an authority in EU, competition and antitrust law and has represented clients in prominent cartel cases before the Hellenic Competition Commission. He is a senior litigator, with vast experience in all types of dispute resolution, and represents clients in complex, high stake civil and administrative actions before the high courts and arbitration boards. He has also acted as arbitrator at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Panayotis is an expert in concession projects and privatisations, with an unsurpassed track record of playing a key role in many of the pioneering, ground breaking transactions to have taken place in Greece. He advises extensively on major renewable and conventional energy and infrastructure projects and investments in energy property development companies. His real estate practice is focused on large scale developments and real property asset portfolio investments.
Within the framework of his private practice, Panayotis has acted on a number of occasions as advisor to the Government on European Union, State Aids and Privatisation issues. He also advises companies and individuals on complex tax structuring and wealth planning matters and has acted extensively in high stakes tax controversies.
Panayotis has been widely published in legal journals, books and other publications in his areas of expertise and is a participant in the annual Forum on International Wealth Disputes. He held the position of Associate Professor in International Economic Law, Law of International Business Transactions, European Community Law at the University of Thrace from 1983-2007.
Dimitris Roussis
Partner
Dimitris has been with the Firm since 1997 and has vast experience in the areas of public procurement, administrative litigation and privatisations.
He advises both participants and strategic investors in their involvement in, and awarding authorities in their running of, tender proceedings, including concession and PPP projects. His substantial administrative litigation and dispute resolution practice involves representing his clients in claims arising from the award of public tenders, proceedings for the annulment of central and local government acts or decisions and retraction of fines and penalties imposed by public authorities. He also advises in competition disputes, including in the context of concerted practices and merger and acquisition clearances. Dimitris has acted in numerous privatisations, and has notable experience in the restructuring of state-owned companies with a view to their sale or listing on the Athens Exchange.
Mara Lissari
Senior Associate
Mara is specialised in all aspects of administrative and public law and represents clients before the Courts and disciplinary bodies. She advises on disputes arising from regulatory and legislative compliance, challenges to acts and decisions of public bodies and public procurement processes and tenders.
Mara assists clients in their participation in public procurement tenders and tendering authorities on the launching of public tenders. She also advises on administrative proceedings and investigations across a variety of industry sectors, including healthcare, real estate and education, as well as in relation to companies and commercial transactions. Mara is a certified mediator registered with the Ministry of Justice, trained by AKKED Prometheus, a non-profit organization set up by the Athens Bar Association and the Industrial Chamber of Athens.
Anna Meletiou
Senior Associate
Anna is a senior associate with the Firm and a member of the Litigation, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution team.
Her practice is focused on administrative law and public procurement. Anna advises participants on the various stages of tendering procedures and negotiations. She is experienced in public private partnership projects and privatizations and regularly participates in due diligence exercises. Anna represents clients before administrative courts and in arbitration proceedings and is a certified mediator.
Lina Mastrogiannopoulou
Senior Associate
Lina is a senior associate with the Firm and a member of the Public Procurement and Litigation, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution team. She advises on public and administrative law, with a focus on public procurement proceedings, administrative litigation arising from sanctions and fines and the recovery of community aid.
Lina has significant experience representing clients before the administrative authorities and courts in disputes stemming from the award of public tenders and advising on pretrial appeals, pre-contractual negotiations, tender documents and contract performance.
Prior to joining the firm, Lina participated as a lawyer in the Legislative Committee tasked with reforming the institutional framework governing public contracts for works, supplies and services, established by the Ministry of Development. She also acted as legal associate to the Tenders and Contracts Monitoring Unit at the Center of International and European Economic Law in Thessaloniki.
Deals
- - Development of the New Heraklion Airport (Kastelli) We advised Vinci and Aktor in relation to their participation in the public tender for the award of a concession contract for the design, construction, financing, operation, maintenance and exploitation of the new international airport at Heraklion, Crete and design, construction, financing of its road accesses.
- - Concession of 14 Regional Airports We advised Intrakat in their entry into two EPC (engineering, planning and construction) agreements, with a total value of €357m, with Fraport Greece for the implementation of construction studies and works at 14 regional airports on the mainland and islands. Under a 40-year concession, Fraport Greece will undertake the management, operation, upgrade and maintenance of the airports. This is the first time in the history of Greek concessions that the contractor is neither a sponsor nor an entity affiliated with the concessionaire, making this a tripartite negotiation involving entities with distinct and divergent interests.
- - Tender for Sale of Stake in Athens International Airport (AIA) We advised a bidder in relation to its participation in the tender conducted by the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) for the sale of a 30% stake in AIA.
Team Services
Our practice supports domestic and foreign companies across the full lifecycle of complex, security-sensitive projects and transactions in Greece, combining deep sector knowledge with compliance expertise in the highly regulated area of Defense & Aviation.
Our team advises on public procurement, contractual frameworks, financing, regulatory and licensing, tax, employment, data protection, cybersecurity, sanctions, export controls and trade compliance, with an emphasis on practical execution in highly regulated environments. We advise on defense and aviation technologies, including military hardware, state-of-the-art software and AI systems and operate according to the highest standards of confidentiality, information security and ethical conduct.
- Defense
- Aviation
- Procurement