What do you see as the main points that differentiate Deloitte Legal Law Firm from your competitors?

One of the main points that differentiate our legal practice is that our attorneys have had experience in traditional local and international law firms, and now build upon their expertise by taking a multi-disciplinary approach to clients, in collaboration with our Tax, BPS, Financial Advisory, Risk Advisory and Consulting colleagues, to provide more business-focused, cross-functional solutions to clients. This approach brings us closer to our clients’ business needs and goals. We can offer our clients a multi-disciplinary service and a pragmatic approach, which make use of our cross-functional synergy to ensure high quality, increased efficiency, and effective risk management. Deloitte Legal Law Firm is part of the Deloitte Legal Central Europe South cluster. This allows us to benefit from cross-border cooperation, exchange of technical knowledge and business ideas, and implementation of innovative solutions. Deloitte’s international network adds further value to the services offered to our clients on international transactions and projects.

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

We have focused on further expanding our work and knowledge on Energy and ESG considering the energy crisis, the new reporting regulations and the demand for businesses to focus on their positive impact on people and the world in general.

Our regulatory compliance services will further grow as well because regulated businesses need our help following the rapidly changing and complicated regulatory framework.

We hope the local and international economies will stabilize, which will result in more day-to-day legal work for our teams, but until then we expect an increased need of dispute resolution and restructuring assistance.

What's the main change you've made in the firm that will benefit clients?

We managed to develop and sustain diversified legal skills and motivated team to meet the clients’ needs in various legal areas starting from day-to-day corporate, commercial and employment law to more complex projects in the areas of real estate, regulatory, dispute resolution, etc.

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Deloitte is constantly investing in the implementation of technological tools to help our professionals in their day-to-day work and to put in place a framework for unlocking internal efficiency with technology. This allows for the more effective time-management and allocation of resources, as well as for an improved and more efficient service delivery process, in order to address the cost sensitivity and expectations of our clients.

We have also implemented a host of digital tools for the delivery of enhanced legal services. For many of our practice areas we have special tech tools – some of them are Deloitte technology, and some of them are third-party licensed technology. We also develop tools to facilitate and make more efficient our clients’ business.

In addition, our LMC team consistently delivers training on technology to our clients. These legal technology training sessions cover topics such as AI, the cloud, mobile applications, the use of data as an asset, and legal tech generally, in the context of current digital trends, including IT cloud migration, the development of innovative tools (including for the better management and efficiency of any internal legal team and their operations) or using alternative selling channels for business.

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We recently provided an international banking and insurance group with integrated advisory services on a number of regulatory matters. We worked closely with our colleagues from the Risk Advisory team, which advised on various regulatory, procedural, and IT issues. We assisted the client in mitigating the risk related to regulatory requirements, on the one hand, and on the other hand in providing cost-effective financial instruments to their clients. The task was particularly complicated, as there were recent amendments to legislation, and no case law or clear guidance from the regulator on the topic. We had to come up with an innovative approach in the interpretation and application of the new legislation.

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms - where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

We are aiming at providing legal services in a different way – multidisciplinary, innovative, and technology-enabled. Our proposition is to bring together our multi-disciplinary capabilities and our cross-office synergy into a single offering that is tailor-made to help our clients navigate new chapters in their future.

We always strive to address the unmet client demand for comprehensive legal services, tailored to their broader business strategy.