Atanas Valov, Associate Partner

What do you see as the main points that differentiate [law firm name] from your competitors?

Penkov, Markov & Partners is a renowned brand on the Bulgarian legal market (this year we are celebrating 30 years from our establishing). During the years we have created a name for innovation and dedicated approach to the problems of the clients, diversity of services, strong support of entrepreneurship and investors including via participation in the legislation process, as well as constant defense of the rule of law and its principles in the courts, where we have represented throughout the years a number of clients whose rights have been violated by acts of the public authorities incompatible with the Constitution, EU Law and the ECHR. We have a competitive advantage from the mix of generations in the firm, with the experience, wisdom and organizational skills of the founders of the company supporting my generation’s eagerness to expand our market shares and presence and strong wish to prove our own merit as the persons before us.

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

Our Data Protection and AML practices will definitely continue their expansion as these spheres become more and more important worldwide in the light of the new legislation and continuous measures of the governments to reduce and prevent money laundering. With some strong new additions to our PPP, Energy and Litigation departments in the end of 2019 and first half of 2020 we have reasonable expectations for strengthening and expanding our practices in these spheres as well, whereby a significant driver for our Litigation practice was the newly formed practice of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court on matters regarding the “constitutional tort”, which led to breakthrough in the decades old practice of the Bulgarian courts and acknowledgment of the positions we have stood for in the past 5 years or so.

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

As organization we are constantly evolving, whereby in the latest months a strong emphasis was put on the organization of smoother distant communication between team members and possibilities for effective home office, as well as additional coordination with our working groups in order their members to become even more interchangeable. Also, we have formed specific teams dealing with the constant changes in the legislation in the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as reformed our communication to the clients concerning any hot topics that might affect their business and increased its volume and specific highlights quite drastically.

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

Absolutely. And this became all the more evident during the months of 2020 when Bulgaria was in a state of emergency. The constant Zoom meetings and webinars hosted by us on various topics and forums became a new standard for fast and interactive communication with our client base and for updating them on the dynamic changes in may spheres.

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

As my core activity is the ADR and litigation, these are not strictly legal branches that accumulate “added value” for a business. But we always strive to give practical and business-oriented advice to our clients on these matters in order to optimize their costs and give them a fair evaluation of the potential gain at the end of a court trial against the benefits of a settlement under certain conditions before the trial or through it.

Our AML, Data Protection, Consumer Protection and Competition teams constantly work with clients advising on the structuring of their advertising messages, promotions and sales policies, relations with partners and employees, so we ensure not only the regulatory compliance of our clients, but also give them a valuable side glimpse on the markets they are operating and what might or might not work given our extensive history of deals, disputes, ups and downs of businesses in different economic situations.

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

Definitely, the clients look for diverse advice on the development of their activity and long-term relationships with reliable partner in the face of their law firm. So, we aim at establishing long-lasting partnerships with our clients, whereby some of our core ones are with us more than 15-20 years already. As I said above, we are also in constant evolution and that impacts a lot of our practices, the way we engage the modern technology for facilitation of our work and the expansion of our activities in new and fast developing sectors through seminars, webinars, simulations of dawn raids, audit of the internal processes of our clients and activity in the legislation process through the NGO sector and the commercial chambers. Thus, our vision in 3 years’ time is one of a diverse legal practice, following the best international standards and forging its own ones, where practitioners from several generations co-exist in a creative and stimulating environment and where we are even stronger factor and continue to be recognized as one of the pillars of protection of the investments of foreign and local entities and avid fighters for the principles of rule of law and safeguarding of the legitimate interests of the private sector in its dialogue with the State.

Milena Gaidarska, Partner

What do you see as the main points that differentiate [law firm name] from your competitors?

Penkov, Markov and partners unite the knowledge, experience and vision of three generations of lawyers – the founders of the company, who are direct participants in building the modern legal system of Bulgaria after 1989, but at the same time who have preserved the knowledge and understanding of legal institutes from the old socialist legislation; the second generation of lawyers who grew up professionally during the transition period and the youngest generation of lawyers building up as professionals in a globally digitalized society.

This symbiosis between the experience of the elder generation, including in the understanding of legal institutions that have operated in the past, but in many cases have to do with the proper resolution of today’s cases, with the excellent training of younger staff in the current legal regulations in real estate and construction, is undoubtedly a prerequisite for providing high quality legal service in complicated legal cases.

Especially in the field of real estate and project development the fruitful collaboration between the legal, technical and sales teams working on a particular project is a condition for its success. Therefore, we work actively with architects, engineers and leasing managers thus accumulating knowledge and understanding of notions relevant for other professions; we strive at going beyond the purely legal framework of the problems and to offer workable legal solutions that are pragmatic and entirely business-oriented.

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

Taking into consideration the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and the fact that this crisis has not passed at all, we may reasonably assume growing of our labour law practice in the next 12 months in connection to the introduction by the employers of new organisation of the work, including work from home, regulating the possibilities for the employer to impose measures to limit the spread of the infection, which the Bulgarian legislation does not regulate so far.

The strong litigation team we have built and the success that this team has already achieved for example in series of lawsuits against the Bulgarian state instigated by owners of assets for the production of electricity from renewable sources make us believe that in the next 12 months we can expect a growth of our litigation practice.

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

In connection with the COVID-19 crisis, we have formed teams to monitor all legislative initiatives and acts of the administration, aimed either at introducing restrictive measures to stop the spread of the infection, or at introducing measures to overcome the social and economic crisis. Our clients can count on us to both bring their operations in compliance with the restrictive measures that are constantly and dynamically changing in line with the development of the pandemic situation, and assist in the preparation of documentation for applying for the use of financial tools included within the government program dedicated to the overcoming the consequences of the crisis.

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

Yes, undoubtedly.

The digitalisation of the main public registers in Bulgaria has greatly facilitated the swift registration of new companies, immediate access to legal information related to the corporate history of legal entities, as well as the collection and analysis of information on the real estate and urban status of real estate. All this opened the possibility to offer standardized legal services within predictable cost-saving budgets and in significantly shorter terms.
In the context of the COVID-19 situation the meetings in person were replaced by zoom and other video conferences, thus ensuring the personal element in the communication, but avoiding the health risk, and saving time and expenses.

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

A key client of ours, one of the major construction companies operating on the Bulgarian market, has entered into a preliminary agreement for sale and purchase of real estate property, whereby an escrow mechanism has been involved. Significant amount representing part of the purchase price has been deposited to an escrow account and blocked there until closing of the transaction. Due to COVID-19 restrictive measures it became impossible to close the deal in time. In this complex and sensitive situation we managed to convince the seller to accept the release of part of the deposited escrow account to be used by our client for its current projects, and to amend the preliminary agreement by introducing more flexible terms for closing the deal in line with the everyday changing regulations related to COVID-19, and the practical complications arising thereof.

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

We have always strived to build a loyal clientele. We have a lot of clients to which we provide complex legal service for more than 20-25 years. We know their history, we understand the challenges their business faces and together we build the strategy for further development, which of course has a direct impact on the strategic planning of our business as well. Indeed, our loyal clients expect from us a much more extensive care, going far beyond the performance of specific legal assignments, and including information on an ongoing basis about all legislative changes and initiatives that could be relevant to the business, initiating such changes through appropriate legal instruments, and strategic planning of the business based on both legal and economic arguments.

Within the next three years, I see our law firm as a stable organization of highly qualified, well-trained and experienced lawyers, unreservedly committed to the work and sharing our common values, with optimally functioning working groups in various legal fields. In addition to the stable development of the traditionally strong practices of the company, in which we are established as one of the market leaders, I expect a planned expansion of our practices in the field of labour and transport law.

Nikolay Cvetanov, Managing Partner & Asen Apostolov, Attorney-at-Law

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Penkov, Markov and Partners from your competitors?

Penkov, Markov and Partners is one of the oldest and most experienced law firms on the Bulgarian legal market which unites the legal practice of expert lawyers ever since 1990. The vast experience in various national and international transactions and other legal exercises accumulated in all those years allows us to better understand the business of our clients, to help them realize their goals and thus to provide much more comprehensive and results oriented service. We believe that the strong business sense, the well-prepared and analyzed strategy, along with the perfectionism of the professionals part of our team, distinguish our firm as one of the leading in the country. Furthermore, our commitment to always strive for even higher standards and job performance motivates us to build on our achievements and tradition and drives us to always look for ways to develop our practice and the way we provide legal services.

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

Speaking about the local Bulgarian environment, we could foresee significant development in a few sectors in the coming year.

Firstly, this is the new regulatory framework and development in the AML/CFT field in Bulgaria. This is a topic which concerns large parts of the locally presented business and it is related to the implementation on EU level of the 4th, 5th and 6th AML directives. Ensuring compliance with the AML/CFT requirements represents a considerable challenge for the obliged companies, respectively sufficient support should be provided in order for the latter to comply with the new set of regulations. Our law firm is definitely the leader on the local market in providing comprehensive legal assistance in this field by preparing respective internal company AML/CFT policies and procedures, individual risk assessments, etc., as well as by assisting various international NGO organizations.

The Bulgarian TMT sector is also rapidly growing which is evident from the recently launched ranking – the FinTech locations of the future where Sofia was given number one position in the cost effectiveness field. This landmark sign of growing market opens new legal niches to be filled by experienced and new technology oriented law firms, such as Penkov, Markov and Partners.

Another sphere where we expect the practice to develop significantly is the Energy field where the Green Deal shall have significant overall impact on the export oriented Bulgarian economy and in particular – the energy sector.

Here could be mentioned also the new EU whistleblowing regulations, as well as the initial discussions on the adoption of Payment Services Directive 3 – again on EU level.

As a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis as well, large EU funding has been agreed and is expected to be distributed through various programs in order to stimulate the EU economy (along with innovations, creativity and digitalization). We have been supporting many of our clients (existing and new ones) and various NGO’s in identifying the proper funding programs and to get them prepared for applying for financing which allowed us to generate significant additional experience in working with those new, extraordinary financial instruments. Naturally, most of the new EU programs are expected to be opened in the next 12 to 24 months so this field is expected to generate added value for both the clients and the legal market.

Last but not least, as a consequence of the pandemic situation many producers have decided to shorten their distribution and supply channels. Thus, Bulgaria being one of the countries in the EU with highest cost effectiveness indicators, should potentially benefit from these trends. Respectively, we are expecting increased dynamics in the new investments of international manufacturing companies operating locally, opening large opportunities for our legal team, being well known and ranked for its dominant legal expertise and experience in supporting legally new investments.

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

Expectedly, in recent time the main changes have been related to the mechanisms for facing the unprecedented COVID-19 challenge. Our main priority during the pandemic was to promote sustainability and to continue providing our clients with high-quality legal services that correspond to the standards set by our team and the demands of our clients. As a “Law Firm of the Future” (we were awarded with the prestigious award last year in a competition organized by the European Bars Federation), in the recent months we focused our efforts on optimizing the processes of providing digital services, working remotely, as we were fully committed to meeting our clients’ needs with the same level of service, security and care. In order to respond to COVID-19’s near-term challenges, we have formed a specific working group dealing with the constant amendments in various legislative acts related to the new global business environment. Our team is also actively engaged in organizing webinars concerning any hot topics that might affect the business of our clients, thus keeping our partners informed of any significant developments in the legal framework. We have been also supporting our clients, on the one hand, in developing various optimizations of services and on the other, in digitalizing such services, so that we meet the new needs.

Further, we are trying to support those clients of ours whose business has been influenced the most by the crisis, by adjusting our standard applicable fee rates or even by providing pro bono services when it comes to legal assistance related to attracting financing from EU/governmental anti-crisis programs. We genuinely believe that such approach could only strengthen the synergy with our long-term partners and lay the foundations for future joint initiatives and collaboration.

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

Absolutely, having in mind especially the new reality related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The in-person communication with clients which many practitioners were used to, had to be “transferred” to the virtual world. This starts with the use of technology, including video conferencing tools for face-to-face communication and client portals for online collaboration. With the support of technology and at the same time “despite” the technology, during the state of emergency we were strongly focused on providing legal services of the highest level and it is our firm belief that we succeeded in this challenge.

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

In view of the fact that the needs of each client are strictly individual, we aim to offer an adaptive and innovative approach to each case, however, always united around the idea of maximum precision in providing the service. Having said this, we make ourselves familiar with the clients’ values and corporate governance, so we could “feel” the way a particular company, for instance, is doing business and interacts with partners.

What we also focus on is to provide as comprehensive assistance as possible (which, in some cases, is not particularly and explicitly required by the client), resulting sometimes in opening new topics, matters and potential issues which initially have not been considered at all by our partners.

As a practical example of adding value to a business, just recently we managed to arrange a huge financing to a client of ours by connecting him with a very large foreign investment fund which we work with on other projects. This gave the client the opportunity to practically open a new market for its services, i.e. something that, without the ensured financing, could not have been possible.

On a separate note, we have been closely monitoring all possible state and EU financing programs opened to support the economy in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and proactively exchanged exhaustive information for all opportunities which, in turn, resulted in being assigned with large amount of assignments for assistance on preparation of legal applications for such financing.

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

Definitely. In our practice we strive to focus not only on the attorney-advisor and counselor role, but also on connection, deep understanding of the clients business and synergy building, which is key for any long-term relationship. The faster adaptation to the clients’ real needs is clearly fostered also by the continuous expansion of our team’s expertise in new legal spheres which are of utmost importance to our partners. For instance, ever since the beginning of 2016 the compliance topics of personal data protection and measures against money laundering demanded provision of very specifically designed services, incl. in collaboration with technological companies.

Potentially, in the next three years we will put even more focus on digitalization when it comes to providing legal services, of course, in line with the quickly flowing societal and economic changes. Our law firm is structured in a way which gives us the opportunity to adequately get in-line with the fast-paced changes worldwide, as saying that the present year is the perfect example in this regard.