What sets your firm apart from others in Spain?
BROSETA is an Iberian legal advisory firm with a well-established presence in the middle market and a growing penetration in large organisations.

The differential pillars on which we base our service and on the basis of which we have the trust of more and more top-level companies are:

Vocation of partnership with the client. We participate in the business strategy of our clients as members of their team, and we accompany them, with solid and long term relationships, both in their successes and in difficult moments.

Transformation as a key to growth. We reject static and standardized solutions. Each client is a challenge and their needs define our service proposal. We grow the value of our customers based on a differentiated way of doing things.

Our partners, in the first line of response. We put the Firm’s team of partners at the forefront of all our projects. Professionals with an average of 30 years of experience, close, proactive and involved with the client in every relevant decision.

Agile and flexible firm. Our structure allows us to adapt to the most complex environments with proactivity, and to react to any contingency with the efficiency demanded by the market and the client.

As well as having a presence in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland, Broseta forms part of the Ibero-American Legal Network. How important is this network for the firm, and has this international alliance been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020?

How did the firm adapt its working practices in light of the restrictions put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and what lessons did the firm learn from this period which it can take forward for the future?

BROSETA’s strategic planning to face the contingencies derived from the expansion of COVID-19 in our environment had its point of origin during the first week of March. In this context, BROSETA carried out a strategic rethink for the current financial year based on two areas: organisational management and business development.

At the management level, the objective was to define the Firm’s new lines of action with its main stakeholders (employees, clients, suppliers), in the context of the contingencies that could arise as a result of the pandemic.

To this end, we formed the COVID-19 Action Committee, a body led by the Firm’s management (managing partner, managing partner in Valencia and managing partner in Lisbon) and with the support of the Staff departments.

Some of the main strategic lines of action of this Committee have been: exhaustive control of business scenarios; increasing the Firm’s technological capacity; formation of independent sub-teams within each business area that operate as “response teams” to activities or actions that require physical presence in the office or in other stakeholder facilities (thus avoiding possible multiple contagion); flexible remuneration, etc.

Among other aspects, these measures have enabled the Firm to closely monitor the financial situation at all times and, at the same time, guarantee business continuity for clients due to fully operational teams.

In terms of business development, the objective was to redefine the Firm’s service proposal in the new scenario (new products, service approaches, communication actions, etc.).

To this end, we formed the Legal LAB COVID-19, a legal council made up of different partners from each of the Firm’s practice areas (16 partners, 50% of the total), with the support of the Business Development team.

To highlight the work carried out by this body, the #BROSETAvsCOVID19 initiative was launched, a claim that has been the common thread running through all of the Firm’s communications in relation to COVID-19 over the last few months.

In addition to generating content related to the current situation and aimed at stakeholders, this body designed a short- and medium-term business strategy to promote existing services that have been less recurrent to date or to create new ones based on the specific needs that have arisen, together with recurring services.

Thus, the services promoted in this period and on which special focus has been placed have been: services for claiming the Administration’s liability; advice on business reorganisations; employment advice; refinancing operations and financial restructuring; investment opportunities with the gradual exit from the crisis; insolvency administration, or mediation, among others.

Looking to the future, the crisis has highlighted in an extreme way the VUCA scenarios in which organisations move today, environments that force us to adapt to changes continuously and that affect both strategic planning and professional routines.

Thus, our goal for the coming years will be to continue growing, doing so in a sustained manner and with the values that have always characterised us, and based on these premises we will try to find opportunities to integrate teams that will bring us value in this way, both in the geographies in which we already operate and in others where we can identify opportunities.

Obviously in this new stage our future will also be absolutely linked to the consolidation of digitalisation, but without forgetting that business law is an absolutely relational profession.

In addition, over the coming months, and in a scenario of probable recovery, we will promote as services the advice on investment opportunities, as we believe that there will be a significant increase in investor interest in our country; mediation and arbitration, given the collapse of our judicial system; and advice, from a multidisciplinary approach, on comprehensive business restructuring processes, an absolute necessity from our point of view in the post-Covid era.

Broseta recently incorporated a team of tax lawyers in Valencia, led by Enrique Vázquez and Miguel Ángel Galán. What were the reasons behind these hires, and what are your expectations for the firm’s tax practice in 2021?

These recruitments are in line with our strategic objectives, which consider a scenario of continued growth over the coming years under the premises of profitability, sustainability and shared values.

The new team, led by Enrique Vázquez, who joins as a partner and head of the Valencia area, and Miguel Ángel Galán, who joins as a partner, is also made up of Jaime Escribano, Ramón Varanda, Mauro Sebastián, Anabel Naval, Aurora López and Isabel Vicente, professionals with extensive experience in leading national and international legal services firms.

With their integration, BROSETA consolidates, under the global management of the practice by partner Carlos Diéguez, one of the most outstanding Iberian tax advisory structures, with around 40 professionals providing advice on highly strategic projects.

This is a very important growth project for us, which also complements our range of services with the Accounting and Tax Management line, a service that is increasingly in demand and in which the team that has joined us has a notable track record.

This incorporation also reinforces BROSETA’s service capabilities and expertise in strategic sectors in which the new team already works with leading organisations, such as renewable energies, the agri-food sector and infrastructures, among others.

Aside from tax, are there any other areas that the firm plans to expand or bolster in the coming months and years?

At BROSETA we are always open to new challenges that boost our organisation and contribute to providing a better service to our clients, which, together with the care of our talent, is one of our main objectives.

In this sense, a few days ago we have also reinforced our Labour Law team with the incorporation as partners of Marta Alamán and Alberto Fernández Irízar.

Marta and Alberto are two professionals with a consolidated track record in the field of legal advice, and with their incorporation to the Firm we are strengthening our value proposition based on service excellence, multidisciplinarity and the national and international dimension of our advice.

Marta Alamán, who will take over the management of the area in Madrid, has been part of PwC for almost 30 years, being responsible for the creation and management of the labour law department, and also leading its international labour law network.

Alberto Fernández Irízar, who also joins the Madrid team as a partner, has been a member of PwC’s labour law team, in his case for more than ten years, at international firms such as Eversheds Sutherland.

These additions consolidate and increase the Firm’s relevance in the field of employment law, and for us they represent an extraordinary boost to the practice at a transcendental time for organisations in this area.

Renewable energy has been booming in Spain in recent years. What are your expectations for this sector in 2021?

It will undoubtedly be one of the main sectors of activity in 2021, in line with the objectives and demands that the European Union is requiring of its Member States to be more responsible societies and economies concerned about our environment.

At BROSETA we are aware of this and in the first quarter of the year we are going to hold a Cycle of Conferences on the subject, in which we will have leading personalities in this field, from former Ministers to CEOs of leading organisations in the field.

We want to contribute to the debate and provide solutions to our customers in an environment where we all need to be increasingly aware that the green transition is here to stay, and we need to join forces from all perspectives.

From a purely business point of view, we have been detecting considerable investment interest in renewable energies in our country for some months now and, according to our forecast, this will continue to be the case in 2021, and as a Firm we have a complete advisory team at all levels of these investment projects, as well as top-level clients in our country.

The firm – including managing partner Rosa Vidal and Blanca Silva – participated in the launch of the Women Action Sustainability (WAS) association in 2020. What are the main objectives of this association?

Our aim is to influence so that sustainability is included in decisions at the highest level, empowering and giving visibility to female talent.

We want WAS to be the meeting place for great sustainability professionals, so that women can help each other, inspire each other, promote each other, and connect with other networks of women from other sectors, both nationally and internationally, with the aim of developing and joining projects that also move us towards a more sustainable society.

To this end, WAS brings together managers and professionals from all sectors of society, who see this change as necessary and who want to make it possible.

And, undoubtedly, from the collaboration between the public and private sectors. When both add their resources, knowledge and experience, the results are more easily achievable.

Which recent changes of the legislation have impacted the market noticeably?

Oleksandr Ilkov: We lead the Strategic Communications practice at Hillmont Partners, which drives government relations and public affairs strategy for our clients. We strongly believe that the business environment and market dynamics in a country are defined by its government policy and regulations. Ukrainian legislation is changing dynamically to reflect the country’s response to global challenges and its internal transformation, taking into account the rapidly changing needs of Ukrainian businesses and citizens. It can be critical for doing business in Ukraine to understand the political landscape in which the major legislative changes are made and to know how to navigate them.

The laws that have really revived the Ukrainian legal market are several novelties initiated by state bodies to attract investment, particularly in relation to the privatization of state enterprises, concessions and public-private partnerships. The legalization of gambling in Ukraine in 2020 has pushed many law firms to establish separate practice groups within their team to lead the already formed new specialization in some law firms.

Alyona Shulima: Obviously, for the past year the legal market was primarily engaged in working with the laws around additional quarantine restrictions in connection with the spread of COVID-19. Moreover, law firms had to react promptly to all legislative changes, even at the stage of their discussion and preparation, to minimize the negative impact on client’s business as much as possible. As the tension around pandemic issues still remains strong, sometimes one requires additional efforts to be heard during the legislative process. For example, the law on liability of business for violation of the mask regime, coming into force in the middle of January, needed additional advocacy support to make its provisions executable for business, in particular for retail.

What does innovation mean to you and how can firms be better at it?

Oleksandr Ilkov: Monitoring and analysis are essential for leading a successful and efficient GR & PA practice. Our team spends hours analysing our clients’ sectors in order to anticipate trends and assess the impact of future regulatory and policy changes. For our practice, innovation means thinking beyond cutting-edge technologies. This is about producing creative solutions in a constantly changing socio-political and legislative environment, and having those innovative strategies implemented in highly regulated sectors, including gambling, e-commerce, technology, healthcare and life science, urban transport and infrastructure.

Alyona Shulima: Innovation takes place in those law firms where deep knowledge and experience go hand in hand with unconventional and creative thinking. Being aware of changes, accurate forecasting in conditions of political or legislative uncertainty, informing businesses about real or potential changes in the regulatory environment and main regulatory risks, proposing GR steps to balance the interests of state and business – these are the components of our daily routine. I would say that our ability to deliver advance information, which is very important for shaping any public affairs initiative, serves as the most innovative early warning system for businesses. It helps move forward their decision-making on the forthcoming legislation or place issues proactively on the legislative agenda.

What are the biggest challenges facing law firms in Ukraine at the moment?

Oleksandr Ilkov: The fast dynamics of regulatory changes seems to be the main challenge for law firms in Ukraine nowadays. The ability to adapt knowledge, processes and deliverables to ever-changing regulatory market conditions is a major task for law firm leaders. That means that law firms have to be ready not only to promptly synchronise with the new legislation, but also to be aware of draft laws and upcoming regulations which appear on the state’s agenda.

Alyona Shulima: Moreover, for businesses in specific industries it becomes vitally important to actively participate in the regulatory process, i.e. in public discussions or working groups on its development.

Therefore, for an ordinary law firm which may want to keep a hand on the pulse of the regulatory environment, this means either rearranging internal processes in the firm, adding selected GR tools to the fee-earners’ responsibilities (at least to those advising clients in the sensitive industry sectors), or bringing in GR specialists to the firm.

Where do you see the next wave of investment coming from in Ukraine?

Oleksandr Ilkov: At the end of 2020, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the law “On state support for Investment Projects with Significant Investments” (so called ‘investment nanny’ law). The law offers lots of benefits to businesses ready to invest more than EUR 20 million, including certain tax exemptions, customs duty incentives for import of equipment for implementation of investment project, prerogative rights for use of land plots needed for investment project, and building infrastructure needed for implementation of the project using state budget funds. The scope of the industries to be under the state support are the following: processing industries (except of alcohol and tobacco production), extraction with the aim of further processing and/or dressing of minerals (except of carbohydrates and coal), waste management, transport, warehousing, postal and courier delivery, logistics, education, science and technology, healthcare, art, culture, sport, tourism and recreational activities. Our team was involved in advocating some of the most critical provisions of the law in the Ukrainian parliament. We have seen a significant interest from investors towards this opportunity. Given the law’s progressiveness, we believe that it will be a successful attempt to lure big investors to Ukraine.

Alyona Shulima: The legalization of gambling in Ukraine is another topic on Ukraine’s investment attractiveness agenda. On a routine basis, our law firm is sharing its expertise on the specifics of the gambling law, which, inter alia, creates a regulatory framework that allows foreign investors to enter the Ukrainian gambling market. There are still some provisions that slow down its realization, but there is no doubt that the newly restarted market supported by efficient regulations will help to boost investment in Ukraine.

It also should be noted, that a couple of successful concession projects started in Ukraine in 2020. This fact increases interest among investors in public private partnership projects in Ukraine, which will probably be prolonged in 2021. The privatization of state enterprises in Ukraine is also looks like a promising issue on the investment agenda for 2021.

How do firms create value for clients in difficult times?

Oleksandr Ilkov: Creating value for clients always means adherence to the highest quality standards, provision of efficient legal solutions and timely advisory support. Collaborating with clients in turbulent times excludes the advisor’s right to ignore any minor risk which may eventually cause major problems for a client’s business. The nature of GR & PA services is that demand for such services grows immediately when the storm happens in the market. Businesses need guidance in developing effective communications strategies to build their narrative for public bodies and managing effective communications in a conflict environment.

Alyona Shulima: We believe that during difficult times we should be much more open to interaction, including providing clients with advice outside the set tasks. When a crisis hits both society and businesses, true GR advisors know how to make the most of this opportunity acting in the best interests of clients and the country. Innovative thinking and creativity push the birth of investor-to-state social initiatives and advanced pro bono advice. There was a remarkable case handled by our team in liaising between a major car-hailing platform and the state regulator to organise free transportation of medical staff during lockdown last spring.

What sets your firm apart from others in Ukraine?

Alyona Shulima: Hillmont Partners positions itself as one of the very few law firms in Ukraine providing GR & PA services on an ongoing basis. We treat our expertise and capabilities as a unique tool for making our clients’ voices heard by state bodies. This allows building a culture of dialogue to eliminate deficiencies in laws and regulatory frameworks which may affect business operating in or entering the Ukrainian market. In this regard our legal offering covers a wide range of issues which development and implementation of comprehensive GR & PA strategies; political and regulatory analysis and monitoring, crisis communications; association management; development and advocacy of draft laws and other regulatory acts.

Oleksandr Ilkov: We focus our work on finding a synergy and achieving the optimal balance between business interests and public policy goals. Such synergy is possible only if businesses’ demands and the tasks of the state have points of intersection. Then our next task as GR specialists is to create an environment (and in many cases, the content) in which businesses can organise their strategy taking into account the interests of the state, and the state in turn creating the conditions for doing sustainable business.

Which recent change of the legislation has impacted the market noticeably?

Definitely the legislation adopted to eliminate the negative economic impact caused due to the necessary prevention of the spreading of the Covid disease has influenced the market significantly. Introduction of temporary protection of businesses against declaration of bankruptcy may cause further negative consequences due to non-cleaning of the market of businesses which would have ended liquidated if not had been so protected. The length of the pandemic leads to more and more serious doubts of recovery of many companies fighting with illiquidity or over-indebtedness.

What would you single out as the key distinguishments of your firm?

Its 30 years history as the first independent local law firm (unlimited partnership; all other firms established in 1990 were only office cost-sharing partnerships) has provided us with a unique position, an excellent knowledge of the business environment and an extremely experienced team. Strong professional ethics and integrity of all members of the firm, social responsibility, regular pro bono services and, particularly the fact that the majority of the partners are women, distinguish the firm significantly from many other law firms present on the Slovak legal market.

What does innovation mean to you and how can firms be better at it?

Our IT infrastructure evidenced how important it is to keep it innovated and to dispose with new IT technologies. We were immediately able to assist and meet with clients online, without any interruption in provision of legal services. In many aspects interaction and communication became more vital than it used to be without such massive use of IT technologies – what is a positive surprise. We are very grateful to the experts from our IT department who do excellent job also in the area of information security, data protection and improving communication channels inside and outside the firm.

Slovakia has been roundly praised on the world stage for its proactive response to Covid-19. With an ambitious nationwide testing programme underway, what can you tell us about how your firm is responding to these uniquely challenging times?

Since the end of February 2020, we not only provide free of charge advice to all our clients regarding adopted measures linked to the Covid pandemic, their application and interpretation, but via our Covid-19 resource centre on our webpage (in Slovak and in English) we provide regular updates on the current situation impacts on Slovak legal regulation. As not only the nationwide testing programme, but also vaccination, fully occupied hospitals and exhausted physicians and nursery personnel cost a lot of effort and money Cechova & Partners also financially supports ‘Help to Slovakia ‘(https://ktopomozeslovensku.sk/).

Following Britain’s exit from the European Union, speculation over trade deals and import tariffs for Slovakian manufacturers is gathering pace. How are you providing support to clients in these key sectors?

By precise monitoring of the development of legal regulation and regular updates addressed to our clients.

Communication towards clients is the key element in the work of a modern lawyer in these days. It is not enough to wait until clients come with issues, proactive approach and preparation for changes is a must.

Following the formation of the new coalition government earlier this year, what key shifts, if any, are you anticipating in the market?

I strongly hope the new coalition government is able to fulfil its plans in improvement of the rule of law, enforcement of law and in decrease of corruption in Slovakia.

The World Investment Report found that the inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Slovakia more than doubled between 2018 and 2019 – with many investors citing the relative low-cost, highly-skilled workforce and ease of doing business. From your vantage point, how is this boom in FDI playing out?

A highly-skilled workforce, decreasing bureaucracy, communication with public authorities via electronic means and transparent rules for doing business will continue in improvement, I believe. Provided law enforcement becomes more accessible and court proceedings shorter, FDI will continue to come despite it is in question how long we can argue with low-cost in Slovakia…

How is Slovakia’s growing reputation as a regional tech hub shaping the type of mandates your firm receives?

Significantly. Our practice groups in the areas of mainly data protection and IP rights grew up in recent years. However, it brings also further needs in specialization in the areas of employment, public procurement, security, advertisement, competition.