Poland 2026
Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel
Manager of the legal department, Poland, the Baltics & Ukraine | IBM
Senior assistant general counsel – CEERTMEA, Head of sanctions compliance – EMEA & APAC | Elanco Animal Health
General counsel and Compliance manager | Polska Akcja Humanitarna (Polish Humanitarian Action)
Assistant general counsel, North & South East Europe | Philip Morris Products S.A., Switzerland
Assistant general counsel | McKinsey & Company Poland
Head of legal | Towarowa Giełda Energii (Polish Power Exchange)
General counsel and Head of legal and compliance | KPMG Poland
VP, Global privacy & EMEA associate general counsel | GlobalLogic
Director - legal services department for corporate, investment and international banking | PKO Bank Polski
Group head of legal and compliance | Match-Trade Technologies Group
Head of legal, advanced refractories EMEA, fused silica and global procurement | Vesuvius
Legal and compliance director | Colas Polska/Colas Kruszywa
Head of the Polish branch, Head of legal - Poland and Southeastern Europe | WOOD & Company Financial Services
Director - heating and cooling and Poland, legal counsel | Fortum
Head of the legal, regulatory and public affairs division | Agora Group
Director - head of legal operations | Union Energy Group/Loyd’s Aviation Group
Director of legal, compliance and HR/Head of legal and compliance | Wonga/Novum Finance
Head of legal, Poland and Eastern Europe | Kraft Heinz
Head of legal department, member of management board | Ghelamco Poland
VP, Legal director | PZL Mielec (Polskie Zaklady Lotnicze), a Lockheed Martin company
I am honoured to launch the inaugural edition of Legal 500’s GC Powerlist: Poland, showcasing the country’s steady growth and development. In-house counsel remain at the forefront of this continued success, as integral players in both the business and legal landscape.
The GC Powerlist initiative aims to highlight the way in which in-house counsel continue to lead their organisations through these constant economic, technological and geopolitical shifts. As Hubert Kendziorek, Chief Legal Officer at Emitel S.A. points out, ‘the era of the siloed, reactive in-house lawyer is decisively over’. The GC role has had to adapt with the times, and in-house counsel are required to provide more than just legal advice.
A ‘modern in-house counsel must first and foremost be a strong business partner’, Łukasz Krysiak, Head of Legal Advanced Refractories EMEA, Fused Silica and Global Procurement at Vesuvius agrees. ‘That means being integrated into the team (being part of the team not the “advisor”), understanding commercial objectives, and contributing to decisions rather than simply identifying legal risks’, he goes on to explain.
Of course, legal advice remains at the core of what GCs do. In today’s fast-changing environment, rapid regulatory changes pose a particular challenge – ‘a tsunami of new EU regulations’, as Kendziorek puts it. Bogdan Piotrowski, Head of Legal at Towarowa Giełda Energii (Polish Power Exchange), agrees that there is ‘an increasing amount of regulation that needs to be assessed and followed’. One of the key challenges of the in-house role, he explains, is ‘to spot all new applicable regulations and find business-oriented way to follow them’.
A key area that has seen a plethora of new regulations is AI, an almost unavoidable topic in today’s market. Agnieszka Kozar, Assistant General Counsel, North & South East Europe at Philip Morris Products S.A., Switzerland, points to the ‘widespread adoption of AI across businesses, which is impacting legal teams and requiring them to keep pace with changing regulations and new forms of risk’.
AI does not come without risks, however, and should be applied to boost human efficiency – not replace it, as Magdalena Cholewa-Klimek, Legal & Compliance Director, at Colas Polska/Colas Kruszywa, warns. ‘Human oversight remains essential for nuanced judgment and ethical decision-making’, she emphasises. AI should be used ‘to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks and increase capacity for higher-value work’, Paweł Meus, Legal Director and Data Protection Officer at OpenX, agrees, to maintain the ‘human element’.
And the human element is increasingly important to preserve in the current unpredictable and volatile environment. Senior in-house counsel across the country continue to emphasise the importance of a diverse and nurtured team. Kozar highlights that ‘diversity and inclusion not only strengthen our organisation by bringing a wider range of perspectives and ideas, but also help develop our people’. Anna Wojdyga-Napora, Head of Legal Poland and Eastern Europe at KraftHeinz, is quick to corroborate this dual benefit: ‘It’s not about just being inclusive; it’s about making better, more innovative decisions for the business.’
Marcin Szlaszyński, Head of Legal at Nest Bank S.A., reminds in-house leaders that the culture starts at the top: ‘General counsel can foster an ESG-supportive culture by making ESG is not just another side project to be managed, but a real part of how the organisation operates and how its corporate governance structures function’.
Legal 500 would like to congratulate all those who are featured in the inaugural edition of the GC Powerlist: Poland.
Isabel Caine
Editor – Corporate Counsel
Legal 500
Greenberg Traurig, LLP is a global, multi-practice law firm with more than 3000 attorneys serving clients from 51 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Greenberg Traurig Poland was named the 2025 Private Equity Firm of the Year at the PSIK (Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association) Awards 2025 and the 2025 Tax Law Firm of the Year in Poland by ITR (International Tax Review) EMEA Tax Awards. The Warsaw office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP serves clients throughout Central Europe and beyond with a team of 125 lawyers, many of whom are regularly recognised as leaders in their fields. Renowned for its expertise, the office consistently ranks among the top tiers in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, IFLR1000, and EMEA Legal 500 across a broad range of practice areas including Corporate/M&A, Capital Markets, Real Estate, Private Equity, Tax, Banking and Finance, Project Finance, Energy, Dispute Resolution, TMT, and Competition/Antitrust.
As the exclusive sponsor of the inaugural Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist Poland, Greenberg Traurig congratulates all the General Counsels recognised in this edition. In an era defined by the AI revolution and an ever-expanding regulatory landscape, the role of the General Counsel has never been more demanding. The leaders celebrated in this Powerlist are shaping strategy, driving transformation, and navigating complexity that extends well beyond the legal function.
The recent news that elite US firm Sullivan & Cromwell had apologised to a judge over AI hallucinations in a court filing prompted a collective wince from the legal profession.
But while some lawyers remain wary of AI, others are striking a more open-minded note, and at the LexisNexis AI Forum hosted this Wednesday (20 May) by Legal 500 and Legal Business, panelists argued that the risks are far outweighed by the opportunities.
Barbara Zapisetskaya, principal technology counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, made the case that hallucinations and other potential pitfalls can be overcome with a shift in mindset.
‘What makes a difference,’ she said, ‘is empowering your lawyers to take responsibility for AI output – helping them become active AI operators, not just passive AI users. You have agency to decide whether you agree with the output or not.’
Zapisetskaya was among a line-up of leading in-house figures speaking on two panels, which covered everything from practical steps for AI implementation to the key decisions GCs need to be making in the coming months.
Financial Times general counsel Dan Guilford began by stressing the importance of building the right culture for AI adoption. In addition to proactively upskilling himself, Guilford talked about how he had implemented a voluntary weekly ‘show and tell’ meeting for team members to share successful use cases – or an exercise that became a gratifying measure of progress.
Other panelists discussed how increased in-house productivity is altering the dynamic with their external counsel.
While some see the use of AI by law firms as a precursor for reduced fees, Russell Davies, head of global operations for legal and compliance at Dentsu, said that faster results – however they are delivered – are something to be valued.
GSK assistant general counsel Anthony Kenny agreed, saying that while there was an expectation that external counsel would be utilising AI, the focus should be on the value of the output, rather than an overemphasis on identifying AI use as a justification to reduce fees.
Speaking on the second panel, MUFG EMEA general counsel James Morgan stressed the critical importance of education, noting that educating the C-suite on the advantages and risks of AI is just as important as enabling large in-house teams to use these tools.
Shanthini Satyendra, vice-chair of the AI Committee, Society for Computers & Law, CEO and founder of Manisain, offered a reminder of the importance of making the connection between tasks and the purpose behind them, extolling the virtues of identifying use cases for AI that can solve a meaningful problem.
Zapisetskaya concurred, adding that one of the most important tasks for GCs across the next six to twelve months is to create AI playbooks and templates, noting that ‘it is easy for lawyers to see problems – much harder for lawyers to see opportunities.’
There was also broad agreement among panellists that GCs should focus on upskilling their junior lawyers on AI, rather than – as some may expect – cutting back their workforce. As Satyendra summarised: ‘Some people are replacing human capital with AI without thinking about what’s required to make AI work. Retain your people and train them up.’
The panels were moderated by Emma Millington, head of the UK Lexis+ Finance Group, and LexisNexis director of segment management Stuart Greenhill.
