Career Biography

Ewa Świderska is lead regional counsel CEE at Visa, one of the global leaders in digital payments. She is responsible for a broad range of legal matters, including new technologies, innovative products, commercial agreements, marketing and promotional campaigns, as well as regulatory issues.

Previously, she served as legal and compliance director at Empik Group, a Polish capital group operating an omnichannel ecosystem in the areas of retail and digital content, combining e-commerce, physical stores, and subscription services. In this role, she was responsible for the entire legal and compliance function

Earlier in her career, she spent many years as counsel at international law firm CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang, where she led the financial institutions and services practice and team.

She has extensive experience in providing comprehensive legal support to financial institutions as well as companies in the retail and e‑commerce sectors. She has implemented regulatory and compliance frameworks and worked on major M&A transactions in the financial services market, as well as on cross‑border projects. She is also experienced in building and developing legal teams.

Ewa Świderska has been recognised as one of the Top 25 Women Lawyers in Business by Forbes. She has been repeatedly recommended by leading international legal rankings, including Chambers Europe and Legal 500. She is also a laureate of the “Rising Stars – Lawyers, Leaders of Tomorrow” award organised by LexisNexis.

She is the founder of the Polish Inhouse Lawyers Association (PILA), an organisation bringing together in‑house lawyers in the Polish market, and is actively involved in numerous other initiatives integrating the in‑house legal community. She is a frequent speaker at legal market events, a lecturer at the In‑house Academy (where she teaches business communication and team‑building), and a mentor in mentoring programs organised by the Women in Law Foundation and the European Company Lawyers Association. She serves as a member of the management board of a foundation and as a member of a supervisory board.

She is a graduate of the University of Warsaw and the University of Copenhagen. She completed the British Law Centre program organised by the University of Warsaw in cooperation with the University of Cambridge, as well as the International Business and Trade Summer Law Programme organised by the Jagiellonian University in cooperation with the Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America.