Interview with: Professor Przemysław Drapała, PhD, Radca Prawny (Attorney-at-law), Managing Partner 

What do you see as the main points that differentiate JDP Drapała & Partners from your competitors?

What sets us apart from competing law firms is that we are an expert independent law firm focusing on a few selected fields of expertise, in which we provide practical legal counselling and legal representation of the highest quality. Expertise and experience in these areas backed by a well-established track record allow us to achieve tangible results for our clients. In addition to litigation, construction and infrastructure investment projects, we successfully advise on M&A transactions, real estate matters and public procurement. Within these practices, we combine over 15 years of experience with expertise. For the above reasons, more and more foreign clients choose our law firm instead of international brands.

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

We have already been observing a gradual growth in litigation & arbitration proceedings and M&A transactions. Disturbances to the economy and international trade caused by the pandemic have contributed to a larger number of disputes between companies (including disputes with public employers in Poland as part of the performance of procurement contracts) and take-overs in some industries. We have also been observing a more dynamical growth of work in the real estate practice thanks to an increased activity of investors, both foreign and domestic.

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

Our experts regularly hold free (online) seminars on most recent or precedent-setting issues in respective industries, which are practical to our clients’ operations in Poland. A large number of our clients attend these seminars, and the feedback that we receive about them is very positive.

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

We recognise the importance of technology and how it changes the way legal services are provided to our clients. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have invested in technological improvements to our office, which now allow us to participate in a professional manner in remote court hearings, in videocalls with our clients and when providing webinars. Last year we have also updated our website to meet the current design and accessibility trends. In addition, we regularly use cloud solutions to exchange documents between our team and clients, while at the same time guaranteeing the standards of confidentiality and data protection.

Clients expect from the very beginning of our practice that we use the available and new technological solutions to be as efficient as possible in sharing our legal expertise and experience.

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

We represented a consortium (consisting of the largest construction company operating on the Polish market and one of the leading technology suppliers in Europe) in negotiations with a Polish public employer regarding claims for reimbursement for additional costs in one of the energy projects in Poland. As the negotiations did not bring the expected results, in November 2020 on behalf of the consortium we filed a lawsuit with a Polish court. After our statement of claim was delivered to the public employer, four months later the public employer decided to settle the case amicably after having reviewed our argumentation presented in the lawsuit. Under the settlement, our clients were paid over EUR 25 million as reimbursement, which was a huge success and allowed them to avoid further legal proceedings (information on this is publicly available).

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

In the next three years we want to strengthen our leading position in the selected fields of expertise by further growing the firm organically and by continuing to meet our clients’ needs. We see a great potential to further develop these practices. We will continue to maintain our current long-standing client base and at the same time try to reach out to new potential clients from specific industries such as construction or IT/Tech companies (in terms of M&A).As mentioned in the question, clients are indeed looking for stability and they prefer to work with a law firm, which will maintain the consistent high-quality level of legal advice delivered in a commercially-oriented way.