PRELIMINARY MATTERS DECEMBER 2020 Year 7, Issue 11 CEE December 2020 Legal Matters In-Depth Analysis of the News and Newsmakers That Shape Europe’s Emerging Legal Markets Editorial by Florentin Tuca of Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii Across the Wire: Deals and Cases in CEE On the Move: New Firms and Practices The Buzz in CEE The Corner Office: Most Meaningful Charity or Pro Bono Commitment A Remote Possibility: Telecommuting During Covid-19 Ground-Breaking the Law: JPM Launches Corporate Criminal Practice in Serbia Arbitration and Virtual Hearings: Contract Disputes in the Covid-19 Era New Captain at the Helm: Kinstellar’s New Managing Partner in Kyiv No Blues in the Baltics: Irmantas Norkus Leads Cobalt to Success Inside Insight: Interview with Zlatko Stojcheski, Head of Corporate & Legal Affairs at A1 Makedonija Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Practicing Law in Crimea Market Spotlight: The Czech Republic Guest Editorial by Prokop Verner of Allen & Overy Inside Out: Worldline’s Acquisition of GoPay Inside Insight: Interview with Nadia Matusikova, General Counsel of RWS Moravia Recent Developments and Major Amendments to the Business Corporations Act Expat on the Market: Alex Cook of Clifford Chance Prague Market Spotlight: Russia Guest Editorial by Georgy Kovalenko of EY Law Russian Market Snapshots 1 CEE LEGAL MATTERSExpat on the Market: Julien Hansen of DLA Piper Experts Review: Banking & Finance DECEMBER 2020 PRELIMINARY MATTERS CEE Legal Matters OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! YES, IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN: WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2020 TABLE OF DEALS AND NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2020 CEE DEALS OF THE YEAR! FULL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES AND DEADLINES: WWW.CEELEGALMATTERS.COM/SUBMISSIONS 2 CEE LEGAL MATTERS PRELIMINARY MATTERS DECEMBER 2020 EDITORIAL: HOW EMI SINGS TO ME By Radu Cotarcea What is music and where does it come from? If hard-pressed my greatest exasperation was, coming in on the enough, most people, myself included, would regress to a same day, were two negative replies. The first simple statement that it comes from the soul of the person said ‘we only publish contemporary music, and composing it. It is a magnificent, human, way of expressing this, by our definitions, is not contemporary emotions. Indeed, when you listen to a piece as grand as a music,’ and then the other said ‘we only do clas- Chopin sonata, you are carried through the deepest feelings of sic music, and this is not classical music.’ So I the composer via his harmonies and even discords. said ‘then, what is it?’” David Cope shattered that understanding for all who were As the first CEE regional legal publication (and, I am surprised reckless enough to expose themselves to his work. Cope, to say, still the only one, now seven years later), CEELM faced born May 17, 1941, in San Francisco, is an American author, a similar challenge in its early days. We were not a local publi- composer, scientist, and former professor of music at the Uni- cation, so local marketing representatives would ask us to “talk versity of California, Santa Cruz. For me at least, as I am sure to London.” We were not a global publication, so London to many who listened to his work, he represents an existential would redirect us to colleagues in one of their CEE offices. question pertaining to much of what we do. The man – whose memoir is called “Tin Man” – has been accused of churning Back to Cope. Once he manages to get the album produced, out music “without a soul” through EMI (short for Experi- initial reviews to the music were negative, calling the work ments in Musical Intelligence) – a piece of software that he “stiff ” and “soulless.” Cope found support in University created and which he describes as “an analysis program that of Oregon Professor Douglas Hofstadter, who realized the uses its output to compose new examples of music in the style problem lay with the music not being performed by a human of the music in its database without replicating any of those being, so he organized a musical form of the Turing Test. He pieces exactly.” had pianist Winifred Kerner perform three pieces: two in the style of Bach (one by EMI and one by Dr. Steve Larson), and In an interview with Computer History Museum, Cope then an actual piece by Bach. When he asked the audience to explained that EMI came about in the early 80s, when he had attempt to tell which piece was which, the audience selected “a commission for an opera, but was dealing with a serious EMI’s piece as the actual Bach, while believing that Larson’s case of composer’s block.” Like many artists facing a deadline, was the one created by a computer. Cope procrastinated by beginning a new project — in this case, a music composition program. EMI helped him finish Does then EMI have a soul? I believe it does. Its soul is the his opera. and, once that project was concluded, Cope had sum of the massive data points it has been fed (Cope said he EMI compose new pieces in the style of legendary compos- picked Bach as his first composer especially because of the ers of classical music, starting with Bach and moving on to massive number of surviving works). Bartok, Brahms, Chopin, Gershwin, Joplin, Mozart, Prokoviev, As for us, as the year comes to a close I realize we’ve covered and himself. The result was an album that he titled Bach By more deals this year than the previous one, yet again. And I Design. see how CEELM’s soul – also a result of massive data input Releasing the album proved to be quite a challenge. “I spent al- – keeps on growing, reflecting an ever-increasing amount of most a year trying to get an actual record company to produce news being shared with us, and aiding us in our mission to the music,” Cope told CHM. “It was really tough. I remember increase the transparency in CEE’s legal markets. The Editors: Letters to the Editors: EE David Stuckey If you like what you read in these pages (or even if you don’t) [email protected] we really do want to hear from you. Please send any com- Radu Cotarcea ments, criticisms, questions, or ideas to us at: [email protected] [email protected] CEE LEGAL MATTERS 3 DECEMBER 2020 PRELIMINARY MATTERS GUEST EDITORIAL: WHAT ABOUT THE LAW AND LAWS? By Florentin Tuca, Managing Partner, Tuca Zbarcea & Asociatii It is no easy task etc. These are unfathomable changes that bother everyone, so this day and age there’s no point to adding my own tears on the issue. to talk of “legal market trends.” Instead, I’d rather deplore the situation for three particular unknowns that greatly complicate my mission to analyze the And not only “law market trends.” because of the worries, fears, and First, the place and status of the Law and laws in the uncertainty related “new normal.” Will the Law still be “the art of good and to the “new world beauty” (Cicero), or will it become “the technology of evil and order,” the new the ugly?” (moi). Will laws remain the symbol of (relatively) “economic reset,” democratic regimes or become mere stamps for Martial Law and the “fourth tyranny? Who, and under which conditions, and by which pro- industrial revolu- cedure, will decide the hierarchy of individual and collective tion” – all of which values worthy of protection and future promotion through the are expressed in all Law and laws? These are for now merely rhetorical questions, sorts of truisms but I for one fear the answers that the immediate future will and crammed provide us. together under the umbrella of “noth- Second, the definition of justice, of order, of the rule ing will be like it of law. To what extent will these notions keep their classical, used to be.” well-known meaning? How will the brave new world reassess relationships between individuals and between the individual Nor is my difficulty merely related to the great unknowns that and society? Or between the governed and the government? the legal profession (and not only) is now facing, challenged Will classical democracy be hijacked by the “autocratic tech- by digitalization, AI and its “achievements,” over-specializa- nocracy of biosecurity” (Giorgio Agamben)? Will constitutions tion, over-standardization, and the transformation of work be revised, the regime of fundamental rights and freedoms into e-work. All these are already identified viruses for which upturned, and state institutions’ mechanisms rearranged? lawyers and law firms, each by their own lights, individually or in concert with others, try to find the appropriate vaccine. And third, as long as trend is associated with movement, and market with free exchange and economic freedom, and as long as the Finally, nor do I complain of the difficulty coming from recent legal profession is in essence a liberal profession, I wonder: how transformations affecting the legal profession (especially compatible are these concepts with the notion of lockdown? business law firms): the economic crisis and its fluctuations, I am afraid that the concepts themselves have already been paradigm changes in the lawyer-client relationship, the increas- quarantined. ing “avarice” of clients and the near-collapse of the hourly fee, 4 CEE LEGAL MATTERS PRELIMINARY MATTERS DECEMBER 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARY MATTERS 3 Editorial: How EMI Sings to Me 4 Guest Editorial: What About the Law and Laws? ACROSS THE WIRE 6 Across The Wire: Summary of Deals and Cases 15 On the Move: New Homes and Friends LEGAL MATTERS 18 The Buzz 25 The Corner Office: Most Meaningful Charity or Pro Bono Commitment 28 A Remote Possibility: Telecommuting During COVID-19 30 Ground-Breaking the