Lawyers

Themis Giannakopoulos

Work Department

Telecommunications, Media and Technology (TMT), Antitrust, Competition & Regulatory, Corporate & Commercial, European Law

Position

Partner

Career

Dr. Themistoklis K. Giannakopoulos co-heads our market-leading TMT practice (ranked top-tier by the Legal 500).

Prior to this role, he acted as a Senior Counsel and Head of Regulatory at Vodafone in Greece. Themistoklis led a team of 40 individuals which worked on coordinating the company’s regulatory functions.

He was also the regulatory face of the company, interacting with Greek ministries and other regulatory authorities (including supranational EU bodies).

His successes at his prior firm included concluding the network sharing agreement between the firm and another; advising on the legislative framework governing base-station licensing; the acquisition of hol; and completion of a digital dividend spectrum auction. In 2008, Themistoklis was the Chief Legal Counsel and one of the principal negotiators in one of the largest Greek telecoms transactions of recent years.

His experience on the enforcement side of regulation includes tenures as an internal legal advisor at the National Telecommunications and Posts Commission (EETT) and as a trainee at the EU Commission’s competition arm. This experience gave him remarkable insight into the regulatory process.

He was also responsible for enforcement of competition rules and final decisions regarding e-communications companies, where he helped to create the framework for liberalization of the EU telecoms market.

Languages

Greek, English, Italian

Memberships

Athens Bar Association

Former member of the BoD of the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce

Education

LL.B., School of Law, University of Athens, Greece

Erasmus (EU Law), Leiden University, The Netherlands

LL.M., International and Commercial Law, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK

Ph.D. on EU Competition Law, European University Institute,  Florence, Italy

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