Kochanski & Partners

Managing Partner

Attorney at Law, Managing Partner

Piotr is a graduate of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and George Washington University – Teaching Visiting Scholar. He obtained post graduate degrees from the University of Warsaw in Negotiation, Mediation & ADR. Piotr is a member of the Warsaw Bar Association and the Chamber of the District of Columbia in the United States. He is fluent in English, also speaks French and Russian. Piotr is recognized as an expert in commercial litigation, investment arbitration, technology transfer, IP protection and Life Sciences.

Piotr is a co-founder of several well-known Polish pioneering law firms, including the first private law firm in Cracow that specialized in providing services to private businesses set up at the end of the 1980s, and to the first foreign investors in Poland. The law firm currently operates as SPCG. In 1990, Piotr Kochański brought the Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson to Poland (only the third US law firm to be introduced to Poland), which he then developed and co-ran as the Polish Partner until February 1996. Subsequently he joined White & Case from New York and, as a MB member of the Polish branch, developed from scratch one of the very first teams of Polish lawyers and experts in the then brand new Intellectual and Industrial Property Law area, and also headed IP, technology transfer, commercial litigation and commercial arbitration legal practices.

During the systemic transformation which took place in Poland in the 1990s, Piotr not only managed the development of private law firms on the Polish market, but also ran controversial, precedential cases in IP protection, technology transfer, and other landmark transactions in that critical period. Moreover, he ran the first investment projects concerning commercialization and privatization of state-owned enterprises and advised on major business ventures involving the organization and financing of companies and projects. He has conducted complex multijurisdictional commercial litigation before common courts and arbitral tribunals.

In January 1999, Piotr Kochański founded and successfully developed one of the largest Polish law firms, i.e. Kochański & Partners Limited Partnership. Today, K&P members nearly 100 lawyers and over 60 back office employees cooperating and providing services related to key transactions through its offices in Warsaw and Cracow. K&P is a full scope business oriented law firm providing Polish and foreign Clients with cutting-edge and efficient legal solutions of the highest professional international standards in ten business sectors. In 2018 (and in 2016), K&P was ranked 1st in the Polish law firm category in The Warsaw Business Journal ranking. K&P has been distinguished by the legal environment for its innovative approach to the professional promotion of lawyers, integrity and reliability of services, but mostly, for continuous development manifested in highly competitive legal services and excellent financial performance. Piotr Kochański is also a co-founder of other companies operating in advisory and finance areas.

In 2018 Piotr Kochański was awarded the title of “Prawnik 30-lecia” ("Lawyer of three decades"), by the Polish Association of Legal Employers and Rzeczpospolita daily, honouring 30 years of excellence in the legal industry. This award is a unique recognition of the outstanding achievements of leading lawyers who, after 1989, made an extraordinary contribution to the development of the legal services market, founded or co-founded law firms, and, at the same time, contributed to the development of legislation, shaping the Polish economy and market principles through their scientific and community work or work for state institutions.

While managing and developing one of the largest law firms in Poland, Piotr Kochański has represented a variety of leading Polish companies of key importance to the global economy, many of which belong to the group of Polish subsidiaries of the world’s best known corporations.

Polish, English, French, Russian

The Warsaw Bar Association, The Washington D.C. Bar Association

The Jagiellonian University of Kraków (Master of Law, 1985), George Washington University (Teching Visiting Scholar, 1993-95), The University of Warsaw (Postgraduate studies on ADRs – Negotiations, Mediations, Arbitration, 2008)