Machas & Partners Law Firm

Machas & Partners Law Firm was established in Greece in 2011 by Petros Machas. The firm is rewriting the model of the full-service law firm in Greece. As an independent, corporate, and commercial law firm with a strong presence in Greece and worldwide, the firm is distinguished for its global perspective, commercial pragmatism and pro-business approach.

The firm’s practice is focused on servicing both corporate and private clients in the broad spectrum of their legal affairs. Corporate clients are provided with specialised advisory and top-notch representation in matters related to their day-to-day operations, commercial transactions, financing, structuring, compliance, disputes etc., while private clients benefit from the team’s extensive experience in handling complex disputes, including criminal matters, as well as from its expertise in servicing the needs of HNWIs.

The firm’s set of values is simple: professional excellence, service with added value and ethical integrity. These values, together with the implementation of internationally acknowledged best-practices, has allowed the firm to grow organically, acquire a sterling reputation in Greece and abroad amongst peers and clients and gradually but steadily become a major legal service provider in Greece.

Its multi-jurisdictional exposure as a law firm that operates and is qualified to practice in both Greece and in London UK, goes side by side with a team of lawyers who are qualified to practice under Greek, UK and US law.

Main areas of practice

• Alternative dispute resolution
• Antitrust and competition law
• Corporate/commercial
• M&A
• Banking and finance
• Energy/infrastructure
• Labor/employment
• Real estate
• Civil law and litigation
• Criminal law and white-collar crime
• Investment law
• Administrative law/ public procurement and PPP
• Crisis management
• Tax

Alternative dispute resolution: Machas & Partners’ alternative dispute resolution team of lawyers is internationally trained and has extensive experience in ADR proceedings, especially in negotiating disputes and exploring the possibility of out-of-court settlements, as well as representing clients in local and international courts of arbitration.

Driven by a result-oriented approach, the firm allocates the most appropriate lawyers considering the underlying cause of each specific dispute. The firm’s services include apart from assisting clients in timely and efficiently resolving their disputes, representation in ADR proceedings (ICC Rules, Greek Code of Civil Procedure, Greek Chamber of Commerce, OMED, LCIA, AAA), and tailor-made arbitration agreements based on the specific needs and requirements of each transaction.

Antitrust and competition law: Machas & Partners offers top-level, client-focused services, in close collaboration with associated counsel in Brussels, providing transaction support on all aspects of EU and Greek competition law. Given the strictness and complexity of the relevant legal framework, antitrust advice is of paramount importance to businesses, as cartel activity can entail substantial regulatory fines, dominant undertakings and controlled mergers can be disallowed and State aid may have to be refunded. In this context, the firm also advises clients on business practices, antitrust audits, and compliance.

Corporate/commercial: Machas & Partner’s corporate/commercial team has a successful track record of leading some of the most innovative transactions in the market. The team is specialised in international trade and cross-border transactions and has a wide experience in all types of the relevant arrangements, including agency and distributor agreements, hotel management and licensing agreements, franchise agreements and export licensing.

Based upon training and prior professional experience, the team has the know-how to form joint ventures and private equity schemes in a compliant and tax efficient manner in Greece and abroad. The team has extensive expertise in corporate and project financing transactions, having represented companies established in Greece in their negotiations and dealings with international banks.

Mergers and acquisitions: Machas & Partners’ mergers and acquisitions team of lawyers has allowed the firm to maintain a leadership position, representing a broad array of public and private, local and foreign companies, private equity firms and financial sponsors, investment banks, governmental entities, and other institutions and individual investors in every type of M&A situation. The firm’s breadth of M&A practice has led to numerous outward and inward investment transactions, privatizations, and domestic reorganizations. With impressive experience leading on complex cross-border transactions, the firm’s M&A team has provided seamless advice through local expertise, deep sector knowledge, commercial acumen and refined transactional techniques to maximize deal certainty and the desired value and synergies to some of the markets top transactions.

Banking and finance: Machas & Partners represents lenders and borrowers in all types of financing transactions including credit facility arrangements and related security packages, structured and project finance deals, and also transactions relating to OTC derivatives. The firm’s team also advises individuals and legal entities in connection with consumer protection cases. The firm’s banking and finance services include integrated advice across the entire credit cycle, from the debt origination to amendments, debt buy-backs, distressed re-financings and the restructuring and renegotiation of debt instruments in capital structure.

The firm’s clients include all major Greek credit institutions, some of the world’s largest commercial banks, investment banks, investment banking firms, private investment funds and other institutional lenders and investors, as well as LBO sponsors, private equity funds, hedge funds, strategic buyers, borrowers, and issuers of securities.

Labor/employment: Machas & Partner’s highly trained and experienced employment/labor lawyers provide high-quality services on all types of labor and employment law matters. Developments in Greek labor law underlined the need for a professional and strategic handling of corporate employment matters. The so-called flexible labor relations, labor reserve and the incentives provided to the employers for the stimulation of employment are issues that are been carefully addressed by the firm’s qualified employment specialists. Furthermore, the firm handles executive compensation and benefits matters both at the contractual level and also with respect to litigation and ADR.

Real estate: Machas & Partner’s real estate practice advised for the past ten years on some of the largest and most high-profile real estate acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, financings, and restructurings in Greece. Apart from the customary due diligence and contract drafting for real estate S&P transactions, the firm undertakes the formation of new structures and vehicles used globally for real estate projects, in order to facilitate financing and to securitise the tax aspects of the projects. The real estate market has traditionally been one of the key-factors of the Greek economy. Greece’s geographical and geopolitical position attracts international investors not only for business ventures, but also for private recreational purposes. The firm’s team is uniquely qualified to assist clients with complex matters because of its “one firm” approach to the practice of law.

Civil law/litigation: Machas & Partners is acknowledged as one of the leading litigation firms in Greece, having a team with extensive and unparalleled experience in all types of litigation and ADR. The firm’s team comprises talented, well-trained, and experienced lawyers, able to represent and defend clients before the criminal, civil and administrative courts of Greece in a wide range of cases. Also, the litigation services include handling cross-border cases before Greek and foreign courts while the team also represents local and foreign clients before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Furthermore, the firm provides its clients with skillful and professionally structured representation in a broad range of specific types of litigations, such as corporate litigation, sports litigation, malpractice litigation, insurance litigation, trademark and copyright litigation, privacy litigation, securities and financial institutions regulations litigation, environmental litigation and class action litigation.

Criminal law/white-collar crime: Machas & Partners’ criminal litigation and white-collar crime practice is recognised for its outstanding performance in the representation of corporations and individuals with regard to a broad range of criminal matters in Greece and abroad. The firm defends corporations and professionals of the private or the public sector, against allegations in various business contexts and all stages of criminal proceedings, including investigations, trials and appeals. The firm also defends all levels of professionals before the relevant disciplinary procedures according to law, code of ethics, public or private disciplinary codes. The firm’s practice is not limited in Greece as the team also renders its services to Greek and foreign clients abroad, either on consulting and coordination level in cooperation with local criminal specialists or, by representing them before the European Court of Human Rights.

Investment law: Machas & Partners highly values commercial pragmatism and pro-business approach, and in this context, its investment law team is competent not only in providing clients with quality legal services, but also to distinguish, assess and indicate the most interesting business opportunities in the market. Generous incentives provided by law the recent years seem to efficiently address investors’ core expectation for a stable, non-bureaucratic and rewarding business environment from a political, legal and tax standpoint.

Administrative law/public procurement and PPP: Machas & Partners’ public procurement and PPP team has advised on the EU and national legislative and regulatory framework, the preparation for and participation in public tenders, the drafting and negotiation of the relevant documentation and the execution of public procurement contracts. EU and Greek law closely regulate public procurement to prevent fraud, waste, corruption, or local protectionism. Concessions and PPP projects require minimum state contribution, thus their application becomes more and more attractive for infrastructure and large-scale projects.

Crisis management: Machas & Partners’ crisis management team is the indispensable partner of its strong litigation practice. The team provides clients with professional, accurate and immediate response to the critical moments of their major legal crises. The press, or whistleblower-leak of a criminal involvement, or a serious litigation of an individual or a company, a biased and strenuous press attack, a publicised dawn-raid and compliance failure or a disaster in the business context constitutes for the client an independent crisis, which may prove much harsher than the underlying legal controversy itself. The firm’s crisis management team has broad experience in the successful representation of several individuals and legal entities in crisis situations. Together with international specialised advisers, the provides its clients with targeted strategies for responding to these attacks.

Tax: Machas & Partners’ tax practice team is an integral part of the firm and is directly involved in all taxation matters. Its goal is to provide clients, both in Greece and abroad, with cost-effective solutions in structuring their investments, transactions, and businesses with the aim of tax compliance while reasonably mitigating tax exposure and risk. The firm’s team also represents clients before tax audits and Greek tax courts.