About

What are the most important transactions and litigations that you have been involved in during the last two years?

As the head of legal, compliance and antitrust at MediaMarkt Polska Group I’m involved in many strategic projects. During the last two years I was engaged in transactions regarding the transformation of Saturn stores into MediaMarkt stores in Poland (rebranding), which had a tight deadline.

In the meantime, I was involved in the Shop-in-Shop (SiS) project where MediaMarkt and other FMCG retailers decided to cooperate and establish a new concept of stores.

I was involved with coordinating and conducting negotiations, as well as finalising the sales of VOiP company, which was a subsidiary of MediaMarkt Polska.

I have been solely responsible for legal support in business partnerships between MediaMarkt and one of the largest consumer banks in Poland.

How important have “soft skills” or personal attributes outside of technical legal skill been to the team’s success, and which “soft skills” do you feel are most important for an in-house lawyer to possess?

In my opinion, nowadays, soft skills such as creativity, responsiveness, a business driven attitude, ability to adjust to changing environments, ability to communicate with employees, management or customers are crucial. Today’s in-house lawyer should have multiple skills and be motivated to develop them. Yesterday’s professional knowledge and experience might not be enough, if you’re in a challenging market or organisation.

What are the main qualities you look for in a potential new hire?

Depending on the position I recruit for, I always look for practical experience and soft skills, especially gathered in other retail companies. As an international company, I look for bilingual ability to communicate with ease, both in professional situations and private conversations.

What advice would you give to any peers or colleagues working in the Polish market for the first time?

I would advise junior lawyers to be specific in their expectations of in-house counselling. Once you decide to be an in-house lawyer, you have to be determined and keen on your work. There are pros and cons, such as many interesting tasks which have to be done under the pressure of time, which you have to be aware of.

What can law firms in Poland, and the wider CEE region, do to win more business from you?

I usually look for a comprehensive solution and practical approach, which should be supported by high professional knowledge and experience. As well as a partnership attitude, where I could rely on a legal partner. Often, I compare it to a “sparring partner” who understands your expectations, delivers solutions but also challenges with new ideas.

FOCUS ON… THE SECTOR

Legal dimensions in consumer electronics (CE) retail.

Fast delivery, perfect quality, digitally and offline access are expectations of customers nowadays in electronics and home domestic appliances. The customer desires unlimited shopping opportunities. The variable and dynamic behaviour of customers is a determinant to CE retail company strategies, which indirectly implicate the role and performance of today’s in-house advisors. Success of in-house lawyers in CE retail companies determine diversity of legal services, practical experience and ability to work in omni channel organisations. Often, it seems to be a multi-dimension reality, which can be managed only with multi-skills of general counsel and the legal team.

The reality in CE retail changes rapidly and it is a very competitive environment, therefore legal teams should at least adjust quickly, have strong personal skills and be creative. Business driven attitude is absolutely something that an in-house lawyer should be born with. Certainly, legal technology and software in the organisation would be an additional tool, which may support legal teams to optimise their work. I wonder whether it will radically change the dimensions of the retail environment, and consequently the role of the CE in-house lawyer.

At this point, in omni channel organisations such as MediaMarkt, the key role of in-house lawyers is to interact through the countless integrated channels such as: online shops, stores, call centre, telemarketing, logistics etc. The support of in-house lawyer should be comprehensive and innovative for the whole organisation, and each channel.

Based on my experience in CE e-commerce, many years earlier, it was quite enough to prepare appropriate documentation, including terms and conditions, privacy policy and internal memos, in order to fulfil the customers regulations and good practices for the online shop. Nowadays, a lawyer is an integrated member of the e-commerce team, who not only answers the questions from the business but frequently, shares ideas on how to simplify legal content on the website to make it more user-friendly. Definitely, the understanding of digital world is a must-have for any in-house lawyer.

On the other hand challenges for lawyers in support of offline stores are slightly different. Here, in-house lawyers are well-seen as backup for stores, especially when it comes to post-sales. In that case, you have to deal with direct contact with customers. In this regard, in-house lawyers should be experienced in conciliation to solve any conflict directly and effectively. In an era of well-educated customers, lawyers have to be in a place to strengthen sales processes for example via legal help desk. Responsiveness of a legal team is a key factor in this correlation because many of the situations in the store are “on-going”.

Legal counselling requires also educational skills, where you provide the organisation with practical issues of new regulations and cases. Therefore, many lawyers decided to conduct internal legal training or webinars, to increase or maintain legal awareness among employees and management. In this case, an unquestionably proactive attitude and good presenting skills would be an advantage.

Many focus more and more on risk management. Assessing legal risk became more significant for these entrepreneurs who want to minimise or control the probability or impact of e.g. new regulations, which are so many at the time.

New legal dimensions in CE retail mean that in-house lawyers are not only challenged by the business environment but have to challenge themselves on how to gain multi-skills to be a partner for business and deliver expected solutions in multi-dimensional world.