About

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

The squeeze-out project in relation to the shares of UNIPETROL.

An ongoing M&A project involving PKN ORLEN and LOTOS GROUP.

The Robert Kubica and F1 Williams Team sponsorship contract.

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?

I do believe that the daily work on in-house lawyers should not be limited to the hard skills such as knowledge of laws and procedures, analytical and logical reasoning, effective communication, legal research, self-organisation etc. Those may compose of more than 50% of the successful in-house lawyer in any business. Nevertheless, there are some additional issues, usually not necessarily gained during legal studies that have to be expressed and utilised during the day-to-day legal job in the legal department. It goes without saying that certainly there is, and should be, a difference between the external and internal lawyers, in particular in regards to the formality of the cooperation with the client.

In my point of view, the soft skills for an in-house lawyer shall encompass the following features:

• Business-oriented approaches and judgements, and delivering solutions instead of being “Mr/Mrs No”.
• Efficiency and productivity.
• Out of the box thinking.
• Quick learner also in technical and industry knowledge.
• Ability to cooperate with technicians and/or engineers.
• Communications skills.

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

That certainly depends on the different roles in my department and to this extent I’d take the opportunity to focus on the senior counsel/subject matter expert level.

Additionally, the main qualities I’m looking for in a potential new hire at that level shall include in particular:

• Extensive and detailed legal knowledge and expertise gained in various sectors and businesses.
• In depth PKN ORLEN group business and strategy knowledge.
• Enabling of business outcomes.
• Strong compliance, regulatory and risk awareness.
• International mind-set.
• Managing outside counsel and cost sensitivity.
• Project management.
• Team players and the ability to inspire more junior staff.

In addition to the above, please note that my responsibility as the PKN ORLEN group general counsel entails creating a high-performing legal function mainly focusing on supervision of the legal services provided to the companies and projects across the number of countries and jurisdictions within EMEA, North America and Asia. The subject of the projects relates primarily to the oil and gas, minerals and mining, chemicals but also to the construction, real estate, financial services, insurance, information technology, media, retail, wholesale and distribution.

Therefore, the potential candidates for all legal positions in the Group business areas shall have a documented and perennial expertise gained in international transactions, successful litigations and business breakthrough initiatives. They shall be in the market, well recognised leaders to provide the unique support for all the Group business units.

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

Polish companies have to operate in a complicated and challenging legal system. In terms of an example, our compliance analyses proved that PKN ORLEN itself (only at the HQ level) must observe the requirements of approximately 1,000 regulations, including hard laws and soft laws. Polish companies must also comply with the EU laws, which in our case, required formation of the special unit in Brussels to assure permanent monitoring and impact within the legislative process in order to address any potential business and legal needs of the entire PKN ORLEN Group.

Thus, in my opinion based on over 15 years of managerial experience in specific businesses including agriculture, power, and oil and gas, given the complexity and number of regulations I would suggest to focus on the sector- specific areas of
laws and regulations (including corporate, labour, energy, environment, financial markets, privacy and public procurement) which shall be subject to the clients’ needs to enable them to maximise their competitive advantages and safeguard against unnecessary risks.

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

As follow up to the above, I’d be interested to expect more company tailored legal service offerings which aim to support or create new ideas/products/initiatives in line with the company’s strategy and business development directions within the legal frameworks. That was also marked in the survey however the remaining options – in particular the ability to build relationships, innovative working methods, project management support and billing accuracy and flexibility – are also necessary and expected.